Rogers v. Hansen
| Decision Date | 02 May 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 2970,2970 |
| Citation | 361 P.2d 676 |
| Parties | Ralph ROGERS, Appellant (Defendant below), v. Lewis D. HANSEN and Barbara J. Hansen, Husband and Wife, Appellees (Plaintiffs below). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Greenwood, Ferrall, Bloomfield, Osborn & Lynch, Cheyenne, for appellant.
Hathaway & Sigler, Torrington, for appellees.
Before BLUME, C. J., and PARKER, HARNSBERGER and McINTYRE, JJ.
In this case Lewis D. Hansen and Barbara J. Hansen, husband and wife, as plaintiffs-appellees brought an action against Ralph Rogers to recover damages in the sum of $780 arising from an automobile collision which happened on December 23, 1958, about 9:30 a. m. at the intersection of U. S. Highway 85 in Goshen County, Wyoming, and a county road situated about a mile south of Hawk Springs, Wyoming. Plaintiffs alleged that the defendant-appellant Rogers was negligent in causing the collision. The defendant filed a general denial and subsequently filed an amendment alleging contributory negligence on the part of the appellees.
The case was tried to a jury who returned a verdict in favor of the appellees in the sum of $780. From that judgment the appellant has appealed to this court, alleging that the verdict and judgment are not sustained by the evidence and are contrary to the evidence. We think that the verdict and judgment were justified and that we should not interfere.
The case before us is comparatively simple and we hardly think that it is necessary to go into the minute details related by the witnesses in the case but it should be sufficient to give a general outline of the actual facts in the case. The appellees were taking a trip from Denver, Colorado, to Mitchell, Nebraska, to spend the holidays with Hansen's parents. Appellees were traveling along U. S. Highway 85 at the time above mentioned, driving at the rate of about fifty to fifty-five miles per hour. The brakes on Hansen's car were in good condition. There was a crest or hump in the road some nine hundred feet south of the intersection herein mentioned. From that hump or crest to the intersection visibility was clear. The highway was wet but not slippery. The county road, on the other hand, was very wet, did not have a great deal of gravel on it, was slushy, and apparently required that the appellant should have had chains on the vehicle which he was driving. He was driving a Dodge pickup truck with a hayrack attached thereto, the total length of the pickup truck and the hayrack being about thirty-three feet, the latter being fifteen feet long. Appellant was traveling in a westerly direction on the county road approaching the intersection of the road and Highway 85. There was a legal stop sign at the intersection requiring the appellant to stop before entering onto Highway 85. After Hansen passed the hump or crest above mentioned, he saw the appellant approaching the intersection, but still some distance away to the east. However, Hansen let up on the gas to some extent but continued to drive and expected that before the appellant reached the highway he would stop, in view of the fact that Hansen had the right-of-way. But appellant did not stop. He told Hansen that he did not see him. He told Sheriff Campbell of Goshen County, Wyoming, and Highway Patrolman Howard Hyduck that he did not stop for the stop sign before crossing the highway due to the condition of the county road and because he thought that he would be unable to get his vehicle started again if he should stop. When Hansen was about seventy-seven feet from the intersection and saw that the appellant failed to stop, he put on his brakes, skidded the distance of about seventy-seven feet, swerving the car slightly to the west and hitting the hayrack in about the center with the upper part of the left fender striking the bottom of the hayrack and the bumper and grill proceeding underneath to hit the undercarriage of the hayrack and the right side of the bumper hitting the wheel of the hayrack. The hayrack was separated from the pickup at the time of the impact, was swung around so that it hit appellees' vehicle on the left side toward the rear door, and was thrown into a borrow pit about twenty-five feet north of the highway. The Hansen car also continued north about the same distance after the impact, stopping near the center of the highway. The highway patrolman testified that appellant could have driven...
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Texas West Oil and Gas Corp. v. Fitzgerald
...damage for the loss or destruction of personal property. Rocky Mountain Packing Co. v. Branney, Wyo., 393 P.2d 131 (1964); Rogers v. Hansen, Wyo., 361 P.2d 676 (1961). We are unable to conclude or infer from the evidence presented to the jury that Texas West lost the rig. The inference is t......
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Daily v. Bone
...Tidwell, 896 P.2d at 1325. Had he been at the wheel of an automobile, Bone's duty to stop would be a foregone conclusion. Rogers v. Hansen, 361 P.2d 676, 678 (Wyo.1961). Because his vehicle was Case's snowmobile, the stop sign on Bone's trail only enhanced a pre-existing statutory duty of "......
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Rocky Mountain Packing Co. v. Branney
...have regarded the cost of personal property as constituting some evidence of the amount of damage where the loss was total. Rogers v. Hansen, Wyo., 361 P.2d 676, 678; and Meredith GMC, Inc. v. Garner, 78 Wyo. 396, 328 P.2d 371, 374. Furthermore, we remind counsel that the only witness produ......
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Davison v. American Emp. Ins. Co., 3529
...Company v. Bloem, Wyo., 376 P.2d 382, 385. See also Rocky Mountain Packing Co. v. Branney, Wyo., 393 P.2d 131, 134-135; and Rogers v. Hansen, Wyo., 361 P.2d 676, 678. The defendant was entitled to cross-examine plaintiff's expert witness on the cost of repairs and on his determination that ......