Netterville v. Crawford
| Decision Date | 19 May 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 40729,40729 |
| Parties | Fred NETTERVILLE v. Benton E. CRAWFORD et al., d/b/a Crawford Plumbing & Butane Company. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Robert L. Netterville, Natchez, McClaren, Dixon & McMillan, McComb, for appellant.
Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada, Jackson, Roach & Jones, McComb, for appellees.
On the night of April 17, 1954, about three o'clock in the morning, Alfred Wilkinson was driving a truck-trailer vehicle on U. S. Highway 61, about half a mile south of the Homochitto River bridge. Wilkinson was alone in the truck. He was the servant of Benton E. Crawford and Bobbie C. Crawford, doing business as 'Crawford Plumbing & Butane Company', located in McComb, Pike County, Mississippi. The trailer had upon it a large butane tank, loaded with butane gas. The butane gas was being transported from Benton, Louisiana, to McComb, Mississippi.
At the same time Fred Netterville was driving an automobile on the same highway. Both vehicles were traveling south. Netterville ran into the rear end of the butane gas truck, causing damage to his automobile and to himself personally. Netterville sued Wilkinson and the Crawfords in an effort to recover a money judgment for the property damage and his personal injuries. The jury returned a verdict for Wilkinson and the Crawfords, from which Netterville has appealed to this Court.
Only one question is raised on the appeal. Netterville requested, and was refused, a certain instruction. He says that is reversible error. The refused instruction reads:
'The Court further instructs you, that if you believe from a preponderance of the evidence in this case that the defendant, Wilkinson, was driving his vehicle on a Federal designated highway at said time and place of the accident at a speed less than 30 miles per hour, where no hazard existed, and at a time when a reduced speed was not necessary for the safe operation of his vehicle, and at a time when a vehicle or a combination of vehicles were not acting under police or law officers direction, and that said reduced speed of less than 30 miles per hour was the proximate cause, or a contributory cause of the accident, then, it is your sworn duty to return a verdict for the plaintiff.'
The instruction is based on Section 8178, Miss.Code 1942. That section is in these words:
'Police officers are hereby authorized to enforce this provision by directions to drivers, and in the event of apparent wilful disobedience to this provision and refusal to comply with the direction of an officer in accordance herewith the continued slow operation by a driver shall be a misdemeanor.'
The question is grounded in this setting: The declaration, among other alleged grounds of negligence, charged that the truck at the time of the accident was being driven at a slow rate of speed, much slower than 30 miles per hour, when no hazard existed, and such reduced speed was not necessary for the safe operation of the truck, nor was there 'a vehicle or combination of vehicles * * * necessarily, or in compliance with law or police direction, proceeding at a reduced speed.' In other words, the charge is that the butane truck was traveling at a rate of speed much less than 30 miles per hour when no fact existed justifying such slow speed under said Section 8178.
The accident happened about half a mile south of the Homochitto River bridge on said U. S. Highway 61, and a short distance north of the Village of Doloroso. The road is paved. At, or near, the south end of the bridge the road curves to the right, or west, and begins a slight incline, which incline continues a distance of about a mile, or mile and a half, to, or near, Doloroso. The night was clear, with a slight fog in the river bottom. As stated, both vehicles were traveling south in the same lane (the west lane) of the road. There is a center line to govern the passage of traffic. On the question being considered Wilkinson testified his speed was about 20 miles per hour. Netterville testified that Wilkinson told him right after the accident that he, Wilkinson, was traveling about 10 miles per hour. Netterville himself was traveling some 45 to 50 miles per hour in a 60-mile zone. He said the butane gas tank suddenly 'loomed up' before him; he put on his brakes and skidded into the rear of the butane truck.
Whether or not the requested instruction should have been granted has...
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Lafferty v. Wattle, 7957
...for the trier of the fact, when reasonable men could so find. Pohlman v. Perry, 122 Ind.App. 222, 103 N.E.2d 911, 915; Netterville v. Crawford, 233 Miss. 562, 103 So.2d 1. See also Gantt v. Hobson, 240 N.C. 426, 82 S.E.2d 384. But its application as a factual matter has practical limitation......
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Bentzler v. Braun
...is rooted in recognition that the slow driver may be the cause of fatal highway accidents as well as the fast driver. Netterville v. Crawford, 233 Miss. 562, 103 So.2d 1; Lafferty v. Wattle (Mo.App.1961), 349 S.W.2d 519; Griffin v. Illinois Bell Telephone Company, 34 Ill.App.2d 87, 180 N.E.......
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Leo v. Adams, 11100--
...is rooted in recognition that the slow driver may be the cause of fatal highway accidents as well as the fast driver. Netterville v. Crawford, 233 Miss. 562, 103 So.2d 1; Lafferty v. Wattle (Mo.App.1961), 349 S.W.2d 519; Griffin v. Illinois Bell Telephone Company, 34 Ill.App.2d 87, 180 N.E.......
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