Gloyd v. Wills

• Decision Date: 13 January 1942
• Docket Number: 76.
• Parties: GLOYD v. WILLS.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

23 A.2d 665

180 Md. 161

GLOYD v. WILLS.

No. 76.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

January 13, 1942

Appeal from Circuit Court, Montgomery County; Stedman Prescott Judge.

Action for injuries by William H. Gloyd against Alvin L. Wills, also known as Ted Wills. From a judgment for the defendant plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

James H. Pugh, of Rockville, for appellant.

Robert Peter, of Rockville (Henry I. Quinn and Richard W. Galiher both of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellee.

Before SLOAN, JOHNSON, DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, and MARBURY, JJ.

MARBURY Judge.

Suit was brought in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County by the appellant against the appellee for personal injuries sustained as the result of an automobile accident between the car in which the appellant was riding as a passenger, and the car owned and operated by the appellee. At the trial the appellee offered a demurrer prayer at the conclusion of the plaintiff's evidence. This prayer was granted by the trial court, and a verdict given, under instructions of the court, in favor of the appellee. From a judgment for appellee for costs on this verdict, the appeal is taken here.

From the testimony it appears that the appellant and Charles Reed, who was the driver of the car in which he was riding at the time of the accident, both lived in Gaithersburg. At ten o'clock at night they left Gaithersburg for Washington. Later they started back from Washington. When they reached a point on the Rockville Pike known as Corby's Hill, the appellant dozed off, and the next thing he knew that happened was the impact of cars. The appellant got out, and found the automobile in which he had been riding up against a bank, and the appellee's car in the center lane. The only other person, who was in the accident and who testified, was a passenger in the car of the appellee. They had been at the roadside theatre, which is just off the Rockville Pike, rehearsing a play. He left with the appellee about one twenty-five or one-thirty on the morning of June 10, 1940, and was sitting on the front seat with the driver and another passenger. He had no recollection of the accident at all, and apparently was rendered unconscious.

He went to see the appellee about two weeks after the accident at which time the appellee was in a wheel chair. The conversation he had with the appellee at that time is relied on by the appellant as an admission. This conversation is as follows:

'Q. (By Mr. Pugh) Did you have any conversation with him on that occasion? A. Yes, sir, I did. Naturally the boy was in the wheel chair, and the course of the conversation ran to the accident.

'Q. What, if anything, did he say about it? A. In connection with that accident?

'Q. Yes, sir. A. Marshall personally said to me that he did not remember seeing the car coming toward him, and that he could not decide that fact; that he couldn's remember whether he was on the wrong side of the road or not. He could not say he was on the right side, and could not say he was on the wrong side of the road. * * *

'Q. What did he say, if anything, about it at the time of your visit? A. He said, on the occasion of my visit to his house, he might have been tired, and maybe that had something to do with his not remembering what he saw, and then after that his father came in.'

The only other testimony bearing on the cause of the accident is that of the officers of the Montgomery County police force, who arrived at the scene of the accident at one forty-five o'clock on June 10, 1940. They testified that at the scene of the accident there was a three lane road. The two outside lanes are each ten feet, six inches wide, and the middle lane is eleven feet wide. When they arrived, the appellee's car was headed towards Bethesda, and the car in which the appellant had been riding was headed towards Rockville. The appellee's car was on an angle, the front, two or three feet in the middle lane, the left front, fifteen feet, six inches, from the left side of the road going towards Bethesda, and the right side, fourteen feet, six inches, from the right side of the road. The left rear was twenty feet from the left side of the road, and the right rear was seven feet, six inches, from the right side of the road. This would place the left side of the appellee's car in the middle lane, the front farther over than the rear. There was also either oil or water from the radiator in the front of the car in the middle lane, but this was not measured. It was stated to be about two or three feet from the inside of the middle lane. The left front wheel of the appellee's car was mashed into the body between the front wheel and the door. The left front of the appellant's car was smashed in, and this car had then gone into the bank on its right side of the road.

The burden of proof on the plaintiff in a case of this nature is to show that the defendant was guilty of negligence directly contributing to the accident. The mere happening of the event does not connote negligence. Neither does the evidence of negligence impose a legal liability. The negligence must have caused the injury.

In the case before us the appellant relies upon two facts to sustain the burden of proof imposed on him. One is what he calls the admission of the appellee, and the other is the location of the cars immediately after the accident.

We have included in this opinion the entire testimony relied on to show admissions made by the appellee. These admissions are of a lack of memory and of a tiredness, which he says might have caused that lack of memory. Nothing was said by him as to which side of the road he was on except that he could not remember and was not able to say. Nothing was said by him as to the cause of the accident, and while he said he was tired and gave this as a possible reason for his lack of memory, he did not suggest that his weariness in any way contributed to the accident. We are unable to find in this conversation any admission which tends to show any want of care on the part of the appellee.

The evidence as to the location of the cars is strongly relied on to show that the appellee's car...