U.S. Fid. & Guar. Co. v. Cont'l Baking Co., 5.
| Citation | 190 A. 768 |
| Decision Date | 17 March 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 5.,5. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES FIDELITY & GUARANTY CO. v. CONTINENTAL BAKING CO. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Maryland |
UNITED STATES FIDELITY & GUARANTY CO.
v.
CONTINENTAL BAKING CO.
No. 5.
Court of Appeals of Maryland.
March 17, 1937.
Appeal from Superior Court of Baltimore City; Rowland K. Adams, Judge.
Action by the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, for its use and the use of Ellsworth D. Dryden, against the Continental Baking Company. From a judgment on an instructed verdict for defendant, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Argued before BOND, C. J., and URNER, OFFUTT, SLOAN, MITCHELL, SHEHAN, and JOHNSON, JJ.
Robert D. Bartlett, of Baltimore (Bartlett, Poe & Claggett, of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellant.
Rignal W. Baldwin, Jr., and Douglas N. Sharretts, both of Baltimore (Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellee.
SLOAN, Judge.
On March 4, 1933, Ellsworth D. Dryden, a sergeant of the state police, was in charge of the escort to Gov. Albert C. Ritchie to and from the Presidential inauguration held that day in the city of Washington. On the return from Washington to Annapolis, Sergeant Dryden collided with a bakery truck of the defendant, the Continental Baking Company, appellee, at the intersection of Rhode Island avenue with 34th and Perry streets at Mt. Rainier, located north of and adjacent to the District of Columbia in Maryland. Sergeant Dryden was riding a motorcycle, and as a result of the crash was seriously injured. He and Corporal Flakenstine headed the procession, then Gov. Ritchie in a closed car, followed by an open car, which had been used by the Governor in the inaugural parade, occupied by Melvin V. Shanley, Charles N. Brill, Irvin H. Sentz, and Clarence A. Thornberg, with Officer H. G. Schultheis on a motorcycle in the rear. Rhode Island avenue runs northeast from Washington toward Baltimore, and, at the place of the accident, is intersected by Thirty-fourth street running north and south, and Perry street running east and west, and intersecting each other at Rhode Island avenue, which at this point is 86 1/2 feet from curb to curb, with two street car tracks almost in the center of the street. The avenue is paved its entire width. There are eight traffic lights and four traffic signals or signs in the intersection, so that every driver has ample notice of the character of the intersection. The place is densely populated. There was a safety zone painted white, with buttons about 3 inches high at the near end, about 70 feet from the intersection with South 34th street, with the front or vertical line of the safety zone 40 feet from that intersection. The safety zone is useful only in locating the witnesses and their evidence, but otherwise has nothing to do with the case.
At the conclusion of the plaintiff's case, the trial court granted the defendant's prayer for an instructed verdict for want
of legally sufficient evidence of primary negligence, and from the judgment thereon the plaintiff appeals.
This suit is brought by the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company of Baltimore, insurer, of the commissioner of motor vehicles of Maryland, whose officer or employee Ellsworth D. Dryden was injured, as stated, in the course of his employment, the declaration charges, as a result of the defendant's negligence, and the insurer sues to reimburse itself for the costs and expenses incurred as such insurer under the provisions of article 101, § 58, of the Code.
The police and two cars, after they left the district line, were going at the rate of from 26 to 30 miles an hour, which was several miles per hour in excess of the legal rate of speed permitted in crowded districts (20 miles an hour, Code Supp.1935, art. 56, § 194 (3), and the appellee argues that this is evidence of contributory negligence of Sergeant Dryden. It has been held in this court that the mere violation of a statute or rule of the road is not evidence of negligence unless such violation is the proximate cause of the injuries sued for (Kelly v. Huber Baking Co., 145 Md. 321, 334, 125 A. 782; Greer Transportation Co. v. Knight, 157 Md. 528, 537, 146 A. 851; Oberfeld v. Eilers (Md.) 189 A. 203), but in this case we do not see where the speed of the sergeant's car had anything to do with the negligence charged on either side, proximate or contributory.
The appellant also argues that because the motor vehicle officers were escorting the Governor of Maryland on an official expedition that their right was superior to that of the other users of the road, and the appellee's answer is that the officers were then merely employees of the department of motor vehicles whose only duty was to...
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