Sohio Petroleum Co. v. Fowler
| Decision Date | 22 April 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 40446,40446 |
| Citation | 94 So.2d 350,231 Miss. 72 |
| Parties | SOHIO PETROLEUM COMPANY and C. H. Ward, v. Mrs. Alice B. FOWLER. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Laub, Adams, Forman & Truly, Natchez, for appellants.
R. L. Netterville, John T. Green, Natchez, for appellee.
The appellee, Mrs. Alice B. Fowler, brought this suit in the Chancery Court of Adams County as an attachment in chancery against Sohio Petroleum Company, a nonresident corporation, and against C. H. Ward, seeking the recovery of damages for personal injuries alleged to have resulted from a collision between an automobile driven by her and an automobile owned by the Sohio Petroleum Company and driven by its employee, C. H. Ward. The chancellor rendered a decree in favor of the appellee and against the appellants for $18,383, from which decree they prosecute this appeal.
The evidence discloses substantially the following: The collision occurred at about 3 o'clock p.m. on November 8, 1955, on what is known as the Liberty Road in Adams County, at a point about one-fourth of a mile east of the City of Natchez. The Liberty Road is a paved highway about twenty feet in width and runs in an easterly and westerly direction. The weather was clear and visibility was good. The appellee was returning to her home from Natchez driving her 1948 Studebaker sedan and proceeding on said highway in an easterly direction. She stopped her car on her right hand hide of the road, headed east, nearly opposite the driveway entrance to her home which was located on the north side of the highway. Approaching her from behind and also traveling in an easterly direction was a 1930 model A Ford, driven by O. D. Howard. As the appellee brought her car to a stop in her right hand lane of traffic, she shifted into low gear and signaled to Howard to pass her. Howard drove around her at a rate of speed of about 15 miles per hour and then turned back into his right hand lane of travel. According to her testimony, when Howard turned back into his right hand lane of travel she looked in both directions and seeing, as she said, no car approaching from either direction, she turned to her left to cross the highway and enter her driveway, proceeding as fast as she could travel in low gear. She gave no warning signal of her intention to turn her car to the left from its direct course upon the highway. The driveway from the highway to her home was a steep graveled incline, and when the front wheels of her car were about five feet in the driveway her car was struck on the right side near the center by a 1955 Ford owned by the appellant, Sohio Petroleum Company, and then being driven in a westerly direction by the appellant, C. H. Ward, in the north lane of travel of said highway, and then being operated by the said Ward as the employee of the said Sohio Petroleum Company acting in the course of his employment.
The highway from the point of impact slopes upward to a sharp curve at a point 410 feet east of the scene of the collision. The place where the collision occurred is visible to one rounding said curve. Ward testified that he drove around the curve at a rate of speed of from 40 to 50 miles per hour and that as he came around the curve he saw the appellee's car stopped opposite the driveway and in her right hand lane of travel and with her front wheels turned at though to cross the highway and enter her driveway. He said that he saw and recognized Howard as he passed him after Howard had turned back into his right hand lane of travel, and that he waved to Howard as he passed, and that at that time he had reduced his speed to about 35 or 40 miles per hour and had his foot on the brake. The point at which Ward passed Howard is variously estimated by the witnesses to be from 40 to 60 feet east of the place where the appellee's car was stopped in the highway. Ward further testified that his lane of travel ahead of him was clear and that since the appellee was standing still and appeared to see him and it appeared that she was going to stay where she was he took his foot off of the brake and put it on the accelerator and speeded up, and that then 'it just looked like her car made a lunge right in front of me.' He further testified that he locked his brakes just before striking the Fowler car and that it happened so suddenly that he didn't have time to go around her. He testified that he knocked the appellee's car about five feet west of the driveway. Other witnesses testified that the Fowler car was knocked from five to twenty feet. The appellee testified that she had occupied her home on the north side of the highway since 1920 and that she was familiar with the highway and knew that it was dangerous at the point where it is intersected by her driveway.
The force of the impact caused the appellee to be thrown from her car and rendered momentarily unconscious. She was taken to her physician, Dr. Rice, and later taken to Dr. McAmis, who put her in the hospital where she remained from November 8 to about November 14 or 15. She testified that she was 72 years of age and that prior to the collision she was in good health and active and 'loves to do a man's work'; that she worked on the roof, did carpentry work, dug ditches, and did all kinds of outdoor work; that she cannot now do the work she did because of the injuries which she sustained in the collision. She further testified that her neck, shoulders and back are sore as the result of the collision and that she has trouble lying in bed and 'hurts all the time'; that it is necessary because of her injuries to have some one to wait on her and stay with her and perform the cooking and other household chores. Asked with reference to prior illnesses, she testified that she had had a prior trouble for which she was given radium treatment but that it developed not to amount to anything and she didn't have to stay in bed and never stopped driving her car.
Dr. McAmis testified that he treated the appellee after the accident and admitted her to the Natchez General Hospital; that he gave her a complete physical examination and made necessary x-rays; that he found no fractures or dislocations; that she had a mild concussion and had brush burns over her forehead; that she had rather severe bruising of her head, her right arm and her right elbow and...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Shideler v. Taylor
...Williams v. Moses, 234 Miss. 453, 106 So.2d 45 (1958); Reed v. Eubanks, 232 Miss. 27, 98 So.2d 132 (1957); Sohio Petroleum Company v. Fowler, 231 Miss. 72, 94 So.2d 350 (1957); Graves v. Johnson, 179 Miss. 465, 176 So. 256 (1937); Rhodes v. Fullilove, 161 Miss. 41, 134 So. 840 (1931); Porte......
-
McCorkle v. United Gas Pipe Line Co.
...him from being liable.' Section 435, Restatement, Law of Torts.' (231 Miss. at 282, 95 So.2d at 448.) See Sohio Petroleum Co. v. Fowler, 231 Miss. 72, 94 So.2d 350 (1957); Continental Southern Lines v. Klaas, 217 Miss. 795, 63 So.2d 211, 65 So.2d 575, 833, 67 So.2d 256 (1953); Public Serv. ......
-
Arnold v. Ellis
...and her earning capacity is practically destroyed. We cannot say, therefore, that the verdict is excessive.' See also Sohio Petroleum Company v. Fowler, Miss., 94 So.2d 350, where the injuries did not appear to be as substantial as here, and the Court approved an award of $13,383. We cannot......
-
Boyd v. Smith
...yield the right-of-way to the vehicle making the left turn. See Lynch v. Suthoff, 220 So.2d 593 (Miss.1969); Sohio Petroleum Co. v. Fowler, 231 Miss. 72, 94 So.2d 350 (1957); American Creosote Works v. Rose Bros., 211 Miss. 173, 51 So.2d 220 It is clear that in preparing to make his left tu......