Stockwell v. Brown, 534
| Decision Date | 10 May 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 534,534 |
| Citation | 254 N.C. 662,119 S.E.2d 795 |
| Parties | Betty Ann STOCKWELL, Minor, by her Next Friend, George E. Stockwell, v. George Edison BROWN, Original Defendant, and Herbert Russell York, Additional Defendant. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Miller & Beck, by Adam W. Beck, Asheboro, for plaintiff, appellee.
Coltrane & Gavin, by T. Worth Coltrane, Asheboro, for defendant, appellant.
Plaintiff and the original defendant Brown offered evidence. The additional defendant York offered no evidence, nor is there anything in the record to indicate that he appeared at the trial.
Defendant Brown assigns as error the denial of his motion for judgment of involuntary nonsuit renewed at the close of all the evidence.
The evidence of plaintiff considered in the light most favorable to her, and a consideration of defendant Brown's evidence favorable to her, or which tends to clarify or explain her evidence not inconsistent therewith, and ignoring his evidence which tends to establish a different state of facts or which tends to contradict or impeach evidence presented by her (Watters v. Parrish, 252 N.C. 787, 115 S.E.2d 1, and cases there cited) shows the following facts:
Rawley Farm Road is a main highway running east and west with pavement 21 feet wide, with dirt shoulders on each side 6 feet wide, and with a center line on the pavement. It is crossed at right angles by Highland Avenue Extension, a dirt road running north and south. There is a highway Stop sign on a post facing Highland Avenue Extension near the southeast corner of the intersection. At this point Rawley Farm Road is fairly straight with an upgrade past the intersection going west.
About 3:30 o'clock p. m. on 17 August 1959 plaintiff Betty Ann Stockwell was driving her mother's automobile west on Rawley Farm Road, and was approaching its intersection with Highland Avenue Extension. Victoria Anne Steele was riding with her as a passenger. When plaintiff travelling at a speed of 35 to 40 miles an hour was about 200 feet from the intersection, she saw an automobile driven by the additional defendant York travelling north on Highland Avenue Extension come to a complete stop near the intersection, and then start into the intersection. When about two-thirds of the York automobile had entered the intersection, she saw an automobile driven by defendant Brown in an easterly direction on Rawley Farm Road about two to three hundred feet from the intersection, and approaching it at a speed of 60 to 70 miles an hour. When defendant Brown entered the intersection, he turned his automobile toward the left in front of the York automobile, and had a head-on collision with plaintiff's automobile on her side of the road as she was entering the intersection. Then the York automobile collided with the Brown automobile.
The evidence of defendant Brown favorable to plaintiff is as follows: He drove on the Rawley Farm Road nearly every day, and was familiar with this intersection. Approaching this intersection on Rawley Farm Road from the west, the intersection can be seen 100 to 125 feet before it is reached. He noticed the York automobile on Highland Avenue Extension approaching the intersection. York kept coming, and Brown tooted his horn. York never did stop coming down the road to the intersection. He believed York intended to make a right turn. York never looked at him, and he thought he had better be stopping. He did not get quite stopped. As he entered the intersection on his side of the road, the right front fender of his automobile and York's left front fender collided, throwing his automobile to the left and York's automobile to the right. He thought he was lucky until he glanced up, and saw plaintiff's automobile in front of him, and then they collided.
Thomas Routh, a passenger in Brown's automobile and a witness for him, testified, 'the York car was out in the intersection about three feet at the time of the collision.'
This evidence tends to show that defendant Brown was guilty of negligence in not decreasing speed when approaching and entering this intersection at a speed of 60 to 70 miles an hour in violation of G.S. § 20-141(c). It also tends to show that he was guilty of negligence in failing to keep a proper lookout for approaching traffic, in that he did not see plaintiff's automobile until almost the moment of impact. Wall v. Bain, 222 N.C. 375, 23 S.E.2d 330. It further tends to show that Brown was negligent in the operation of his automobile in driving it upon the highway without due caution and circumspection and at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger or be likely to endanger any person or property in violation of G.S. § 20-140. Crotts v. Overnite Transportation Co., 246 N.C. 420, 98 S.E.2d 502. Our statutes regulating the operation of motor vehicles on the highways of the State prescribe a standard of care, 'and...
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Bigelow v. Johnson
...or more efficacious to avoid injury." Aldridge v. Hasty, 240 N.C. 353, 360, 82 S.E.2d 331, 338 (1954). See also Stockwell v. Brown, 254 N.C. 662, 119 S.E.2d 795 (1961); Bondurant v. Mastin, 252 N.C. 190, 113 S.E.2d 292 (1960). Consequently, Johnson's failure to use a "headlamp" as required ......
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Glace v. Town of Pilot Mountain, 765
...error in permitting the witnesses to testify cannot be sustained. Hall v. Atkinson, 255 N.C. 579, 122 S.E.2d 200; Stockwell v. Brown, 254 N.C. 662, 119 S.E.2d 795; Lookabill v. Regan, 247 N.C. 199, 100 S.E.2d The last of defendant's assignments of error which requires discussion is directed......
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...shown when "preceding testimony given without objection is substantially the same as the testimony challenged." Stockwell v. Brown, 254 N.C. 662, 667, 119 S.E.2d 795, 798 (1961). See also Wilson County Board of Ed. v. Lamm, 276 N.C. 487, 173 S.E.2d 281 (1970); Hall v. Atkinson, 255 N.C. 579......