Higdon Grocery Co. v. Faircloth

• Decision Date: 02 April 1963
• Docket Number: No. 1,No. 40019,40019,1
• Citation: 130 S.E.2d 760,107 Ga.App. 558
• Parties: HIGDON GROCERY COMPANY et al. v. Ruth W. FAIRCLOTH
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 760

130 S.E.2d 760

107 Ga.App. 558

HIGDON GROCERY COMPANY et al. v. Ruth W. FAIRCLOTH.

No. 40019.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 1.

April 2, 1963.

Syllabus by the Court

The evidence on the trial of this death action resulting from an intersection collision presents a jury question on the issues of both contributory and comparative negligence. It was not error to deny the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict after a verdict in favor of the plaintiff.

Mrs. Faircloth, the defendant in error, sued Higdon Grocery Company and the driver of its truck, A. J. Belford in the amount of $60,000 in the Superior Court of Decatur County for negligence resulting in the death of her husband in a motor vehicle collision. Following a verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $11,000, the defendants moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the grounds that the evidence demanded findings (a) that there was no negligence on the part of the defendants, and (b) that the sole proximate cause of the collision was the negligence of the deceased. Error is assigned on the judgment denying this motion.

Conger & Conger, J. Willis Conger, Bainbridge, for plaintiffs-in-error.

Miller & Kirbo, Brice W. Kirbo, Bainbridge, for defendant-in-error.

RUSSELL, Judge.

The following evidence is undisputed: Highway 97 runs in a southerly direction from Bainbridge, Georgia, toward Chattahooche, Florida, and, just south of the point of impact curves to the west. The Bainbridge-Quincy road, curving from the east, comes into this highway in such manner that the Bainbridge-Quincy and Bainbridge-Chattahooche roads make an acute angle. The Bainbridge-Chattahooche road has a continuous center line strip suggesting that it is the main highway while the center line on the Quincy road is interrupted as the highways merge; however, there is a stop sign facing vehicles coming north from Chattahooche to Bainbridge on Highway 97 as they approach the intersection. The deceased Faircloth was traveling in this direction, the time being after sundown. The Higdon vehicle, a large tractor trailer weighing over 16,000 pounds and therefore limited to a speed of 45 miles per hour, was traveling south on Highway 97 and the driver, as he approached the intersection, gave a left-turn signal to show his intention of turning into the Bainbridge-Quincy road. The two vehicles collided head-on on the right hand side of Highway 97 as to vehicles proceeding south, at a point where the highway widens because of the intersecting road. Skid marks revealed that prior to the impact the tractor trailer traveled with wheels locked a distance of 177 feet 6 inches; that there were very short skid marks belonging to the 3-ton truck driven by the deceased, followed by other marks as the tractor trailer pushed the truck backward a distance of 60 feet and then went off the road and into the ditch on its right hand side. The skid marks of the defendant's vehicle were partly on the right side and partly straddling the center line of Highway 97. To the question, 'If he had continued his skid marks from a direction standpoint like they first started at the very beginning, he would have gone to Quincy?' a state trooper who examined the scene of the wreck replied: 'Yes, sir, that's the direction from the first. Like I said, they all start in his lane of traffic, but that was a long truck, too, and the front of it would have had to have been on out there a ways and then they went across the center line so that they split the center line.' The point of impact was 146 feet 8 inches north of the stop sign controlling the Faircloth vehicle. The Higdon driver was returning to the store after delivering produce in Bainbridge and had been working approximately 14 hours at the time of the wreck.

Belford, the defendant driver, further testified that as he approached the intersection of the road he saw the lights of the Faircloth vehicle and it kept coming and didn't stop; that he had already signaled his left-hand turn with the signal light and when he saw the other car was not going to stop he pulled to the right in an effort to avoid the collision but was hit anyhow; that it was his intention to go to the left until he saw the other car was not going to stop and he then pulled to the right and...