Hutchins v. LaBarre, 47779

Decision Date04 April 1951
Docket NumberNo. 47779,47779
Citation47 N.W.2d 269,242 Iowa 515
PartiesHUTCHINS v. LA BARRE et al.
CourtIowa Supreme Court

Linnan & Lynch, Algona, for appellant.

Hutchison & Hutchison, Algona, for appellees.

BLISS, Justice.

The collision occurred about 9:30 a.m., June 22, 1948 at a right-angle intersection of Kennedy, an east-west street, and Jones, a north-south street. It was a dark, cloudy, rainy morning, with a slight mist. Each street has a concrete pavement 24-feet wide with 6-inch curbs. The corners of the parkings are slightly rounded, and the intersection is 24 feet quare. A house was being constructed at the southeast corner of the intersection, and there were houses on the other corners. Both streets were typical of the older residential districts in any Iowa city or town, with houses on each side and shaded with large trees in the yards and parking.

On this morning, plaintiff, married and 41 years of age, who traveled sixteen counties in north central Iowa selling lubricants, was driving his 1941 two-door sedan from the business section of Algona to his home two blocks east of the collision intersection. He was alone in his car, and had driven south on Harlan street, which is the next street west of Jones, and turned left and east into Kennedy street at a speed of ten miles an hour and proceeded east on Kennedy, in the right lane, at a speed of 13 or 14 miles an hour toward the intersection with Jones street. He was familiar with the vicinity.

At the southwest corner of the intersection, the northeast corner of the house was 51.1 feet from the south curb of Kennedy street. This distance consisted of a 24-foot parking, a 4-foot sidewalk, and approximately 23 feet of yard. The house faced east with a covered porch on that front. The main part of the house was 35.8 feet from the west curb of Jones street, consisting of a 16-foot parking, a 4-foot sidewalk, and approximately 16 feet of yard. Just north of the sidewalk in the parking on the south side of Kennedy street directly north of the northeast corner of the house is a tree of large circumference whose branches obscure the roof and part of the upper story of the house. In the same parking in the angle of the two sidewalks is a similar large tree. In the parking east of the house is a large bush and a small tree. East and south of the house and in the same yard or in the yard south of it is a large bush. On both sides of Jones street down to Grove street, a block south of Kennedy, are a dozen or more trees of various sizes with low-hanging branches, in the yards and parking. On a rainy day the limbs with June foliage would probably droop lower. The photograph showing the scene we are describing was taken under a shining sun on September 28, 1949. The street gutters were strewn with autumn leaves. This photograph except as obstructed by the objects noted, shows a view down to Grove street including a house at the southeast corner of that intersection. An automobile except as obscured by the trunk of a tree, is discernible, parked on the east side of Jones street just north of Grove. The photograph was taken with a camera on a tripod 5.5 feet tall placed in the south lane of Kennedy street about where the driver of an automobile would be, forty feet west of the west line of the intersection. An alley intersects Jones street about halfway between Kennedy and Grove streets. It is approximately 16 feet wide and its east-west center line is about 168 feet south of the south line of the intersection of Kennedy and Jones streets.

Plaintiff testified that as he approached Jones street driving in the right lane at the speed of 13 or 14 miles an hour, he looked both ways, to his left and to his right, south on Jones street--it was straight and level as was Kennedy street--at a place which he thought was about 40 feet west of the west curb of Jones street. He said the distance might have been four feet more or four feet less. When he looked there was no car at the alley or north of it and he saw no car. He said there was nothing to obstruct his view to the alley. His car was 16 feet long. Its rear end was approximately ten feet back of where he sat. Assuming that he was 36 feet from the west line of the intersection when he looked to his right diagonally south, the rear of his car was 46 feet from the intersection. The distance across the intersection was 24 feet, so that after his car had traveled east 70 feet the rear of the car would have been at the east line of the intersection. His car was moving at all times. He did not look south again before entering the intersection. He thought that he could safely pass though the intersection traveling at the rate of speed at which he was going before a car from the south traveling at the statutory rate of 25 miles an hour cold reach the intersection from the alley.

The contractor who was building the house on the lot at the southeast corner of the intersection had a temporary tool shed about 20 feet long east and west and not so wide and about 14 feet high, on the parking south of Kennedy street and about 30 feet east of the sidewalk on the east side of Jones street. About 10 feet east of the sidewalk there was a car parked along the south curb. As plaintiff was proceeding he veered his car to the left to miss the parked car until its left wheels were slightly north of the east-west center line of the intersection. When the rear end of his car was about four feet east of the north-south center line of the intersection, he saw defendant's car approaching from the south about 12 feet away and at practically the same instant it crashed into the center of the right side of plaintiff's car. He could not estimate its speed.

There are three large trees on the parking north of Kennedy street and east of Jones street. They are in a row parallel with Kennedy street. Plaintiff's car struck the middle tree and the eastermost tree and came to rest against the latter in an upright position and facing east. This tree was 19 feet north of the north curb of Kennedy street and was 27.5 feet east of the east curb of Jones street. It was about six feet in circumference. The parking on the east side of Jones street is 15 feet wide and a four foot sidewalk runs north and south east of the parking. The rear of plaintiff's car was entirely east of this sidewalk. Defendant's car came to rest just behind the plaintiff's car with all wheels over the north curb of Kennedy street on the parking except the right rear wheel.

