Title: Biddle v. Mazzocco
Citation: 204 Or. 547, 284 P.2d 364
Docket Number: N/A
State: Oregon
Issuer: Oregon Supreme Court
Date: June 2, 1955

Reversed and remanded June 2, 1955.
*549 Duane Vergeer argued the cause for appellant. On the brief were Vergeer &amp; Samuels, and Charles S. Crookham, all of Portland.
R.C. Anderson argued the cause for respondent. On the brief were Anderson, Sloan &amp; Anderson, of Astoria.
Before WARNER, Chief Justice, and TOOZE, LUSK and BRAND, Justices.
REVERSED.
TOOZE, J.
This is an action for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligent operation of a motor vehicle, brought by E. (Edna) S. Biddle, as plaintiff, against Victor Mazzocco, as defendant. A verdict was returned and judgment entered in favor of defendant. Plaintiff appeals.
Plaintiff is a housewife, and at the time of the accident involved in this litigation was 48 years of age. With her husband, Emmett S. Biddle, she is engaged in the business of producing eggs and chickens for sale. She also carries on her duties as a housewife. She has driven motor vehicles since she was 18 years of age.
The accident with which we are concerned occurred about 8 a.m. on February 22, 1952. At that time plaintiff was the operator of a 1948 Chevrolet station wagon, which was loaded with 5 crates of eggs and additional boxes containing 75 dressed chicken fryers. She was operating the motor vehicle in a northerly direction along a paved market road in Clatsop county, Oregon. The road is 16 1/2 feet in width, with narrow, sloping shoulders paralleling it. It is not marked with a painted center stripe.
*550 At the place of the accident there is a private roadway which approaches and enters the market road from the west. This private roadway is approximately 10 feet in width, and as it enters the market road, it spreads out into a "fan", thereby making it easier for any car leaving said private road to enter the highway. The private roadway and the shoulder where it enters the market road are graveled. The gravel shoulder is 2 1/2 feet in width at that point and makes a drop of about 1 foot in 6 feet into the private roadway, and for that reason the private roadway enters the highway on an incline. The view of a driver of a motor vehicle approaching the market road from the private roadway is somewhat obstructed toward the south along that road because of the presence of a dwelling house and a picket fence, but photographs in evidence show a clear view to such driver toward the south for a long distance along said highway after passing the line of the picket fence and before entering with any part of his car upon the traveled portion of the road.
At the time of the accident defendant was operating his 1941 Chevrolet coupe automobile in an easterly direction on said private roadway and was approaching and entering the market road. He did not see plaintiff's vehicle approaching on the market road from the south until it passed in front of him. Plaintiff was traveling at a rate of speed variously estimated from 25 to 45 miles per hour, and defendant at a rate of speed estimated by plaintiff as 10 miles per hour. Plaintiff saw defendant's car approaching the highway when she was about five car lengths distant from the private roadway. She expected defendant to bring his car to a stop before actually entering upon the highway as was required of him by law. However, according to defendant's own testimony, he did not bring his car to a stop before entering the market road. He testified *551 that he stopped his car with the front wheels thereof about a foot beyond the edge of and upon the pavement, which would put the front bumper of his car a considerable distance further toward the center of the road. Plaintiff testified that he did not stop at all until the front of his car was near or beyond the center line of the highway, and that when she last saw the car it was still moving. Plaintiff also testified that in order to avoid striking defendant's car, she was forced to drive off her right side of the pavement and onto the sloping, wet dirt, and narrow shoulder of the road.
As a result of driving on the sloping shoulder of the road, plaintiff's body was caused to slide from under the steering wheel of her car, although she continued to grip the wheel with her hands. The car was more or less out of control. It proceeded back onto the highway and swerved to the left side thereof. In her attempt to correct the erratic movement of the car, plaintiff again pulled sharply to the right. The car left the roadway on the right, went through a wire fence, and came to rest near a stump. Plaintiff was thrown from the car upon the stump, causing her the severe injuries of which she complains in this action.
Plaintiff charges defendant with negligence in the following respects:
In his answer defendant denied the acts of negligence charged against him and affirmatively alleged *552 that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in the operation of her car in the following particulars:
Plaintiff by her reply denied the acts of negligence charged against her.
