Hauf v. Pickett

• Decision Date: 14 July 1953
• Citation: Hauf v. Pickett, 140 Conn. 169, 98 A.2d 818 (Conn. 1953)
• Parties: HAUF v. PICKETT et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Page 818

98 A.2d 818

140 Conn. 169

HAUF v.PICKETT et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 14, 1953.

Joseph G. Shapiro and Milton H. Belinkie, Bridgeport, for appellants(defendants Hendel).

John E. McNerney, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, were Francis J. Moran and Albert R. Moquet, New Haven, for appellants(defendants Pickett).

Daniel D. Morgan, New Haven, for appellee(plaintiff).

William Dimenstein, New Haven, for plaintiff in a companion case in Superior Court.

Before BROWN, C. J., and BALDWIN, INGLIS, O'SULLIVAN and CORNELL, JJ.

BROWN, Chief Justice.

The plaintiff, a minor, brought this action by her father and next friend to recover for personal injuries sustained in an automobile collision caused by the alleged negligence of the defendants.Each of the three vehicles involved was a family car owned by the defendantfather of the defendant driver.The plaintiff was a passenger in the car driven by Edward M. Pickett when it collided, first, with a car operated by Murray H. Hendel and then with a car driven by Milton Ebner.The Pickett car was proceeding in the opposite direction from that of the other two.The jury awarded the plaintiff a substantial verdict against the defendants Pickett and the defendants Hendel but found in favor of the defendants Ebner.The court denied the motion of the defendants Pickett to set aside the verdict and the motion of the defendants Hendel to set aside the verdict and render judgment in accordance with their motion for a directed verdict.SeePractice Book, § 234.Judgment was thereafter rendered against these four defendants, and they have appealed.There is no claim that the verdict was excessive.

These facts are undisputed: In April, 1950, the three defendant drivers were students at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, in the town of Mansfield.There was a dance at the university on the evening of April 21, 1950, which each of the three, with his accompanying partner, attended.Subsequently, the defendantEdward M. Pickett drove the plaintiff and another couple to Williamantic for something to eat.The accident occurred on the state highway which runs in a northerly and southerly direction between Mansfield and Willimantic, as the Pickett car, returning to Storrs, met the other two cars proceeding toward Willimantic.The road, which was straight, consisted of two ten-foot concrete panels with a four-foot hard shoulder on either side and was about twenty-nine feet in width between guard fences.At about 2 a. m. on April 22, 1950, as the defendantEdward M. Pickett drove his car northerly over the crest of a slight rise, the Hendel car was approaching from the north at a point some 250 feet away, followed by the Ebner car about 80 to 100 feet behind it.Each of these two cars was proceeding on its right-hand side of the roadway.The Pickett car collided first with the Hendel car, then proceeded on and struck the Ebner car.Both collisions occurred on the westerly side of the roadway.The plaintiff was seriously injured.There was ample evidence that Pickett drove his car over the crest at a speed of thirty miles or more an hour, with his car in part, at least, to his left of the center line of the highway, that he was not...