Wolfe v. Indep. Coach Line Inc, (No. 624.)

• Decision Date: 30 December 1929
• Docket Number: (No. 624.)
• Citation: 150 S.E. 876,198 N.C. 140
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: WOLFE . v. INDEPENDENT COACH LINE, Inc.

150 S.E. 876

(198 N.C. 140)

WOLFE .

v.INDEPENDENT COACH LINE, Inc.

(No. 624.)

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Dec. 30, 1929.

Appeal from Superior Court, Swain County; McElroy, Judge.

Action by Mrs. C. S. Wolfe against the Independent Coach Line, Inc. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. No error.

The evidence tended to show that the plaintiff was riding in a Ford car on the 16th day of March, 1928, between Sylva and Bryson City, and that her car was struck by a bus owned and operated by the defendant The car and the bus were traveling In the same direction. Plaintiff's car was operated by her agent, Paul Oonley. The evidence further tended to show that the bus gave a signal to pass plaintiffs car, and that thereupon the driver of the car turned out of the road.

The driver of plaintiff's car narrated the collision and injury as follows: "When the bus hit me, his front was toward the right, pulling in toward the right. And I was off of the right-hand side of the road. Absolutely, there was room there at this place for the bus to have passed me and to have stayed on the left-hand side of the road and prevented hitting me. * * * The whole road was about 18 feet wide. * * * When the bus struck me I was driving the car something like 15 or 20 miles an hour. * * * I heard the bus blow, and I pulled out to let the bus pass. * * * There is a ditch right here about that wide and 18 inches deep. Mrs. Wolfe said, 'Look out! you will run into the ditch, ' and I turned my wheels out of the ditch to keep from running into it, and the bus swung around this way, and I reckon he didn't consider the length of the bus, and it swung to the right, and his rear hit the front of my car. * * * I cut to the left a little bit, toward the bus. The bus would have hit me, if I had gone in the ditch."

The defendant offered strong evidence to the effect that the bus did not hit the car at all, but that the car negligently turned Into the bus. There was also testimony to the effect that the driver of the car was drinking, and that the car was "wabbling" from one side of the road to the other, prior to the collision.

The jury answered the issues in favor of the plaintiff, and awarded $2,050 damages for personal injury sustained by plaintiff, and for property damages to the car.

Rollins & Smathers, of Asheville, for appellant.

Edwards & Leatherwood, of Bryson City, for appellee.

BROGDEN, J. Section 12(a) of chapter 148, Public Laws of 1927, provides as follows: "The driver of any...