Werner v. Keitham

• Decision Date: 03 June 1964
• Citation: 202 A.2d 150,151 Conn. 673
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Joseph WERNER v. Thomas E. KEITHAM et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 150

202 A.2d 150

151 Conn. 673

Joseph WERNER v. Thomas E. KEITHAM et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

June 3, 1964.

David M. Reilly, Jr., New Haven, for appellants (named defendant and others) with whom, on the brief, was Harold M. Mulvey, New Haven, for appellant (named defendant).

Paul E. Farren, New Haven, with whom were Joseph S. Dobrowolski and Jackson T. King, New Haven, for appellee (plaintiff).

Kevin T. Gormley, New Haven, with whom were Gerald P. Dwyer and, on the brief, Martin E. Gormley, New Haven, for appellee (defendant Porto Transport, Inc.).

Before KING, C. J., MURPHY, ALCORN and COMLEY, JJ., and HOUSE, Acting justice.

COMLEY, Associate Justice.

This case arose out of a collision between a car driven by the plaintiff and a tractor with no trailer attached driven by the defendant Thomas E. Keitham. The tractor was owned by the defendant County Line Rental Company, hereinafter called County Line, but it was registered in New York in the name of 'Porto Transport, Incorporated, Lessee.' Porto Transport, Inc., another defendant, hereinafter called Porto, is a Connecticut corporation with its principal place of business in Wallingford.

Early in the morning of August 30, 1957, the plaintiff was traveling westerly on Orange Avenue in West Haven, also known as the Boston Post Road, toward his place of employment in Milford. Keitham was traveling easterly on Orange Avenue in the eastbound lane nearest the center of the highway, commonly called the passing lane. It was about 6:30 a. m., and rain had been falling for over an hour. When the operator of a tractor-trailer truck which was directly ahead of Keitham signaled, by means of a rear light, his intention to stop for a red light at the intersection of Orange Avenue and Prudden Street, Keitham applied his brakes. When he did so, his tractor skidded, went out of control and crossed the center of the highway into the passing lane for westbound traffic on Orange Avenue and stopped. In skidding, the tractor had turned completely around so that when it came to a stop it was facing west, in the opposite direction from the one in which it had been traveling. At this point, the plaintiff's car, which was traveling westerly, ran into the rear of the tractor. The front end of the plaintiff's car was extensively damaged, and the plaintiff sustained severe personal injuries. The court rendered judgment for the plaintiff as against Keitham and County Line but found no liability on the part of Porto.

Keitham and County Line contend that there was insufficient evidence to justify the court's conclusion that the tractor's skid was caused by Keitham's negligence. The court found that he was 'rolling along' and that he was following the trailer ahead of him within a distance of twenty feet and so closely that he could not see...