Hicks v. McCandlish

• Decision Date: 07 May 1952
• Docket Number: No. 16625,16625
• Citation: 221 S.C. 410,70 S.E.2d 629
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: HICKS v. McCANDLISH et al.

Page 629

70 S.E.2d 629

221 S.C. 410

HICKS v. McCANDLISH et al.

No. 16625.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

May 7, 1952.

Thomas, Cain & Nettles, Columbia, Paulling & James, Darlington, for appellant.

Baskin, Cothran & Lane, Bishopville, J. P. Mozingo, III, Darlington, for respondent.

FISHBURNE, Justice.

The plaintiff was awarded a verdict and judgment in the circuit court against the defendants (appellants here) for $1500.00, actual damages and $7,000.00 punitive damages, as the result of an automobile collision. The collision occurred about 7:30 o'clock p. m. on the 28th day of August, 1947, on United States Highway No. 15A,--a heavily traveled highway--at a point between Lydia and Hartsville. It occurred in open country, approximately three-fourths of a mile North of Lydia. While the plaintiff was traveling North toward Hartsville in his 1946 Ford coach, his car was violently struck in the rear by a Buick Sedan driven by the defendant, Benjamin V. McCandlish.

Upon trial, at the close of all the testimony, the defendants moved for the direction of a verdict as to punitive damages, which was overruled. After the verdict was rendered, the defendants moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict as to punitive damages only, and did not couple with this motion a motion for a new trial in the alternative. The plaintiff moved for a new trial upon the ground that the verdict rendered by the jury in his favor in the sum of $1500.00, actual damages, was entirely inadequate. The trial judge denied all of these motions. The plaintiff has not appealed. This appeal is taken by the defendants, only with reference to punitive damages. They assign error on the ground that there is no testimony in the case nor any inferences deducible therefrom which would support a verdict for exemplary damages.

Defendants concede that the defendant, McCandlish, was guilty of negligence under the circumstances surrounding him at the time of the accident, but they contend that a review of the record fails to disclose any evidence which would justify the submission of the case to a jury on the question of wilfulness, wantonness, recklessness or heedlessness. The issue presented makes it necessary to examine the evidence.

At the time of the accident, the defendant McCandlish, was proceeding from his farm South of Lydia to the home of his sister in Hartsville, where he was residing. He testified that the plaintiff passed him in his automobile as he approached a slight curve in the highway North of Lydia; that he was traveling at the rate of about forty miles per hour at the time the plaintiff passed him. The accident occurred about 150 yards beyond this curve at a time in the afternoon described as dusk, but dark enough for both cars to have their lights on.

The same afternoon, a short time before the defendant's car crashed into the rear of plaintiff's Ford, Mr. James P. Gantz, driving his automobile, had been in an accident, and his car was overturned in a ditch on the right side of the highway, which was on the right hand side of the plaintiff and the defendants in the direction in which they were going.

The plaintiff testified that as he came out of the curve, he saw this car overturned in the ditch on his right about 150 yards ahead. He also saw several people standing on the left hand side of the road. He had been traveling between forty and forty five miles per hour, but he took his foot off the accelerator in order to slow down so as to see what had happened. As his car drew abreast of the overturned car and at a time when his speed had been reduced to fifteen or twenty miles per hour, and just when he had commenced to turn to his right off the highway, beyond the Gantz car, his Ford automobile was suddenly struck from the rear by the heavier Buick car of the defendant, and precipitated into the ditch.

The force of the blow and the speed at which the Buick was being driven may be estimated from the extent of the damages done to the plaintiff's Ford. Following the collision, the Ford was in the ditch to the right, resting on its right side. The steering wheel was bent down double of the steering column, and the plaintiff was on the floor under the dashboard, with the front cushion over him. He managed to break the glass in the door which was above him and struggle out. An examination of the Ford showed that the back seat after the collision, was in the front seat; the back deck lid and the spare tire were jammed up where the back seat had been. Other evidence referred to damage done to the frame work of the Ford.

The plaintiff testified that when he sighted the Gantz car ahead of him, in the ditch, he looked into his rear vision mirror and did not see any car coming from behind. He also rolled the glass down in the left hand door to put out his hand to give the 'slow' signal. He did not recall passing the defendants and knew nothing of the car behind him until the collision occurred.

The defendant, Mr. McCandlish, who is a retired commodore in the Navy, stated that when he came out of the curve, the plaintiff's car having passed him just before he entered the curve, he was driving at about forty miles per hour. He assumed that this Ford at the rate it was going, was well on down the highway, when he was suddenly confronted with plaintiff's automobile directly in front of him on its own side of the road. He says that just prior to this he had thought that the light at Kelly's store, located at Lee's Cross Roads about a half mile from the end of the curve, was the plaintiff's car. Actually, as stated, the impact occurred about 150 yards beyond the...