Yocum v. Kansas City Public Service Co.

Decision Date11 September 1961
Docket NumberNo. 48140,No. 1,48140,1
PartiesHarel Leon YOCUM, Appellant, v. KANSAS CITY PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY, a Corporation, Respondent
CourtMissouri Supreme Court

A. J. Falcone, Kansas City, for appellant.

Howell & Sanders, Robert J. Sanders, Robert G. Jones, Kansas City, for respondent.

HOLLINGSWORTH, Judge.

In Kansas City, on September 23, 1957, at 5:30 p.m., plaintiff, while operating a motor truck northward on Grand Avenue, undertook to make a right turn into a private driveway, during the course of which the truck was struck from the rear by defendant's northbound motorbus. Plaintiff was injured and brought this action against deendant in which he sought damages in the sum of $35,000. Trial to a jury resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of defendant, from which judgment plaintiff has appealed. The sole ground of error assigned is the admission into evidence, over objection of plaintiff, of the opinion of a duly qualified expert, predicated upon certain hypothesized facts shown in evidence, that the collision could not have occurred in the manner asserted by plaintiff. A brief statement of the essential portions of the evidence is necessary.

Grand Avenue, extending in a general north-south direction, is 62 feet in width along the portion thereof at which the collision occurred, affording sufficient width for three lanes of traffic in each direction. However, motor vehicles are permitted to be and sometimes are parked along each of the curb lanes. The private driveway involved is at or near 2505 Grand. It is 23 feet in width and extends eastward to a loading dock located 75 feet east of Grand.

Plaintiff, an employee of Bos Freight Lines, was operating a 1955 model, series 160, one and one-half ton, cab-over-engine International truck, with a van-type body. A narrow loading and unloading platform, sometimes referred to as a 'tailgate', extended back from the level of the bed of the van-type body.

Plaintiff testified: He was travelling at 20 to 25 miles an hour as he drove north-ward on Grand and approached the driveway. When he reached a point 150-200 feet south of the driveway, he adjusted the directional signal on the truck to indicate a right turn. At that time the right side of the truck was 10 to 12 feet from the east curbline of Grand. When he was 75 feet south of the driveway, he looked into the rearview mirrors. Seeing no vehicle approaching from his rear, he veered his vehicle to within about 8 feet of the east curb, slowed its speed to 8 to 10 miles an hour and started his turn into the driveway from a point 15 to 20 feet south of the driveway entrance. When the front of the truck was within about 3 feet east of the driveway entrance, defendant's bus struck the rear end thereof. The truck had moved about 10 feet in the course of its right turn when it was struck.

Two other persons testified in behalf of plaintiff that they were eyewitnesses to the collision. The general tenor of their testimony was that as the truck approached the driveway cars were parked in the east curb lane; that the truck, travelling at a slow speed, was 4 to 8 feet out from the curb; that, although plaintiff had testified he did not see defendant's bus when he looked from his rearview mirrors prior to beginning his right turn, defendant's bus, travelling at a faster rate of speed than the truck, was in fact about 5 to 8 feet directly to the rear of the truck and 'gaining on' it; and that the bus neither sounded any warning, stopped or swerved prior to the impact. Alfred L. Ferguson, a corporal in the investigation unit of the Kansas City Police Department, also testified in behalf of plaintiff. After identifying skid marks shown on a photograph taken by him at the scene, he stated that they began approximately 12 feet west of the east curb of Grand and had been made by the sideward movement of the rear dual wheels of the truck; that dirt in the street showed where the impact occurred; that the truck travelled 34 feet north of the point of impact; and that the bus had made no skid marks before the impact.

Defendant's bus operator, corroborated by two of his passengers, testified in behalf half of defendant to the effect: He was operating a passenger bus, 8 feet wide and 35 feet long, northward on Grand. Ever since turning northward on Grand (apparently more than one block) he had been aware of the northbound truck in front of him. It was in the lane of traffic to the left of the lane in which the bus was proceeding. Both were travelling at about 20 miles per hour. There were no cars parked on the east curb lane of Grand for a distance of several hundred feet south of the driveway at 2505. As the truck and bus moved northward toward the driveway, the bus was within about 3 feet of the east curb and the truck, 10 to 12 feet in front of the bus, was in the lane to the left of the bus. While the vehicles were in those relative positions, the truck, without noticeable change in speed or visible display of any turning signal, suddenly turned to the right in front of the bus and the collision instantly ensued. The left front portion of the bus struck the right rear end of the loading platform or tailgate of the truck. (There is no controversy as to the points of contact between the vehicles; photographs taken at the scene and introduced into evidence by plaintiff show them to be located as testified by defendant's operator.)

This brings us to the testimony of defendant's witness, Winfield C. Packer, which plaintiff asserts was erroneously admitted. This witness, a graduate engineer, testified: He took photographs and made measurements of the truck driven by plaintiff. The width of the truck was 6 feet, 7 inches, the length was 22 feet, 4 inches, including a little platform protruding from its rear. The 'turning radius' of a vehicle is the forward motion and the lateral motion required to make a right angle turn. In this truck, it is 27 feet. This is to say that, in the case of this truck, the minimum distance it can move forward in making a right angle turn is 27 feet. The distance that the vehicle moves is considerably more because it is following the quadrant of a circle. Viewing the plat introduced into evidence by plaintiff and assuming that the truck was aligned by plaintiff so that the center of the truck would enter the center of the driveway, the witness charted thereon the two courses the truck could follow from the time it began its turn, each charted course being based upon the minimum and maximum distances at which plaintiff estimated he began his turn from Grand into the driveway, to wit: 15 to 20 feet south of the entrance thereto. The witness also outlined upon the plat the varying positions and angles in which the rear end of the truck would proceed during the course of its right turn, following which, by the use of small models of motor vehicles, the witness manually demonstrated that the vehicles could not have come into contact at the point shown on the photographs had the bus been directly in the rear of the truck. (The visual purport of considerable portions of the demonstrations thus given by the witness cannot be ascertained from the record.) The witness, over objection of plaintiff, further testified as follows:

'A. [W]ith...

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22 cases
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    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • November 13, 1967
    ...his discretion in this respect will not be set aside in the absence of a showing of an abuse of discretion. Yocum v. Kansas City Public Service Co., Mo.Sup., 349 S.W.2d 860, 864, and authorities The expert testified through 143 pages of the transcript on a wide variety of subjects. Applying......
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    ...its decision in those respects is not to be set aside in the absence of showing of an abuse of discretion. Yocum v. Kansas City Public Service Company, 349 S.W.2d 860, 864 (Mo.1961). Sgt. Burford testified that he had been with the patrol over 22 years, had investigated "a number of acciden......
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  • Mitchell's Estate, Matter of
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    ...of experts. The necessity for expert testimony rests in the sound discretion of the trial court. See, e. g., Yocum v. City Public Service Co., 349 S.W.2d 860, 864 (Mo.1961). Without further explanation of the complexity or technical nature of the financial statements, we are unable to say t......
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