Harward v. General Motors Corp.
| Decision Date | 01 February 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 453,453 |
| Citation | 68 S.E.2d 855,235 N.C. 88 |
| Parties | HARWARD, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORP. et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Bunn & Arendell, Raleigh, for plaintiff-appellant.
Burgess, Baker & Duncan, Raleigh, and Helms & Mulliss, Charlotte, for defendantappellee General Motors Corp.
Broughton, Teague & Johnson, Raleigh, for defendant-appellee Sir Walter Chevrolet Co.
The sole question presented upon this appeal is the validity of the judgment of nonsuit. Plaintiff's case turns upon his own testimony and that of a mechanic If the evidence of these two makes out a case of actionable negligence and proximate cause against either or both defendants, the plaintiff is entitled to a new trial; otherwise, the judgment of nonsuit must be sustained.
The term negligence as used in the law of torts lends itself to a wide use of language, but all the definitions employed by the courts and used by the textwriters revolve around want of due care or commensurate care under the existing circumstances. In Broughton v. Standard Oil Co., 201 N.C. 282, 159 S.E. 321, 323, actionable negligence is defined to be "the failure to observe, for the protection of the interest of another person, that degree of care, precaution and vigilance which the circumstances justly demand, whereby some other person suffers injury.' Cooley on Torts (3d Ed.), pp. 1324, 1325.'
Plaintiff's right of recovery and defendants' liability for damages in this action are predicated upon allegations that defendant manufacturer failed to exercise due care in the construction, manufacture and installation of the steering assembly in the automobile, and that defendant dealer failed to inspect, discover and warn plaintiff of such defects.
Plaintiff testified that soon after he purchased the automobile and drove it. he discovered the lost motion in the steering wheel; that he waited until time for the 500 mile inspection to report this condition to the dealer and although he thereafter found that the condition was not corrected, he continued to drive the car until time for the 1,000 mile inspection, when he again reported the condition; that although he knew of the adjustment at the bottom of the steering column and the use for which it was intended, he continued to drive the automobile in his business at the rate of about 4,000 miles per month for a part of the time. With full knowledge of such lost motion as he had discovered in the steering apparatus, plaintiff never manipulated the adjustment at the bottom of the steering column so as to remove this fault, nor does the evidence disclose that he requested anybody else to make that adjustment.
Notwithstanding the mechanical knowledge the plaintiff had of automobiles, including steering assemblies, and notwithstanding his knowledge of the lost motion in the steering wheel, he continued to use the automobile for nine months, and at the time of the accident and injury was driving at a speed of 50 to 55 miles an hour on a damp road while a mist of fog or rain was falling and while atmospheric conditions were so unfavorable as to require the use of headlights and windshield wipers. From this, it would appear that even with the plaintiff's expert knowledge of automobiles, he did not regard this one as dangerously defective or out of repair. It does not clearly appear from what source came the sound resembling the breaking of a Coca-Cola bottle. It does appear, however, that when plaintiff touched his brakes, he got the impression that they locked and that this was responsible for the accident. The mechanic who examined the car after it was taken to...
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