Case Title: Price v. Ashby's Incorporated

Citation: 11 Utah 2d 54, 354 P.2d 1064

Docket Number: 

State: utah

Court: Utah Supreme Court

Date: 1960-08-15T00:00:00Z

Document:
11 Utah 2d 54 (1960) 354 P.2d 1064 LESLIE PRICE AND LAFE MORLEY, PLAINTIFFS AND APPELLANTS, v. ASHBY'S INCORPORATED, A UTAH CORPORATION, AND GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, PONTIAC DIVISION, DEFENDANTS AND RESPONDENTS. No. 9165. Supreme Court of Utah. August 15, 1960. King & Hughes, Salt Lake City, for appellants. Cannon & Hanson, Skeen, Worsley, Snow & Christensen, John Piercey, Salt Lake City, for respondents. JEPPSON, District Judge. This is an appeal from an order granting a motion to dismiss by each defendant at the conclusion of plaintiffs' case on the ground that the evidence failed to show that the negligence of either defendant was a proximate cause of the Price car leaving the road. The facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs are as hereinafter interspersed in this decision. The plaintiff, Price, purchased the Star-Chief Pontiac sedan on February 14, 1958, from defendant, Ashby's Incorporated. The car performed normally for the first 2,000 miles. Thereafter the plaintiff, Price, observed that when the car had been standing with the ignition turned off for a short period of time that the right front portion of the body would settle or drop down until there was not over about three or four inches clearance from the ground. The car was taken to defendant, Ashby's Incorporated, for repair to determine the cause of said settling and because it was riding a little hard. Ashby's negligently failed to find the cause of the settling and failed to repair it. After the upset, a hole was found in the line between the tank and the airlift mechanism that ultimately led to the right front wheel. The escape of air from said hole probably caused the settling of the car when the motor was not running. After the car had settled, prior to the upset, if the motor was started, the right front portion would always regain its proper altitude or level without much delay. The hole in the line was probably caused by a rubbing of the controlling arm, a moving part, against the line. The line had been negligently installed by defendant, General Motors Corporation, too close to the moving control arm. Plaintiffs produced sufficient evidence to go to the jury on the defect in the car and the negligence of each defendant, but failed to show that the defect was, or that the negligence was a proximate cause of the damage of which plaintiffs complain. Plaintiff, Price, was driving on April 28, 1958, with plaintiff, Morley, riding in the car in a northeasterly direction on Highway 6-50 at a point approximately 1-1/2 miles west of Delta, Utah. There was a slight turn to the left. The car approached the turn at 50-60 miles per hour and failed to turn to the left with the road. The car went straight off the road at the curve and went over in the barrow pit. The highway where the car left the road was in all respects normal and was a smooth oiled surface. The car could have left the road for any one or more of a number of reasons. For example, a driver could have been momentarily dozing or could have been inattentive and failed to observe the turn. There is no evidence here that the driver ever attempted to turn the steering wheel to cause the car to go to the left with the road. With two or more possible causes such as an inattentive driver and a mechanical defect that would have made it harder to turn; proof that it may have been either is not proof that it was in fact either. No evidence indicated that either cause was the more probable. The driver plaintiff testified as follows: The nondriving plaintiff, Morley, testified: The evidence viewed most favorably to the plaintiffs does not provide a basis upon which it could reasonably be found that the defect in the car was the probable cause of the accident. Affirmed. Costs to defendants (respondents). WADE, HENRIOD and CALLISTER, JJ., concur. CROCKETT, C.J., concurs in the result. McDONOUGH, J., did not participate.