The mechanic who repaired plaintiff's car testified: 'The whole right side was caved in, frame was bent and we had to straighten it out, and it had to have a new door, and the right cowling was all bent. If I recall, I believe he had to have a new feder on it, and the quarter paneling on the floor was all pushed in. It was hit right in the center. The frame was bent toward the center of the car. The floor boards were pushed up about the center of the car. It was the right door that was broken. It was a two door car. The right front fender needed repairing. The windshield was broken. The front wheels were out of line. I installed a new running board. I don't remember what two wheels we straightened.' The charges for repairing the car were $358.49. The car was in good mechanical condition before the collision. Plaintiff was semi-conscious and dazed for a time after he was helped out of the car. He was quite badly shaken up. His arm and shoulder were hurt. He received medical attention at Algona for some time and in the hospital at Fort Dodge from July 12 to July 23, and was totally disabled for ninety days.

The front of the defendants' car was badly damaged and the estimated repair bill was $319.59. No one was hurt in defendant's car except one of the girls had minor injuries.

The defendants were living in another part of Algona at the time of the collision, and were preparing to move into a new house at 804 South Jones street. That morning Mrs. LaBarre, 34 years old, and her daughters, Susanne, 7, and Charlene, 4, had gone in her husband's car (1949 Ford) to the new home to do some work. The car was in good condition and the brakes were working all right. After about 45 minutes, she with the children seated beside her left the house to go up town to see about some drapes. She testified that it was a dark, rainy, cloudy morning, and had rained harder earlier and was misting all morning, and was raining slightly when she started up town, and her windshield wiper was working. There were no cars ahead of her. In fact there were no other cars that interfered with either driver. It was not her intention to turn into Grove or Kennedy street, but she intended to go straight north on Jones street through the intersection with Kennedy street. She said she 'imagined' she traveled the same speed--15 or 20 miles an hour all the way up to the intersection. 'As I approached the intersection I looked to the right. As I got right up to the intersection I looked.

'Q. Now as you approached the intersection, did you look to the right? A. Yes, I did.

'Q. As you got up to the intersection did you look to the left? A. No. As I got to the intersection Sue screamed 'Mommie', and I looked and saw this car, and we were about in the middle of the intersection. And then I turned to the right and tried to avoid it. * * *.

'Q. Now, when you got up to this intersection you say one of the youngsters screamed something? A. Yes.

'Q. Did you then see the car of Mr. Hutchins? A. Yes.

'Q. How far would you say it was from you? A. Well, I think we were both about in the middle, but I think I was about 5, 6 or 7 feet back. * * *.

'Q. Do you know about how fast Mr. Hutchings was coming into that intersection when you first saw him? A. Well, I don't think he was going over fifteen.

'Q. About fifteen miles an hour? A. Just my judgment.

'Q. You didn't see him? A. No. * * * I imagine I had time to get my foot on the brake. I can remember trying...

To continue reading

Request your trial
24 cases
  • Olson v. Truax
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Iowa
    • July 24, 1959
    ...to the effect that if these were the facts plaintiff was not required to yield the right of way. Reliance is placed upon Hutchins v. LaBarre, 242 Iowa 515, 47 N.W.2d 269; Falt v. Krug, 239 Iowa 766, 32 N.W.2d 781; Rhinehart v. Shambaugh, 230 Iowa 788, 298 N.W. 876; Lathrop v. Knight, 230 Io......
  • Guinn v. Millard Truck Lines, Inc.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Iowa
    • April 6, 1965
    ...was driving at an unreasonable speed as he approached the intersection. Section 321.288, Code of Iowa, 1962, I.C.A.; Hutchins v. LaBarre, 242 Iowa 515, 47 N.W.2d 269; Long v. Gilchrist, 251 Iowa 1294, 105 N.W.2d Furthermore, we are committed to the rule that speed may be proven by circumsta......
  • Smith v. Darling & Co.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Iowa
    • December 15, 1952
    ...Co., 237 Iowa 213, 222, 21 N.W.2d 569, 574; Riedesel v. Koch, supra, 241 Iowa 1313, 1325, 45 N.W.2d 225, 232; Hutchins v. LaBarre, 242 Iowa 515, 526, 47 N.W.2d 269, 276. See also Hayes v. Stunkard, supra, 233 Iowa 582, 10 N.W.2d 19; Mast v. Illinois Central R. Co., supra, D.C., 79 F.Supp. 1......
  • Kuehn v. Jenkins
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Iowa
    • January 12, 1960
    ...permitted if he does not look to his left at all. Roe v. Kurtz, 203 Iowa 906, 907-910 inclusive, 210 N.W. 550; Hutchins v. LaBarre, 242 Iowa 515, 533, 47 N.W.2d 269, 279, 280. These cases illustrate the difference in the conduct of the drivers on the left and right, respectively, required t......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT