Mushroom Transp. Co. v. United States, Civil Action No. 4192.
| Decision Date | 03 July 1953 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 4192. |
| Citation | 113 F. Supp. 348 |
| Parties | MUSHROOM TRANSP. CO., Inc. et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania |
Michael Kivko and Roger S. Haddon, Sunbury, Pa., for plaintiffs.
Arthur A. Maguire, U. S. Atty., Scranton, Pa., Charles W. Kalp, Asst. U. S. Atty., Lewisburg, Pa., for defendant.
This action was instituted by the plaintiffs, Mushroom Transportation Company, Inc., and Cyril A. Pitoniak, against the United States of America under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2671 et seq., to recover for damages to a tractor, owned by Cyril A. Pitoniak, and a trailer, owned by Mushroom Transportation Company, Inc., which damage occurred when the tractor-trailer collided with a United States Post Office bus, owned by defendant, and thereafter swerved off the road and rammed into a house.
It was agreed by the parties that the evidence presented in a companion suit by Nina H. Showers and Myra L. Gemmill, the owners of the house involved in the accident, should be used by the Court to decide this action, supplemented by evidence on any matters with which the jury in that action would not be concerned.
The facts are:
1. The plaintiffs, Mushroom Transportation Company, Inc., and Cyril A. Pitoniak, are and at the time of the occurrences herein set forth were, respectively, the owners of a Strick trailer and a Brockway tractor.
2. On December 15, 1950, at about 10:20 o'clock A.M., Theodore L. Mitcheltree, as an employee and agent of Cyril A. Pitoniak, owner of a Brockway tractor, and Mushroom Transportation Company, Inc., owner of a Strick trailer, was driving said tractor-trailer unit in a northerly direction on a through highway known as United States Highway Route No. 15 within the Village of White Deer, White Deer Township, Union County, Pennsylvania.
3. At the same time and place, one Joseph Shank, an employee of the United States of America and within the scope of his employment, was operating a United States Post Office bus in a northwesterly direction on a side road in the Village of White Deer, known as "Old Main Street" or old Route No. 15, to a point where same, at an angle, entered the United States Highway Route No. 15, and continued driving said Post Office bus onto said main United States Highway Route No. 15 in a northerly direction.
4. There was a Highway Department "Thru Traffic Stop" sign on said "Old Main Street" at its point of entrance onto United States Highway Route No. 15.
5. At the time Shank drove the Post Office bus onto the main highway there was a clear view to his left (the direction from which the tractor-trailer was approaching); he saw the tractor-trailer approaching at a speed which he estimated at 40-50 miles per hour; the road was wet, slushy and slippery; the tractor-trailer, which had the technical right-of-way, was only 350 to 400 feet away; Shank proceeded onto the main highway on an arc which took the front of the Post Office bus beyond the center of the highway, and at the time of collision the front left of the Post Office bus was still beyond the center of the highway.
6. Shank negligently operated the Post Office bus in entering the main highway from the side road, past a stop sign with all the dangers and conditions present at the time he did so, and such negligence was a proximate cause of the accident.
7. There was concurring contributory negligence on the part of Mitcheltree, driver of the tractor-trailer. He was driving in excess of the legal speed limit on a road that was wet, slushy and slippery, at a point where he was about to pass a main intersection in the Village, with the Post Office bus, at the time in plain view, entering...
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