Hobbs v. Mann
| Decision Date | 08 October 1930 |
| Docket Number | 214. |
| Citation | 155 S.E. 163,199 N.C. 532 |
| Parties | HOBBS v. MANN et ux. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Onslow County; Grady, Judge.
Action by W. T. Hobbs against Leon A. Mann and wife. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals.
New trial.
Where more than one inference can be drawn from the evidence, it is properly submitted to the jury.
Dawson & Jones and S. H. Newberry, all of Kinston, for appellant.
The action was brought to recover damages for personal injury resulting from the collision of automobiles. At the close of the testimony offered by the plaintiff the trial court dismissed the action as in case of nonsuit, and the plaintiff appealed.
The rule applicable in cases of this kind is that, if diverse inferences may reasonably be drawn from the evidence, some favorable to the plaintiff and others to the defendant, the cause should be submitted to the jury for final determination. The question, then, is this: Is the evidence when construed most favorably for the plaintiff, sufficiently probative to justify a finding of facts which would constitute actionable negligence?
The testimony tends to establish the following circumstances. On the highway between Trenton and Kinston, W. M. Fonville was driving an open Ford touring car, the rear seat occupied by the plaintiff and Bill Bugg. "A good little distance" in front of the car a hog walked into the highway from an adjoining field. Fonville "blew his horn and drove to the right, two wheels of his car on the dirt off the highway." When he had passed the hog, or "when the hog had passed him," he "gradually came back on the road and presently was struck by another car coming from the rear."
The offending car, a Nash coach, was occupied by the defendants Mr. and Mrs. Mann. It was owned by the husband and was driven by the wife. After killing the hog and leaving the carcass "in the middle of the road" the Nash coach struck the Ford car "along about the front end, along against the front door," and ""turned it over three times, so that when it stopped it had turned around and was headed back towards Trenton." The top was torn off; the steering wheel was broken; a fender was bent; the radiator was damaged; the battery was torn up; and the windshield was shattered.
The Ford was traveling at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles an hour; the speed of the Nash is not definitely fixed. Fonville testified, "It must have been going pretty fast by turning me over three times and turning me around like it did"; and the plaintiff said that when the impact occurred "Bugg went on me and I went on him and then he went on me again, we were turning that fast." The Nash coach was stopped one hundred or one hundred and twenty-five yards from the wreck.
We presume the action was dismissed upon the theory that the evidence proves nothing more than an accident resulting from an unforeseeable collision of the Nash car with the intrepid swine. Upon the present testimony a jury might or might not reach this...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Gorham v. Pacific Mut. Life Ins. Co.
... ... should be submitted to the jury under proper instructions ... from the court. Lithograph Corp. v. Clark, 214 N.C ... 400, 199 S.E. 398; Hobbs v. Mann, 199 N.C. 532, 155 ... S.E. 163 ... The ... risks assumed by the defendant have not been increased, nor ... its ... ...
-
In re West
... ... Examiners v. Gardner, 201 N.C. 123, 159 S.E. 8; ... Board of Medical Examiners v. Carroll, 194 N.C. 37, ... 138 S.E. 339; Mann v. Board of Optometry Examiners, ... 206 N.C. 853, 175 S.E. 281. The proceeding partakes of the ... nature of a civil action, rather than that of a ... the plaintiff and others favorable to the defendant, the ... cause should be submitted to the jury for final ... determination. Hobbs v. Mann, 199 N.C. 532, 155 S.E ... Doubtless, ... in recognition of the correctness of the court's ruling ... on the motion to ... ...
-
Wooten v. Smith
... ... referred to the jury for its determination of the facts, ... under the proper instructions from the court. Hobbs v ... Mann, 199 N.C. 532, 155 S.E. 163. The evidence of the ... presence of the shrubbery and the retaining ... [200 S.E. 923.] ... wall, as ... ...
- Davis v. Moore