As her first assignment of error, plaintiff charged that the trial court erred in giving the following instruction to the jury:
Section 115-338 (a), as amended by ch 301, Oregon Laws 1949 (ORS 483.206), provides:
*553 1, 2. The instruction given is subject to criticism and should not have been given, but we do not believe the giving thereof constituted prejudicial error. As a general proposition, it is true that the rights of all persons to make free use of the highways are equal, but those rights are always subject to regulation. At a given time and a given place under the conditions existing, the right of one person to the use of the highway may be, and frequently is, superior to that of another person. Under the above statute the right of plaintiff to make use of the highway at the time and place in question was superior to that of defendant who was entering the road from a private driveway. Under the facts of this case, as disclosed by defendant's own testimony, he was required as a matter of law to yield the right of way to plaintiff. Therefore, the rights of plaintiff and defendant to the use of the market road were not equal at the time and place involved. Although an abstract and generalized statement of the law, correct in itself, the instruction bore upon no issue in the case. It might have been decidedly misleading. However, the latter part of the instruction, in the light of other specific instructions as to the respective rights and duties of the parties given by the court, tended to remove the curse inherent in the general statement. However, generalized and abstract instructions should be avoided, even though they are modified as the above instruction was modified.
3, 4. As her second assignment of error, plaintiff questions the following instruction given to the jury:
We find no error in the instruction as given. Negligence, in the absence of statute, is defined as the doing of that thing which a reasonably prudent person would not have done, or the failure to do that thing which a reasonably prudent person would have done, in like or similar circumstances; it is the failure to exercise that degree of care and prudence that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in like or similar circumstances. Ordinary negligence is defined in other words, but in the final analysis, and in every definition, the test of the conduct under consideration is based upon the conduct of a reasonably prudent person in like or similar circumstances.
Plaintiff argues, however, that the true test in this case was what a reasonably prudent woman, 48 years of age and possessing the driving experience of plaintiff, would have done or have omitted to do under the circumstances.
We quote from plaintiff's brief as follows:
If the rule were as plaintiff contends, then a drunken driver, for example, charged with the negligent operation of a motor vehicle, would have to be judged from the standpoint of a reasonably prudent drunk (if there is any such specimen) operating an automobile in like or similar circumstances. Many other examples might be given to illustrate the fallacy inherent in plaintiff's contention, but that is unnecessary.
In support of her contention, plaintiff cites the following decisions by this court: Greenslitt v. Three Bros. Bak. Co., Inc., 170 Or 345, 349, 133 P2d 597; Brady v. Schnitzer et al., 135 Or 250, 253, 295 P 961. In the Brady case defendant charged the plaintiff, a pedestrian, with contributory negligence in that she was under the influence of intoxicating liquor and did not exercise reasonable care to avoid injury. Exception was taken to the following instruction given to the jury:
With regard to this instruction, we said:
5. We here applied a test for contributory negligence on the part of a pedestrian, not on the part of a motor vehicle operator. Whether a child playing in the street, for example, is guilty of contributory negligence is determined from the standpoint of a child of like age and experience; and the conduct of a blind person on the street is tested by that of a reasonably prudent blind person in like or similar circumstances. And a wife *557 riding in an automobile as a guest of her husband, the driver, when charged with contributory negligence, is to be judged from the standpoint of a reasonably prudent wife riding with her husband under like or similar circumstances. Yet that does not mean that any different test should be applied to one operator of a motor vehicle from that applied to the other. The standard of care to be exercised by each is precisely the same, regardless of age, sex, experience, or mental or physical ability, and, in all cases, the degree of care to be exercised is commensurate with the danger involved.
In Greenslitt v. Three Bros. Bak. Co., Inc., supra, a pedestrian was killed by the operation of a motor vehicle, and the action was brought on behalf of his estate. Decedent was a farmer. His horses were hitched to a drill and left standing in an orchard across the highway from where decedent was conversing with a neighbor. The decedent's horses became frightened by the squeaking brakes of a vegetable truck and started to break away. When decedent saw one of the horses break loose he started to run diagonally across the highway for the purpose of preventing his horses from running away, and he was struck by defendant's motor vehicle when he had reached about the center of the highway. Decedent was charged by defendant with having been guilty of contributory negligence barring a recovery. Mr. Justice BELT, speaking for the court, said:
It is manifest that this decision does not support the contention made by plaintiff in the instant case. In that case decedent was not operating a motor vehicle. It is apparent from the record and briefs that what the court said in its instruction about the age, experience, and knowledge of the parties was induced and rendered somewhat necessary by argument of counsel. Under the circumstances, the instruction is neither erroneous nor misleading.
