Hill v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 08 April 1954
• Citation: 124 Cal.App.2d 472,268 P.2d 748
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: HILL v. WILSON et al. Civ. 19992.

Page 748

268 P.2d 748

124 Cal.App.2d 472

HILL v. WILSON et al.

Civ. 19992.

District Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3, California.

April 8, 1954.

Abels & Johnson, Ulma A. Abels, Los Angeles, for appellant hosie hill.

Henry R. Thomas, Wayne Veatch, Henry F. Walker, Los Angeles, for respondent Los Angeles Transit Lines.

H. Thomas Ellerby, Los Angeles, for respondent Wilson.

SHINN, Presiding Justice.

In this action against Los Angeles Transit Lines and Rowland W. Wilson plaintiff appeals from a judgment of nonsuit in a nonjury trial. The question is whether there was legally sufficient evidence to support findings that either defendant was negligent and that plaintiff was not guilty of contributory negligence. We are satisfied that findings of liability of either defendant would have had no support in the evidence.

Plaintiff boarded a bus of Los Angeles Transit Lines at 41st and Central in Los Angeles. The bus travelled south and came to a stop headed west on 58th Street about 100 feet east of Central. 58th Street is 40 feet wide. Also, stopped in front of plaintiff's bus, were two or more busses which were some distance from the north curb and two or more which were at the curb. Cars were parked at the curb. The bus plaintiff rode was 6 or 8 feet from the curb. Plaintiff, unaccustomed to travel on busses, told the driver his destination and was told that he should go west to Central Avenue, then one block south to Slauson, where he would transfer to a bus at the southwest corner. There were numerous people alighting from the bus and plaintiff testified that the driver told him to follow them. According to plaintiff some of these people started across 58th Street to the south curb, and he left the bus on the right or north side, as the other people had done. He passed some two feet in front of the bus, walked about two feet to the south of the bus, where he observed the car of defendant Wilson approaching from the east, and about the length of the bus away. (The bus is 38 feet long.) Plaintiff and the car came together at the point where plaintiff first saw the car. According to plaintiff the car was coming at a speed of 30 or 35 miles per hour. Plaintiff testified he was 'swiped' by the car and knocked down. He was not struck by the front of the car. He did not look to the east before he reached the point where he collided with the car. Wilson applied his brakes and stopped his car within its own length. According to plaintiff it stopped 'right there'. The foregoing recital is from plaintiff's testimony.

Although the question of negligence of defendants is argued fully in the briefs we shall consider first the question of contributory negligence. Plaintiff's testimony developed a clear case of contributory negligence. There was no marked or unmarked crosswalk at the point where plaintiff started to cross 58th Street. He had to go west to Central, then south to Slauson. He alighted from the north side of the bus. There was nothing to prevent him from walking to Central Avenue on the north side of 58th Street and crossing at the intersection. Passengers who were transferring to a bus to be taken at Central and Slauson would naturally have taken that course. The bus driver told plaintiff to follow the other passengers. Although plaintiff testified that some of them crossed 58th Street at the point where the bus was stopped, there was no evidence that the bus driver told plaintiff to follow anyone across the street. However, plaintiff stepped out two feet in front of the bus and two feet beyond it and walked into the side of an automobile. Since there was no crosswalk there it was plaintiff's duty to yield the right of way to passing automobiles. Vehicle Code, § 562; Sanal v. Meador, 108 Cal.App.2d 820, 239 P.2d 908. He did not do this. He could have looked to the east while he was still protected by the bus. He did not have to walk out into a position of danger, one from which, as he said, he could not escape after he saw the car. It is clear that he was still moving when he collided with the car since he was not struck by the front of it, and the car did not change direction. Wilson testified under section 2055, Code of Civil Procedure, that he stopped his car behind the bus for a minute or more and was proceeding at not over 10 or 15 miles per hour at the time of the collision. We only mention Wilson's...