Orris v. Tolerton & Warfield Co.
Decision Date | 16 February 1926 |
Docket Number | 37260 |
Citation | 207 N.W. 365,201 Iowa 1344 |
Parties | W. A. ORRIS, Appellant, v. TOLERTON & WARFIELD COMPANY, Appellee |
Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
REHEARING DENIED JUNE 21, 1926.
Appeal from Woodbury District Court.--MILES W. NEWBY, Judge.
FATHER'S action for damages for negligently causing the death of plaintiff's minor son. Directed verdict for defendant. Plaintiff appeals.
Reversed.
Naglestad Pizey & Johnson, for appellant.
Farr Brackney & Farr, for appellee.
MORLING, J. DE GRAFF, C. J., and EVANS and ALBERT, JJ., concur.
The plaintiff's four-year-old boy was run over by defendant's truck, then being operated by Elmer A. Taylor, an employee. Defendant seeks to sustain the ruling of the court below directing a verdict in its favor upon the grounds: 1. The driver of the truck was not negligent. 2. The plaintiff (not the child) was negligent. 3. On the occasion of the accident, Taylor was outside the scope of his employment. The first two grounds need but little attention.
I. Plaintiff introduced a number of witnesses from whose testimony it might be found that the little boy, when struck, was, and for five minutes had been, standing on the parking on the west side of the street, three or four feet east of the sidewalk. The width of the street is not shown. In the center was a pavement 16 feet in width. The west edge of the pavement was 14 feet from the sidewalk. There was no curbing. The vehicle traffic extended over upon the dirt road on either side of the paving. About 7 feet east of the sidewalk was a ridge or bank. (referred to as a curb) paralleling the paving, and about 18 inches high. Taylor was driving south, and, just before the accident, at the speed of about 20 miles an hour. Shortly before the accident, he had driven off the pavement, and had nearly bumped into a car which was trying to pass him, the driver of which felt impelled to turn into another street. Defendant's truck approached the point of the accident without warning signal, and, without any apparent cause, unless carelessness or incompetency of driver, ran over the ridge toward and within 2 feet of the sidewalk, and, turning again to the roadway, stopped at or near the catch basin. The right front wheel passed over the body of the little boy, inflicting injuries from which he soon died. The boy had previously gone across the street with his father, but had returned alone to the parking. Plaintiff, in returning across the street, saw the boy on the parking (in a place of safety), and also saw the truck approaching, and watched for it to pass. The accident occurred in front of his residence, which was on the west side of the street.
The testimony of these witnesses was flatly contradicted by the testimony of those of the defendant, which would show that the defendant's truck was being driven entirely on the pavement, and that the little boy suddenly ran out from behind a store truck on the east side of the paving, and was not seen by Taylor until he unexpectedly appeared in front of defendant's truck, which was swerved to the west in the effort to avoid a collision.
The questions of negligence and of plaintiff's contributory negligence were for the jury.
II. We do not discuss the point made in the motion that there was no competent evidence of damage. It is not argued, and, on the record, could not well be.
III. The accident occurred in Sioux City. We gather from the abstract that the numbered streets run east and west, the numbering being from the south to the north. Nebraska, Pierce, Myrtle, and Ross Streets run north and south, in the order named, from east to west. Myrtle Street was one of the main thoroughfares of the city. The accident occurred on the west side of Myrtle, in the block immediately north of Twentieth Street, at about 6 o'clock in the evening. The defendant's warehouse and place of business is at Third and Nebraska. The truck belonged to the defendant, and had been driven by Taylor for several months. Defendant operated a wholesale grocery house, and Taylor was engaged in making truck deliveries of merchandise to the retailers in the city. Ordinarily, his day's work ended at about 6 o'clock, but sometimes as late as 7:30 P. M. At the time of the accident, the truck was being kept at Taylor's residence, on Ross Street, in the block just north of Twentieth, and four blocks west of plaintiff's premises, where the accident happened. In taking the truck directly from defendant's place of business to Taylor's residence, Taylor might go westward on Twentieth, crossing Myrtle Street, but he would not go north of that intersection. Taylor's mother lived at Myrtle and Thirty-second Street, some 12 blocks north of the place of the accident. When Taylor left the warehouse on the evening of the accident, he went north on Pierce Street to his mother's place. He there got a bed spring, to take to his own home. From his mother's home he drove south on Myrtle Street, and on the way met with the accident, as has been related, just north of Twentieth. It is the claim of the defendant that, in his journeying north of Twentieth, Taylor was exclusively in the prosecution of his own private affairs, and was not in the line of his employment, and that his negligence is, therefore, not chargeable to defendant. Taylor testified:
Defendant's treasurer testified:
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