Weakley v. United States, 5501.

• Decision Date: 09 December 1946
• Docket Number: No. 5501.,5501.
• Citation: 158 F.2d 703
• Parties: WEAKLEY et al. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

158 F.2d 703 (1946)

WEAKLEY et al. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 5501.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

December 9, 1946.

O. R. McGuire, of Washington, D. C., and J. Lynn Lucas, of Luray, Va., for appellants.

Henry T. Clement, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Chatham, Va. (F. S. Tavenner, Jr., U. S. Atty., of Woodstock, Va. on the brief), for appellee.

Before PARKER, SOPER, and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the defendant, the United States of America, in an action at law for damages in tort. The action arose out of a collision which occurred in Page County, Virginia, in a residential section, a short distance from the corporate limits of the town of Luray, at the intersection of two highways, or streets, known as Mechanic Street and Lee Street. The vehicles involved in the accident were a Ford sedan, owned and operated by the plaintiff John Weakley, with Rella Moyer as passenger, and a Government owned Chevrolet truck, driven by William Orris with John Wesley King as passenger. The case was tried before the District Court without a jury under the authority of an Act of Congress approved November 29, 1944, Private Law 409, 78th Cong., 2d Sess.1944, 58 Stat. 1035.

The salient facts are substantially as follows: On Sunday morning, June 29, 1941, at about 10 o'clock, the Weakley automobile was proceeding in an easterly direction on Mechanic Street at a speed estimated by the driver to be between "15 to 20 or 25" miles per hour. At the same time the Government truck, driven by Orris, was proceeding north on Lee Street with the intention of turning left at the intersection in order to continue westwardly on Mechanic Street. Of importance is the fact that Lee Street runs in a north-south direction at approximately right angles with Mechanic Street. It extends south from, but does not cross, Mechanic Street, with the result that the intersection of the two streets forms a T, of which Mechanic Street is the horizontal and Lee Street the perpendicular. Both streets appear to be of equal dignity, with Lee Street south of the point of intersection, and Mechanic Street west of that point, constituting State Highway No. 266. The distance between property lines on Mechanic Street is 50 feet, and the improved or hard-surfaced portion in the middle of the street comprises a strip approximately 15 feet wide. Lee Street has a hard-surfaced strip 18 feet in width and the distance between property lines is 40 feet. From a point on Lee Street about 150 feet south of the intersection and continuing to the west on Mechanic Street there is a rising grade of approximately 8 per cent. On neither street are there sidewalks or curb lines, and in the southwest quadrant of the intersection there are two large trees and a house which, except for an open space of about 6 feet between the trees and the house, obstruct the view of drivers proceeding north to the intersection on Lee Street and east to the intersection on Mechanic Street. At the time of the accident the roadway was dry, and visibility was unhampered by the weather conditions.

The uncontradicted evidence with respect to the Weakley car is that it came down the center of Mechanic Street and approached the intersection at a speed of about 25 miles per hour. Weakley was quite familiar with the intersection, for he lived in the neighborhood and had travelled the road on innumerable occasions. He stated that it was customary for traffic approaching on Lee Street to stop before entering Mechanic Street, and that he was relying on this fact at the time of the accident. A moment before the collision Weakley saw the Government truck in the space between the trees and the house, but it was then too late for him to do anything to avoid the accident.

The evidence shows a conflict as to the speed at which the Government truck approached the intersection. However, the District Judge found that the truck entered the area of intersection at a speed between 15 and 25 miles per hour, a finding which does not appear to be so unsupported by the evidence as to warrant its rejection. He also found that the truck did not proceed to the medial point of the intersection before turning left, but cut across the southwest quaddrant of the intersection so sharply that the left wheels came across the dirt at the edge of the intersecting hard surfaces. The over-all length of the truck was about 22 feet, and as the paved portion of Mechanic Street was only 15 feet wide, it would have been difficult for the truck to pass the center of the intersection before turning left without leaving the hard surface.

It appears from the testimony that Orris, the driver of the truck, saw — though too late — the approaching machine and realized the danger, for in the moment before the collision he attempted to accelerate the truck sufficiently to reach the protection of a small driveway on the north side of Mechanic Street. This desperation move to avoid collision failed, and the vehicles came together about 20 feet west of the intersection in line with the west property line of Lee Street and approximately in the center of Mechanic Street. The point of impact was the front of the Weakley automobile and the outside left rear wheel of the Government truck. By the force of the impact the rear of the truck was swung around in a generally northeastern direction, and the truck came to rest, still in high gear, at a point some 25 or 30 feet northeast of the point of collision. The Weakley machine moved approximately 2 feet in advance of the point of contact.

Weakley was permanently injured in the collision, and his passenger was also hurt but not so severely.

Upon these facts the District Judge concluded as a matter of law that the negligence of Weakley in driving downgrade at 25 miles an hour in the middle of the roadway, without slackening speed as he approached a known intersection, was the sole and proximate cause of the injury. We are in accord with this holding insofar as it determines that Weakley's negligence...