Shriner v. Mullhausen

• Decision Date: 08 May 1956
• Docket Number: No. 168,168
• Citation: 122 A.2d 570,210 Md. 104
• Parties: Pauline M. SHRINER v. Harold Edward MULLHAUSEN and Joseph H. Mullhausen. Marlin L. SHRINER v. Harold Edward MULLHAUSEN and Joseph H. Mullhausen.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 104

210 Md. 104

122 A.2d 570

Pauline M. SHRINER v. Harold Edward MULLHAUSEN and Joseph H. Mullhausen.

Marlin L. SHRINER v. Harold Edward MULLHAUSEN and Joseph H. Mullhausen.

No. 168.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

May 8, 1956.

Robert E. Clapp, Jr., Frederick, and Ralph G. Hoffman, Westminster, for appellants.

Chales O. Fisher and D. Eugene Walsh, Westminster (Walsh & Fisher, Westminster, on the brief), for appellees.

Before BRUNE, C. J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, HENDERSON and HAMMOND, JJ.

COLLINS, Judge.

Here are two appeals in one record from judgments entered for the appellees, defendants, upon jury verdicts in each of two cases brought by the appellants, plaintiffs.

On January 5, 1953, Mrs. Pauline M. Shriner, one of the appellants, left her home in Woodboro, Frederick County, driving alone in the 1950 Buick automobile owned by her husband, Marlin L. Shriner, the other appellant, with the intention of going to Westminster for a 12 o'clock appointment at a beauty shop. She had had eighteen years driving experience and had been driving this automobile since its purchase in 1950. As she was proceeding east along the paved public road leading from Taneytown to Westminster, she approached a private dirt driveway leading to and belonging to the farm of Joseph H. Mullhausen, one of the appellees. This paved public road ran approximately east and west and, including the concrete shoulders, was twenty-one feet wide. The private dirt road was eighteen feet in width with an apron as it entered the paved public road approximately at right angles. At this intersection the paved public road on its north side had a nine foot dirt shoulder, along side of which was a concrete wall seventeen inches high in front of the lawn of the parsonage of Reverend Miles S. Reifsnyder. On the south side at this intersection the hard paved road had a dirt shoulder about six feet in width. From the farm entrance westward the public road rises to the crest of a hill. This distance, according to the actual measurement of Officer Boose, of the Maryland State Police, is two hundred and twenty-five feet. Going still further westward from the crest of this hill the road drops down grade for about nine hundred feet and then rises to the crest of a much higher hill, which crest was estimated by witnesses to be from thirteen hundred and twenty feet to twenty-one hundred feet west of the intersection.

About 11 o'clock that morning, the weather being clear and the road dry, Harold Edward Mullhausen, the other appellee, was driving his father's tractor, to which was attached a loaded manure spreader, north along his father's private dirt road. The overall length of the tractor and spreader was twenty-three feet eleven inches, the tractor being eight or nine feet in length. The tractor weighed about thirty-two hundred pounds and the loaded manure spreader about two tons. At or about the intersection of the private dirt road with the hard paved road, the automobile, operated by Mrs. Shriner, and the tractor, operated by Harold Mullhausen, collided.

As a result of that collision Mrs. Shriner, as plaintiff, on February 15, 1954, entered suit against the two Mullhausens for personal injuries arising out of the collision. On March 6, 1954, the Mullhausens filed the general issue plea to Mrs. Shriner's suit. Joseph H. Mullhausen also filed a counter claim against Mrs. Shriner for damages to his tractor. Also on February 15, 1954, Mr. Shriner filed suit against both of the Mullhausens for loss of his wife's services, the expenses of her treatments, and for damages to his automobile. The cases were all tried together before a jury. Verdicts were rendered in favor of the Mullhausens in the suits against them by the Shriners, and judgments for costs were entered in those cases in favor of the Mullhausens. From those judgments the Shriners, appellants, appeal here. A verdict was also entered in favor of Mrs. Shriner on the counter claim against her by Joseph H. Mullhausen, and judgment for costs was rendered in her favor on that counter-claim. No appeal is taken by Joseph H. Mullhausen from that judgment.

