Newman v. Queen City Coach Co

• Decision Date: 28 June 1933
• Docket Number: NO. 445.,445.
• Citation: Newman v. Queen City Coach Co, 205 N.C. 26, 169 S.E. 808 (N.C. 1933)
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: NEWMAN. v. QUEEN CITY COACH CO.

205 N.C. 26

169 S.E. 808

NEWMAN.

v.QUEEN CITY COACH CO.

NO. 445.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 28, 1933.

Appeal from Superior Court, Union County; Oglesby, Judge.

Action by Lilly Belle Newman, by her next friend, D. F. Newman, against the Queen City Coach Company.Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

The action was instituted for the recovery of damages for personal injury sustained by the plaintiff in a collision" between the car in which she was riding as a guest and a bus owned and operated by the defendant.The collision occurred in the nighttime, and the details thereof as given by the plaintiff are substantially as follows: "On the night of February 9th I had occasion to go to Indian Trail with the basket ball team and went with Herman Gaddy, Pauline Griffin and Katherine Trull in Mr. Gaddy's car.He is teacher at Benton Heights School, and also coach of the basket ball team.I did not pay Mr. Gaddy anything to carry me up there.I was really a guest in his car and had no control at all over it.Somewhere between Stouts and Indian Trail Mr. Gaddy turned his car around in the road.I did not tell him to, but it was suggested that he turn around, and before the turn was made I looked both ways on the road and there was nothing in sight.We started making the turn and we were almost turned around, pulling up toward Monroe, just barely moving, when over the hill we saw this bus, and I told him there was a car coming, and when we turned around in the road I observed another car coming from toward Monroe and saw the bus coming over the hill that way.* * * The bus was coming fast, very fast, * * * and from the time it came over the hill it did not decrease its speed, it was the same.The bus did not turn in the road, it came straight on.At the time the bus cameover the hill we were turning toward Monroe, we hadn't pulled off yet, we had about turned.The car had gotten across the center of the road and was on Mr. Gaddy's right of the center, on that side.The distance from the top of that hill to the place where the car was struck is, I should say, about 300 feet, somewhere around that."There was a conflict in the evidence with regard to the extent of plaintiff's injury.She testified that she was seriously and permanently injured, and there was testimony to the contrary.

The evidence for the defendant tended to show that the driver of the bus was keeping a careful lookout, and when he came to the top of the hill he saw a dark object in the) road ahead.In the meantime a truck with brilliant lights was approaching the dark object, and the driver contended that this prevented him from discovering that the dark object was an automobile attempting to turn around on a populous highway in the nighttime.The...