Nassif v. Pipkin

• Decision Date: 23 June 1970
• Docket Number: No. 54031,54031
• Citation: 178 N.W.2d 334
• Parties: Renee NASSIF, Appellant, v. Augusta Pearl PIPKIN, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 334

178 N.W.2d 334

Renee NASSIF, Appellant, v. Augusta Pearl PIPKIN, Appellee.

No. 54031.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 23, 1970.

Paul W. Deck and Robert J. Larson, Sioux City, for appellant.

Gleysteen, Nelson, Harper, Kunze & Eidsmoe, Sioux City, for appellee.

STUART, Justice.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries and property damage growing out of an automobile collision which occurred on April 13, 1967 near the intersection of Pierce Street and River Drive in Sioux City. The jury awarded plaintiff total damages of $500. She has appealed alleging errors in the instructions, error in failing to direct a verdict in favor of plaintiff on liability and in failing to grant an additur or a new trial.

Pierce Street is one-way with three lanes of southbound traffic. Plaintiff was proceeding south in the east or left lane. Defendant attempted to cross Pierce Street from the exit of the municipal parking lot on the west side of Pierce to enter River Drive. Traffic in the two lanes nearest defendant stopped for her to cross. Plaintiff in the third lane did not stop and defendant ran into the side of plaintiff's car.

I. The parties stipulated that defendant pleaded guilty in municipal court to the charge of failure to yield the right-of-way. Defendant also testified: 'The police arrived shortly thereafter and I was given a traffic summons. I paid the fine the next day because I thought it would be the easiest way to settle it.'

The trial court instructed the jury in instruction 16: 'It has been stipulated in this case that the defendant pleaded guilty in the Municipal Court of the City of Sioux City, to a charge of failure to yield the right-of-way. Such evidence may be considered by you as an admission that the defendant did in fact fail to yield the right-of-way. The plea is in no way conclusive. It is an admission against interest and may be explained.'

Plaintiff claims the court erred in giving this instruction rather than her requested instruction 2, which states: 'You are instructed that a failure to observe the mandates of a statute designed to guard against injury to persons or property constitutes negligence per se; the undisputed evidence in this case is to the effect that the defendant appeared in the Municipal Court of the City of Sioux City, Iowa, and plead guilty to a charge of failure to yield the right-of-way, and such is an admission against the defendant's interest and is substantive proof of negligence and if you find that, as a proximate result of the violation of the Statute the plaintiff was injured and suffered damages as alleged, if any, no further showing of negligence is necessary to warrant a recovery by the plaintiff.'

Plaintiff argues 'the violation by itself constitutes negligence and is conclusive evidence of negligence'.

The requested instruction and plaintiff's argument confuses the instruction relating to defendant's plea of guilty with the instruction on defendant's duty as a driver entering a through highway. As no issue is before us on the right-of-way instruction, we assume the jury was told that failure to yield the right-of-way constitutes negligence. Iowa Uniform Jury Instruction No. 4.22. The trial court was correct in refusing an instruction which would have included such matters in the instruction explaining the effect of the guilty plea to the jury. It is proper to tell the jury that failure to yield the right-of-way on entering a through highway is conclusive evidence of negligence but improper to tell the jury that the entry of a plea of guilty is conclusive evidence of failure to yield the right-of-way. Apparently plaintiff is taking the position that an admission against interest evidenced by the plea of guilty to a charge of failure to yield the right-of-way is conclusive evidence that defendant failed to yield the right-of-way. This is not the law. It was correctly stated in instruction 16. Martin v. Cafer (1965), 258 Iowa 176, 185, 138 N.W.2d 71, 77; Book v. Datema (1964), 256 Iowa 1330, 1332--1333, 1337, 131 N.W.2d 470, 471, 474.

II. Plaintiff assigns as error, the trial court's failure to give her requested instructions 4 and 5 which were directed to the alleged specification of negligence that defendant was operating her vehicle in the wrong direction on a one-way street in violation of section 321.305, Code of Iowa, which provides: 'Upon a roadway designated and sign-posted for one-way traffic a vehicle shall be driven only in the direction designated.'

The trial court refused to submit this issue to the jury stating: '* * * the Court feels that under the record as made, and particularly the photographs which were introduced and upon which a stipulation was entered into, the facts * * * would not justify a jury in finding that the defendant in fact was traveling the wrong way on a one-way street.'

Exhibits 18 and 19 are photographs taken from west and east sides of Pierce Street and show that the south lane of River Drive is directly east of the north lane of the parking lot exit. Parties stipulated these photographs showed the angle of travel better than estimates as to degrees or feet. At most plaintiff would have had to travel only slightly to the north of east to enter River Drive. She was crossing Pierce Street from a public parking lot to enter a public street.

'In interpreting a statute we look to the object to be accomplished, the evils sought to be remedied, or the purpose to be subserved and place on it a reasonable or liberal construction which will best effect its purpose rather than one which will defeat it. (Citations)' Severson v. Sueppel (1967), 260 Iowa 1169, 1174, 152 N.W.2d 281, 284.

We agree with the trial court that defendant's conduct here did not violate section 321.305. We construe this section as prohibiting travel or movement opposite the designated flow of traffic. It was not intended to prohibit vehicles from deviating from the posted direction to enter, leave, change lanes in or traverse such one-way streets. The fact defendant was coming from a parking lot rather than a street is not significant in so far as this particular factual situation is concerned. The trial court was correct in not submitting this issue to the jury. In any event, no prejudicial error resulted as other appropriate specifications of defendant's negligence were submitted to the jury which found for plaintiff.

III. In order for plaintiff to prevail on her claim that she was entitled to a directed verdict on the question of liability and that only the matter of damages should have been submitted to the jury, (1) she must have established defendant's negligence was a proximate cause of the accident as a matter of law and (2) defendant's evidence as to plaintiff's contributory negligence in failing to maintain a proper lookout and failure to have her automobile under control must have been insufficient to raise a jury question on those issues.

(1) Plaintiff's argument on the first proposition depended to a large extent on a favorable holding on one or both of the first two divisions. As we have held against her on those propositions and as it is seldom proper, in the absence of an admission, for the court to instruct the jury that a party with the burden of proof has established his claim as a matter of law, we hold plaintiff has not established that defendant's negligence was the proximate cause of the accident as a matter of law. In re Plumb's Estate (1964), 256 Iowa 938, 948, 129 N.W.2d 630, 636; Coulthard v. Keenan ...