De Forest v. Soules, 111.

• Decision Date: 28 December 1936
• Docket Number: No. 111.,111.
• Citation: 278 Mich. 557,270 N.W. 785
• Parties: DE FOREST v. SOULES et al.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

278 Mich. 557

270 N.W. 785

DE FOREST

v.SOULES et al.

No. 111.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Dec. 28, 1936.

Action by Jesse De Forest against Stanley Soules and the Star Transfer Line. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal.

Reversed and remanded.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Ingham County; Leland W. Carr, judge.

Argued before the Entire Bench, except POTTER, J.

Linsey, Shivel, Phelps & Vander Wal, of Grand Rapids, and Pierce & Planck, of Lansing, for appellants.

Meggison & Menmuir, of Traverse City, for appellee.

BUTZEL, Justice.

On the afternoon of August 23, 1934, a trailer attached to a truck, driven by defendant Soules and belonging to defendant Star Transfer Line, crashed into a car owned and driven by plaintiff. The collision occurred approximately a mile and a quarter northwest from the village of Central Lake, Michigan, at the sharp curve on highway M-88 halfway down a hill about a mile long. Plaintiff had driven his car slowly about halfway up the hill and when he came to the curve and saw the approaching truck, he drove to the extreme right of the road and evidently brought his car to a stop. The testimony is conflicting as to the rate of speed at which defendant driver was driving, whether he remained on his right side or not and whether it was more slippery at this curve than at other points along the road. It had been raining intermittently during the day, and the road was muddy and slippery owing to a blue clay deposit on the gravel. At the curve the road was dished and banked, the outer or southwesterly edge being about three feet higher than the inner or northeasterly edge, the dish starting about eight feet from the outer or southwesterly edge.

Defendants claimed that the road was more slippery and greasy at the curve or dish because of a deposit of blue clay that had been washed down from the hill to this particular point by the rain. One witness stated that the road was so slippery at the curve that he had difficulty in standing on it.

Defendant driver testified that he drove the truck down the hill at a reasonable rate of speed, slowed down as he came to the curve, and remained on the proper side, when suddenly the trailer skidded and ‘jack-knifed,’ owing to the unusual and unforeseen slipperiness of the road. Plaintiff's car was practically destroyed by the impact and plaintiff sustained very severe injuries. Defendnt driver had been over the road before, but he claims that he did not know or have reason to anticipate the unusually slippery condition at the curve and that he thus met with an emergency which caused the accident. Defendants presented numerous requests to charge in reference to the law of the case. While some of them were properly refused, defendants were entitled to have the jury instructed that if a driver is confronted by...