Old Dominion Stages v. Connor, 6805.

• Decision Date: 05 April 1937
• Docket Number: No. 6805.,6805.
• Citation: 67 App. DC 158,90 F.2d 403
• Parties: OLD DOMINION STAGES, Inc., v. CONNOR.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

67 App. DC 158, 90 F.2d 403 (1937)

OLD DOMINION STAGES, Inc., v. CONNOR.

No. 6805.

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Argued March 15, 1937.

Decided April 5, 1937.

Petition for Reconsideration Denied April 15, 1937.

Henry I. Quinn, of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

H. L. McCormick and Albert W. Fox, both of Washington, D. C., for appellee.

Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, and ROBB, VAN ORSDEL, GRONER, and STEPHENS, Associate Justices.

GRONER, J.

This is an automobile collision case. Appellant is the owner of a motorbus line operating in Virginia. Appellee was a passenger in an automobile driven by her husband at the time of the collision.

Briefly stated, the facts are these: In the afternoon of the 10th of July, 1931, the President of the United States left Washington by automobile on a week-end trip to Rapidan Camp in Virginia. His car was followed by the car of the secret service operatives, which in turn was followed by that of the President's secretary, and these three official cars by two containing newspaper correspondents. The last car was driven by Frank W. Connor, appellee's husband. The five cars kept together until they reached Annandale in Fairfax county, and at that point appellant's bus drove into the Fairfax Road behind the President's car. About three-quarters of a mile below that point the secret service car passed the bus and drew in behind the President's car, and shortly thereafter the car of the President's secretary passed the bus. The first newspaper car continued behind the bus for a distance of approximately two miles, running at a speed between fifty and sixty miles an hour. This car then passed the bus and continued on ahead approximately 150 yards when appellee's husband, driving the last car, accelerated his speed, blew his horn, and started to pass the bus. In the act of passing, his left wheels ran off the concrete onto the dirt shoulder and continued to run with two wheels on the soft ground for a very short distance when the car was brought back on the pavement and, having passed the bus and in the act of returning to the right-hand side of the road in front of the bus, was hit by the bus and overturned and appellee severely injured.

The declaration alleged a single ground of negligence, namely: "That thereupon the automobile in which plaintiff was a passenger passed said motor bus of defendant, and when said automobile was safely clear of said motor bus the said automobile proceeded to the right side of said highway and upon reaching the right side thereof and while moving at a rate of speed of at least thirty-five miles per hour the said motor bus of defendant, while running at a rate of speed in excess of thirty miles per hour, ran into, collided with and overturned said automobile. * * *"

Appellee testified that after the bus came in between the President's car and the secret service car her husband continued to drive his car behind the other newspaper car until the latter had passed the bus; that her husband's car then passed and turned in front of the bus and then the crash came and she knew nothing after that.

Her husband testified that he had been assigned by his newspaper to accompany the President on a week-end trip to Rapidan Camp; that he had invited his wife to make the trip with him; that he was driving his car behind the other newspaper car about 150 feet; that that car pulled around the bus and that he gradually closed up the distance between his car and the bus and, when the road was clear of traffic coming toward him, signaled the bus of his intention to pass, but before he got all the way past he found his left wheels off the pavement and that he got safely back on the road and ahead of the bus and shortly thereafter the crash came and knocked him off the right side. On cross-examination he said that he came back on the pavement on a "mild" angle and that his car was not entirely straightened out when the collision occurred.

Mr. Pickens, the driver of the other newspaper car, testified that his car passed the bus at sixty-two miles an hour and that after he got by he saw in the mirror the Connor car pull around and start by the bus; that the car came in at an angle toward the bus and was hit just as it was pulling into its side of the road; that he was unable to say whether the Connor car got over on its own side of the road and in front of the bus before the collision took place.

Mr. Hurd, another newspaper correspondent riding in the Pickens car, testified that he was looking out of the rear window of the car to see if the Connor car would get around safely; that he saw the car come around the bus and get back on the highway in front of the bus and then there was a crash and the car turned over; that he was unable to say "unqualifiedly" that the Connor car got out of control but he would say that it "jounced around" and that Mr. Connor obviously had a difficult time keeping it in control but he got back on the roadway; that the car did not come back on the roadway at a "mild angle"; that it could not at the speed it was traveling; it came back at high speed in front of the bus; the car wiggled and zigzagged as if he (Connor) was having a difficult time, and this occurred just as he was passing the bus; that he saw the Connor car get into approximately a position in front of the bus as Mr. Connor was trying to swing it clear; that he could not say whether it was just getting back into the right-hand lane or whether it had gotten there, but he knows it was in front of the bus. In another part of his examination he said that the Connor car was shimmying or careening as it came back on the paved road.

Another newspaperman, Mr. Mallon, testified he, too, looked through the rear window of the Pickens car and saw the Connor car pass the...