Mrs. Shriner testified that she was driving east on the hard paved road from Taneytown to Westminster around forty-five miles an hour. When she drove over the top of a hill she saw directly in front of her a tractor with a manure spreader attached, across the highway and blocking it. When she went over the hill the farm equipment was coming out of the dirt lane at an angle, the tractor being toward Taneytown. The tractor was about half way across the white line moving to her left. The manure spreader was across the east bound lane of travel. The rear of the spreader was on the dirt. The equipment was moving and directly in front of her as she came over the hill. The only thing for her to do was to jam the brakes as hard as possible. When she did this the car swerved to the left, she was thrown out of the car and she is not sure what happened after that. She thinks the back of the automobile hit the front part of the tractor. The driver was not knocked off the tractor, which was about half or three-quarters across the white line at the time of the collision. The manure spreader was across Mrs. Shriner's east bound lane of travel. After the accident, when she got off the ground to her feet, she learned that the driver of the tractor was Harold Mullhausen. After the accident her nose was bleeding and she could not use her right arm. The right rear wheel of the automobile was damaged. The automobile caught fire near the radiator and was almost a complete loss. She was not familiar with this particular intersection, although she knew there were quite a few lanes and driveways along that highway. She had never seen a vehicle come out of that particular driveway before.

Trooper Boose, of the Maryland State Police, said he arrived at the scene of the accident about 11:30 a. m. He measured the distance from the center of the private entrance to the crest of the hill to the west and the distance was two hundred and twenty-five feet. The grade was slight. The top of the second hill which is higher could be seen from the private driveway. He was not absolutely positive that the vehicles had not been moved before his arrival. The front of the tractor was struck by the right rear of the Buick, which struck the wall on the north side of the hard paved road opposite the intersection. The skid marks started on the right, the proper side of the road, and then appeared to go over at a slight angle gradually to the left toward the concrete wall, a distance of approximately one hundred and fifty feet. There was a break of approximately fifteen feet in those skid marks. He was not positive as to the length of this break. The entire front part of the car including the wheels went over the concrete wall and the car came to rest about fifty feet from the point of impact and against a pole. When he arrived the front part of the tractor was in the west lane of the hard paved road approximately ten feet to the west and northwest of the entrance of the private driveway and at a slight angle. The manure spreader was about three feet over the white line in the east lane. There was evidence that the farm equipment had been pushed back about two feet. About eight feet of the paved road and the six foot dirt shoulder was not blocked and east bound traffic was passing when he arrived. The weather was clear and the road was dry. The speed limit at the scene of the accident was fifty miles an hour. There was a broken white line allowing traffic toward Westminster to pass.

Trooper Hahn, also of the Maryland State Police, testified that he assisted Trooper Boose the day after the accident in making measurements. He said the measurement to the crest of the first hill was two hundred and twenty-five feet from the center of the private driveway. He further said that sitting in a car in the center of the driveway one could see approximately three hundred feet west toward Taneytown. He estimated that the distance from the private driveway to the top of the second hill was from one quarter of a mile to seven hundred yards. The top of the second hill was visible from the private driveway.

Harold Edward Mullhausen, seventeen years of age at the time of the accident and twenty at the time of the trial, testified that he had been operating tractors since he was about twelve years old. He did not have an automobile driver's license at the time of the accident on January 5, 1953, but had since obtained one. He stated that on that day he traveled north out to the end of his father's lane, driving the tractor with the loaded manure spreader attached to the rear. As he came to the end of the lane, he stopped for one or two seconds, looked both ways, and could see the top of both hills to his left. He saw nothing coming, started out straight across the paved road toward Taneytown. The equipment was not moving fast. As he was going toward Taneytown the automobile came over the hill and started to skid. At that time the whole tractor was across the white line and blocking the west bound lane. He was making a turn to the left. The manure spreader was behind the tractor on the other side of the road and might have been blocking the eastbound lane. He held both brakes on the tractor. The automobile came sliding down 'way across' the road. It hit the cement steps, jumped over the concrete wall, and its back end hit him. The automobile then swung around over the top of the minister's lawn and hit the telegraph pole. When he was struck he had gotten both pieces of equipment over in the west bound lane. The right wheel of the tractor was in the dirt and the left wheel was on the cement. Immediately after the accident the tractor was over in the dirt and about three feet of the back part of the manure spreader was on the white line. The equipment was pushed back three or four feet by the...