Moore v. Lyons

• Decision Date: 05 February 1965
• Citation: 386 S.W.2d 717
• Parties: James Owen MOORE et al., Appellants, v. Helen LYONS et al., Appellees.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 717

386 S.W.2d 717

James Owen MOORE et al., Appellants, v. Helen LYONS et al., Appellees.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Feb. 5, 1965.

Hobson L. James, Elizabethtown, for appellants.

Hatcher & Lewis, Harold K. Huddleston, Elizabethtown, for appellees.

CULLEN, Commissioner.

In a collision between automobiles driven by James Owen Moore and James Lyons the latter's wife Helen, a passenger in his car, was injured. She sued James Owen Moore, his father who had provided him with the automobile, and Knox Motors, Inc., which owned the automobile. The defendants brought in James Lyons as a third-party defendant and cross-claimed against him, seeking indemnity or contribution on any recovery against them in favor of Mrs. Lyons and also asking for damages to their automobile.

On Mr. Lyons' claim the court directed a verdict releasing Knox Motors but holding the Moores liable. The issue of damages was submitted to the jury and a verdict was returned awarding her $6,250. On the cross-claims the court directed a verdict for Mr. Lyons. Judgment was entered awarding Mrs. Lyons $6,250 and dismissing the cross-claims. The defendants have appealed from the judgment.

The appellants do not seriously contend that the court erred in directing a verdict against the Moors on Mrs. Lyons' claim, or in directing a verdict against Knox Motors on its cross-claim for damages to the Moore automobile. The primary argument is that the court erred in directing a verdict in favor of Mr. Lyons on the Moores' cross-claim against him for contribution, it being contended that there was a jury issue as to whether Mr. Lyons was guilty of negligence which was a substantial contributing cause of the accident.

The accident occurred on U.S. Highway 31-W in the outskirts of Elizabethtown. The highway runs north and south at this point, there being one south-bound lane and two north-bound lanes. James Owen Moore undertook to enter upon the highway from the driveway of a hotel located on the west side of the highway. He hesitated at the curb line and was moving forward onto the highway when he saw the Lyons car approaching from the north. He applied his brakes and came to a stop with the front of his car about 8 or 10 feet out in the south-bound lane. The Lyons car struck his car at the front fender.

All witnesses agreed that the Lyons car was going 35 miles per hour as it approached the scene. The estimates of its distance from the driveway when the Moore car entered the highway varied from a minimum of 30 feet to a maximum of 84 feet....