Case Title: Raffaele v. McLaughlin

Citation: 229 Or. 301, 366 P.2d 722

Docket Number: 

State: oregon

Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Date: 1961-11-29T00:00:00Z

Document:
Affirmed November 29, 1961.
Petition for rehearing denied December 19, 1961.
*302 John F. Conway, Portland, argued the cause and submitted the brief for appellant.
Earl A. Fewless, Portland, argued the cause and submitted the brief for respondent.
Before McALLISTER, Chief Justice, and ROSSMAN, O'CONNELL, GOODWIN and LUSK, Justices.
AFFIRMED.
ROSSMAN, J.
This is an appeal by the plaintiff, Mary Raffaele, from a judgment which the circuit court entered in favor of the defendant in an action instituted by the plaintiff to recover damages for a personal injury which she says she sustained when the defendant's automobile struck the car in which the plaintiff was riding. The plaintiff's sister, Teresa Raffaele, was operating the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding. The challenged judgment was based upon a jury's verdict.
The plaintiff (appellant) submits only one assignment of error. It challenges an instruction which was given to the jury. The plaintiff makes no contention that the trial judge ruled erroneously upon the admission of evidence.
Before taking note of the questioned instruction we will briefly mention the facts out of which the case arose. The collision occurred November 1, 1959, at about 5:45 p.m. in Portland on Mt. Scott Boulevard near S.E. 92nd Avenue. The sun set at 4:59 p.m. on that day. Immediately prior to the collision Teresa Raffaele was engaged in backing her automobile in a southerly direction upon a short private driveway *303 adjacent to her home which terminated in Mt. Scott Boulevard. The plaintiff was seated beside her sister. Mt. Scott Boulevard runs east and west. It pursues a straight course for a considerable distance, and from the place where Teresa Raffaele was engaged in backing her car one can see easterly along Mt. Scott Boulevard for four-tenths of a mile. When the rear wheels of the Raffaele car had entered Mt. Scott Boulevard the plaintiff's sister turned the rear of her car to the east, that is, she made a right turn. Her purpose was to turn into Mt. Scott Boulevard and then proceed ahead, that is, to the west. The plaintiff concedes that her sister did not stop her car before she entered Mt. Scott Boulevard. Her brief states: "Plaintiff's driver then continued slowly to back out of the driveway without stopping." When the car had entered the thoroughfare it was struck in the rear by the defendant's car which was proceeding westerly. We quote again from the plaintiff's brief:
According to the plaintiff and her sister, their lights were burning. Both the defendant and his son, who was riding with him, testified that it was "dark" and that the lights on the Raffaele car were not burning. The defendant, referring to the Raffaele car, testified:
*304 The plaintiff and her sister testified that they looked to the east along the course of Mt. Scott Boulevard before their car entered that thoroughfare and saw no approaching vehicle. They had observed, however, a car proceeding in the opposite direction, that is, to the east.
The defendant swore that he met a car driving easterly a moment or two immediately before the collision and then noticed the Raffaele car entering Mt. Scott Boulevard directly in front of him. He testified that he was unable to avoid striking it. The pavement was dry and the sun had set.
The foregoing suffices as a statement of the facts.
The following is quoted from the plaintiff's (appellant's) brief:
We take the following from the instructions that were given to the jury:
The instruction which the plaintiff assails as erroneous is as follows:
Upon the points in issue here, the court further instructed the jury:
1. From the foregoing instructions, together with the evidence revealed by the record of this case, it is evident that no error was committed. Plaintiff's contention that under the facts as the jury had a right to find them the act of plaintiff's driver in backing out onto a highway without first stopping could not be a proximate cause of this accident is patently without merit. The jury was clearly informed that the negligence, if any, of plaintiff's driver could not be imputed to her; but, if the plaintiff's driver was guilty of negligence in failing to stop before entering the public highway from a private driveway, the hazardous conditions created by her conduct certainly bore a distinct relationship to the operation of his car by the defendant. If the jury found that the plaintiff's driver was negligent and that this negligence was the sole proximate cause of the accident, then the defendant would be relieved of all liability. The issue of proximate cause was properly put before the jury. Brindle v. McCormick Lbr. & Mfg. Corp., 206 Or 333, 339, 293 P2d 221, states:
It was therefore proper for the court to instruct the jury on the duties resting upon both drivers, leaving it to the jury to determine whose negligence *307 caused the accident. It is manifest that the jury found that the conduct of the plaintiff's driver was the sole proximate cause of the accident.
2. Plaintiff further contends that the challenged instruction is inconsistent and contradictory. This contention also is without merit. The instructions can not be considered piecemeal, but must be considered as a whole. Whisnant v. Holland, 206 Or 392, 292 P2d 1087; Denton v. Arnstein, 197 Or 28, 250 P2d 407.
3. The instructions under attack which relate to plaintiff's driver's duties are not inconsistent with or contradictory to an instruction declaring that the plaintiff's driver's negligence, if any, is not imputable to the plaintiff when the court instructed the jury, as was done in this case, that only in the event the jury found that negligence on the part of plaintiff's driver was the sole proximate cause of the accident would the defendant be relieved of liability. Under these instructions the jury was not invited to impute the negligence of the plaintiff's driver to the plaintiff. Therefore, no inconsistency or contradiction existed.
Affirmed.