City Cabs, Inc. v. Griffith

• Decision Date: 20 April 1953
• Docket Number: No. 4041,4041
• Citation: 75 S.E.2d 487,194 Va. 818
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: CITY CABS, INCORPORATED v. HAROLD GRIFFITH. Record

Page 487

75 S.E.2d 487

194 Va. 818

CITY CABS, INCORPORATED v. HAROLD GRIFFITH.

Record No. 4041.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia

April 20, 1953.

Sanford & Clement, for plaintiff in error.

Meade, Talbott & Tate, for defendant in error.

JUDGE: SMITH

SMITH, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

The sole question presented by this case is whether the trial court was correct in setting aside the verdict in favor of City Cabs, Incorporated on the ground that the plaintiff's driver was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.

The accident, which gave rise to this action for property damage, occurred on Main street at its intersection with Broad and Rison streets in the city of Danville on November 3, 1951, about 1:15 a.m., and involved a taxicab operated by Moses J. Phelps, the agent and servant of the plaintiff, and an automobile owned and operated by the defendant, Harold Griffith.

About 100 yards south of the scene of the collision, West Main and South Main streets converge and become Main street, ¹ a primary thoroughfare through the city. Within the acute angle formed by the convergence of these two streets stands the Mount Vernon Church, which faces up Main street to the north.

Broad street intersects Main street at a right angle from the west and terminates at that point. Rison street intersects Main street at approximately a right angle from the east at which point it too terminates. The intersections of Broad and Rison streets with Main street are not exactly opposite each other, but are offset in such a manner that the south side of Broad street is almost on a line with the north side of Rison street. At this intersection Main street is about fifty-five feet wide, Broad street is about forty feet wide, and Rison street is about seventeen feet wise.

The speed limit at the intersection was twenty-five miles per hour. At the time of the accident there were no traffic control signals in operation, nor were there any 'stop' or 'slow' signs. There was a street light on the southeast corner of Main and Rison streets, another at the apex of the triangle in front of the church, and a third on the west side of Main street between the other two.

On the night of the accident, the defendant, a resident of Leaksville, North Carolina, was enroute to meet his son at the Southern Railway station in Danville and had entered Danville from the south via U.S. Highway No. 29 and continued into the city on West Main street. He testified that he was familiar with his route of travel in Danville and that he slowed down and nearly stopped just past the church where West Main and South Main streets converge and then proceeded along Main street toward the intersection of Rison street at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour.

The plaintiff's cab driver was proceeding east on Broad street intending to make a left turn at the intersection of Broad and Main streets and continue north up Main street. Before reaching the curb line of Main street, he stopped his cab, but at this point his vision to the right down Main street toward the church was blocked by the Caswell Apartments, so he entered the intersection at a speed of ten miles per hour. When he had reached the center of Main street, the cab driver looked to his right and for the first time saw the defendant's car just sixty feet away headed toward him up the middle of Main street at a speed he estimated to be forty-five or fifty miles per hour.

Instead of making a left turn as he had intended, the cab driver made a bee-line for Rison street, but before he had cleared Main street the defendant's car struck the center of the right-hand side of the cab at a point on Main street in line with the center of Rison street about eight feet out from a projection of the east curb line of Main street.

After the collision the taxicab came to rest on the sidewalk, bottom side up, astride a fire plug at the northeast corner of Rison and Main streets and the defendant's car was headed across Main street toward the mouth of Rison street, about a car length from the projection of the curb line.

The only eye-witnesses to the collision were the drivers of the two vehicles involved in the accident.

On a clear day, a driver entering Main street from Broad street (as did the plaintiff's driver) could see easily to his right a point 470 feet away on the east side of West Main street and the Mount Vernon Church 370 feet away.

It was raining at the time of the accident, but the windshield wipers on the cab were functioning properly and the cab driver testified he had a clear vision through the side window on his right. In this connection, plaintiff's driver was asked, '* * * if he [the defendant] had been in that area between the church and you, you could have seen him? ' The driver answered, 'Oh yes.'

As to the lookout maintained by the cab driver when he entered the intersection and proceeded across it, he testified on cross-examination to these pertinent facts, as follows:

'Q. Now, from the time that you eased by the edge of the corner of the Caswell Apartments to where you could see up Main street to the church did you continue to look in that direction until you got to the center of the street and started to make your turn?

'A. Looked both ways.

* * *

'Q. You eased out and kept looking both ways and you didn't see this approaching car until you got to the center of the intersection, did you?

'A. That is right.

* * *

'Q. He [the defendant] was bound to get down to that point 60 feet from where you were. How did he get down there without you seeing him? You said you were looking all the time?

'A. That is right.

'Q. You didn't see him until you got to the center of the street?

'A. When I seen him he was in the center of the street.

'Q. But you were looking all the time.

'A. That is right.

* * *

'Q. Isn't it a fact you didn't look and you didn't see him until he was right close on that intersection?

'A. I looked all the time.

'Q. And never saw him?

'A. Not until I had got out near the center of the intersection and then he popped up in my sight.'

In order to account for the cab driver's failure to see the defendant's car until it was almost upon him, the plaintiff claims that its 'driver's lookout as he entered the intersection was confined to vehicles being operated at a reasonable rate of speed and on the proper side of Main Street. He had a right to rely on the exercise of ordinary care on the part of drivers of other vehicles while using the streets. The plaintiff's driver was required to look up Main Street for a reasonable distance for approaching traffic. He certainly was not required to anticipate and foresee that the defendant's car would be driven into the intersection at fifty miles an hour without diminishing its speed.'

To support this contention, the plaintiff likens its position to that of the plaintiffs in Caldwell v. Parker, 191 Va. 471, 62 S.E. (2d) 34, and Angell v. McDaniel, 165 Va. 1, 181 S.E. 370.

In the Caldwell case the plaintiff Parker, recovered a verdict and judgment as a result of an automobile collision which occurred about 10:30 p.m. It was contended that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law in not seeing the car that hit him. Parker was on the north side of Route No. 351, which runs east and west between Newport News and Hampton, and intended to cross over to the south side of the highway and then proceed east. Before entering the highway from a private driveway, he stopped at the curb line and looked in each direction, and seeing nothing started to cross the highway; but when he had reached the center of the pavement he was struck violently by the westbound Caldwell car, which according to several...