Long v. Clinton Aviation Co.

• Decision Date: 31 March 1950
• Docket Number: No. 3945.,3945.
• Parties: LONG et al. v. CLINTON AVIATION CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

180 F.2d 665 (1950)

LONG et al. v. CLINTON AVIATION CO.

No. 3945.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

March 6, 1950.

Rehearing Denied March 31, 1950.

Donald B. Robertson, Denver, Colo. (Johnson & Robertson, and James D. Voorhees, Denver, Colo., on the brief), for appellants.

John P. Beck, Denver, Colo., for appellee.

Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and BRATTON and MURRAH, Circuit Judges.

BRATTON, Circuit Judge.

Two airplanes, one a Stinson and the other a Cessna, collided at Stapleton Airfield in Denver, Colorado. Ray H. Dible owned and was piloting the Stinson. Eva Long and two other women were guest passengers. Clinton Aviation Company owned the Cessna, and it was being piloted by Charles A. Stevens, agent of the company. Dible and Eva Long instituted this action against Clinton Aviation Company and Stevens. Alleging negligence on the part of the defendants as the proximate cause of the collision, plaintiff Dible sought damages for personal injuries, for injury to his airplane, and for expenses incurred for medical care and hospital services; and plaintiff Eva Long sought damages for personal injuries and loss or damage to personal property. By answer, defendants denied negligence on their part; pleaded primary negligence on the part of plaintiff Dible as the proximate cause of the accident; and pleaded contributory negligence on the part of both plaintiffs. And by counterclaim, defendant Clinton Aviation Company sought damages for injury to its airplane. On motion of plaintiffs, the action was dismissed as to defendant Stevens. Thereafter, the cause was tried to a jury. The court directed a verdict against plaintiffs on their cause of action and against defendant Clinton Aviation Company on its counter-claim. The action of the court in directing the verdict was based upon the conclusion that under the evidence defendant was guilty of negligence in the operation of its airplane, that plaintiff Dible was guilty of contributory negligence in the operation of his airplane, and that therefore neither party was entitled to recover. The court did not mention any act or omission on the part of plaintiff Eva Long as constituting negligence. The directed verdict was returned, judgment was entered accordingly, and plaintiffs appealed.

It is the settled law in Colorado, as elsewhere, that ordinarily the question whether primary or contributory negligence has been proved is for the jury. Where facts disclosed by direct or circumstantial evidence are in conflict, or when reasonable inferences drawn from the facts and circumstances may differ, the question must be submitted to the jury. It is only in the clearest case where the facts are undisputed, and where it is plain that all intelligent men could draw only one conclusion from them, that the question is one of law for the court. Phillips v. Denver City Tramway Co., 53 Colo. 458, 128 P. 460, Ann.Cas. 1914B, 29; Lambrecht v. Archibald, 119 Colo. 356, 203 P.2d 897; Swanson v. Martin, Colo., 209 P.2d 917.

At the time of directing the verdict, the court stated among other things that plaintiff Dible, due to his experience as a pilot, must have known that there were other airplanes on the field and that he must exercise extreme care and caution in proceeding to the hangar. In the absence of a statute providing otherwise, a pilot in the operation of an airplane is not required by law to exercise extreme care and caution. He is only required to exercise ordinary care in the circumstances. And ordinary care is the care which the danger of the situation and the consequences that may follow an accident reasonably demand. In a case of this kind, it is the doing or the failure to do that which an experienced pilot having due regard for the safety of himself and others would do or fail to do under the same or similar circumstances. State v. Sammon, 171 Md. 178, 189 A. 265; Greunke v. North American Airways Co., 201 Wis. 565, 230 N.W. 618, 69 A.L.R. 295; Davies v. Oshkosh Airport, Inc., 214 Wis. 236, 252 N.W. 602; Peavey v. City of Miami, 146 Fla. 629, 1 So.2d 614; cf. Finfera v. Thomas, 6 Cir., 119 F.2d 28.

It is the general rule both in the federal courts and in the courts of Colorado that on motion for a directed verdict, the evidence and the inferences that may fairly be drawn therefrom must be considered in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion is directed, and if the evidence and the inferences viewed in that manner are of such character that reasonable men in the exercise of fair and impartial judgment may reach different conclusions in relation to the critical issue, the motion should be denied and the issue submitted to the jury. Allen v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 7 Cir., 120 F.2d 63; Coen v. American Surety Company of New York, 8 Cir., 120 F.2d 393, certiorari denied, 314 U.S. 667, 62 S.Ct. 128, 86 L.Ed. 534; Baltimore v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co., 4 Cir., 146 F.2d 358; Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Robards, 4 Cir., 161 F.2d 929; C. A. Jackson, Inc. v. Wilhelm, 106 Colo. 140, 102 P.2d 731; Smith v. Gvirtzman, 109 Colo. 314, 124 P.2d 926.

With these general principles in mind, we come to the crucial question whether the verdict was properly directed against plaintiffs or whether the issue of negligence on their part should have been submitted to the jury under appropriate instructions of the court. Evidence was adduced which tended to establish these facts. Dible had been piloting airplanes for about four years. He was familiar with Stapleton Airfield, having been there on former occasions. He reached the airfield about 5:15 in the afternoon. The weather was clear. He was sitting in the left front seat; Eva Long was sitting beside him in the right front seat; and the other women were occupying the rear seat. In obedience to instructions given him from the traffic control tower, he landed on runway No. 12, taxied along it in a southeasterly direction to the point of intersection with a certain runway, turned right and taxied along that runway in a southwesterly direction until he reached the point of intersection with a...