Edwards v. Cross
| Decision Date | 21 March 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 234,234 |
| Citation | 233 N.C. 354,64 S.E.2d 6 |
| Parties | EDWARDS, v. CROSS. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Scott B. Berkeley and Hugh Dortch, Goldsboro, for plaintiff, appellant.
J. Faison Thomson, Goldsboro, for defendant, appellee.
The question for decision is whether the evidence, taken as true and in its most favorable light for the plaintiff, together with the reasonable intendments and legitimate inferences fairly deducible therefrom, suffice to overcome the demurrer and to carry the case to the jury on the issue of defendant's negligence. The trial court answered in the negative. We are inclined to a different view.
The evidence clearly permits the inference that the defendant was the motorist who struck the plaintiff; that the extent and character of the injuries inflicted appear to indicate a frontal contact or collision, rather than a side-swiping occurrence; that the automobile he was driving was his and under his control and operation; that he had a clear vision of the beaten path or farm road crossing the highway; that nothing interfered with his seeing the plaintiff, if he were looking or keeping a proper lookout; that his failure to sound his horn or to slacken his speed permits the inference that his attention was diverted from the road ahead and the plaintiff's presence thereon; and that his failure to stop as required by statute, G.S. § 20-166, or immediate flight from the scene of the injury, affords sufficient evidence of conscious wrong, or dereliction on his part, to warrant the jury in so concluding. State v. Foster, 130 N.C. 666, 41 S.E. 284; Etheridge v. Etheridge, 222 N.C. 616, 24 S.E.2d 477, 479. His better judgment almost persuaded him to stop a short distance up the road, but the impulse was not quite strong enough. Doubtless he could see, and did see through his rear-view mirror, the plaintiff's body lying motionless in the middle of the road and her mother frantically calling for assistance and trying to help her. This could have added to his nervousness when later apprehended and charged with the offense. The jury may ascribe such uneasiness to his appreciation and knowledge of guilt. Actions are sometimes just as vocative as words and often more reliable or trustworthy. Language can be used to conceal thought as well as to express it--Voltaire.
By rendering the plaintiff unconscious and running away the motorist has forced her to rely on circumstantial evidence. The battle may be an unequal one, but the plaintiff says it is not yet hopeless. She is still pressing her claim.
The applicable rule is stated by Barnhill, J., in the last cited case, Etheridge v. Etheridge, as follows: 'When a thing which caused an injury is shown to be under the control and operation of the party charged with...
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