Pollock v. McCormick

• Decision Date: 29 October 1926
• Docket Number: No. 25401.,25401.
• Citation: 210 N.W. 630,169 Minn. 55
• Parties: POLLOCK v. McCORMICK.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

210 N.W. 630

169 Minn. 55

POLLOCK v. McCORMICK.

No. 25401.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

October 29, 1926.

Appeal from District Court, St. Louis County; Edward Freeman, Judge.

Action by Joseph Pollock against George E. McCormick for personal injuries. Verdict for plaintiff, and, from an order granting defendant's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, plaintiff appeals. Reversed as to the direction of judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

A. A. Trost and Victor E. Essling, both of Eveleth, for appellant.

Abbott, MacPherran, Dancer, Gilbert & Doan, of Duluth, for respondent.

WILSON, C. J.

Plaintiff was traveling northerly in his automobile on a paved highway, which is 24 feet wide, from Eveleth to Virginia. He met a Ford car headed in the opposite direction parked on the west side of the highway with two outside wheels off the paving on the shoulder. From a signal from a lady occupant of the Ford car plaintiff stopped his car about 40 feet beyond with his two outside wheels on the shoulder of the highway. Plaintiff and his companion went to the Ford car and found that its trouble was due to lack of water in the radiator. Plaintiff sent his companion to his car to get a bucket in which to carry water from a nearby ditch. The evidence is conflicting as to the whereabouts of the companion, as the plaintiff left the Ford car and went in a straight diagonal line to within about 2 feet of the west front door of his car, where he was struck by defendant's automobile traveling north. Plaintiff recovered a verdict for $1,000. The court denied defendant's motion for a new trial, but granted his motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Plaintiff appealed.

The order for judgment is based exclusively on the ground of plaintiff's contributory negligence. Plaintiff testified that he had clear vision from the place of the accident for a distance of 1,000 feet; that he looked at the road before he walked across it from one car to the other; and that he didn't see any cars within a reasonable distance, but that he saw a car about three or four blocks away when he started. He said that he paid no attention to the car because it was far away; that he looked both ways on the road—that is, that he looked toward Eveleth first and looked toward Virginia and then started to walk; that while walking he was facing in the general direction of Virginia; and that he had no idea that the car he saw 1,000 feet away would come up and overtake him before he got...