6. As her third assignment of error, plaintiff contends that the trial court erred in giving the following instruction to the jury:
Immediately after giving the foregoing instruction, the court instructed the jury respecting the statutory duty of defendant to stop his vehicle before entering the market road, and to yield the right of way to vehicles approaching on the highway, and then said:
Section 115-327 (a) and (b), OCLA (ORS 483.302), provides:
In the light of the record in this case, it was improper to instruct the jury upon the provisions of the foregoing statute. There is no evidence in the record whatever that would justify such an instruction. The only evidence showing plaintiff to have driven on the left side of the highway was that evidence to the effect that after she had left the pavement on the right side of the highway to avoid striking defendant's car, her car was caused to move back on the highway and swerve to the left side thereof while it was more or less out of control, and before she was able to swing it back to the right and off the pavement. Under the circumstances, plaintiff's being on the left side of the road after having passed defendant's car could not possibly have had anything to do with the proximate cause of the accident.
7. Moreover, we have repeatedly held that the provisions of the foregoing statute do not contemplate strict compliance with it except when a car meets and *560 passes another coming from the opposite direction. We first stated the rule in Weinstein v. Wheeler, 135 Or 518, 529, 296 P 1079, where we said:
In Hartley v. Berg, 145 Or 44, 53 25 P2d 932, the foregoing interpretation of the statute was again announced and approved.
In Spence, Adm'x, v. Rasmussen et al., 190 Or 662, 684, 226 P2d 819, after mentioning and approving the interpretation given the statute in the prior cases of Weinstein v. Wheeler, supra, and Hartley v. Berg, supra, we said:
8. As to vehicles approaching from the rear and overtaking and passing the vehicle ahead, the law imposes a duty upon the driver of the overtaken vehicle to give way to the right, but that is another statute complete in itself and relates solely to overtaking and passing vehicles. § 115-330, OCLA, as amended by ch 198, Oregon Laws 1949 (ORS 483.310).
9. The statute under discussion has no application insofar as vehicles which are approaching a highway from a private roadway and before making the required stop are concerned. However, it might be applicable where such a vehicle had first stopped as required by law and was then in the process of entering the highway. As to such approaching vehicles along the private *561 roadway, however, no duty is imposed by the statute in question upon the driver of the vehicle operating along the main highway.
Manifestly, the instructions as given were erroneous, and, in our opinion, the giving thereof constituted prejudicial and reversible error.
10, 11. As a fourth assignment of error, plaintiff takes exception to the following instruction given to the jury:
No doubt the foregoing instruction was based upon the interpretation the trial court placed upon the language used by us in Cameron v. Goree, 182 Or 581, 595, 189 P2d 596. Defendant cites that decision in support of his contention that the instruction contains a correct statement of the law. In the Cameron case Mr. Justice ROSSMAN, speaking for the court, said:
Justice ROSSMAN was construing the provisions of § 115-351, OCLA, as amended by ch 428, Oregon Laws 1941 (ORS 483.204), as applicable to the facts in the case under discussion. He quoted the following portion of the statute in question:
What was said by the court in construing this statute must be viewed in the light of the problem then *563 before us. As applied to the facts in that case, it was a correct statement of the law. But we were not then dealing with the statute governing entries into a highway from a private roadway, nor are we now concerned with stop signs and the point where a vehicle should be stopped with reference to the location thereof. Of course, insofar as an effective view along the highway is concerned, the same reasoning would apply in this case as was applied in the Cameron case, but the necessity of such a view in either case would not relieve the driver from his statutory duty to stop at least before entering upon the traveled portion of the highway, and there is nothing whatever said in the Cameron case, nor in any other decision by this court, to the contrary. Under the statute in question in this case, defendant was required to stop his automobile before any part of it moved upon or protruded over any portion of the traveled portion of the market road.
In the instruction as given, the trial court fixed the point for the required stop as that point where an effective view might be had, without reference to the specific requirements of the statute. From that charge, the jury may well have been led to believe that defendant had the right to enter upon the traveled portion of the highway before stopping if necessary to obtain a view. The jury was not instructed otherwise. In the light of the evidence in this case, the instruction was incomplete, misleading, and prejudicial. Also, in view of defendant's own testimony on the trial, mention of the "center of the road" and "edge of the pavement" in the general statement contained in the first sentence of the instruction was improper, particularly when coupled with the language used in the latter part of the charge.
By defendant's own admission on the trial, it appears that he did not stop his automobile until the *564 front wheels thereof were projected at least one foot beyond the westerly edge of and on the paved portion of the road. By his own admission, therefore, he was guilty of a violation of the statute, and hence guilty of negligence per se. The instruction under discussion furnished him an excuse to which he was not entitled for this negligence on his part.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.