Title: Madsen v. Read
Citation: 273 P.2d 845, 58 N.M. 567
Docket Number: 5766
State: new-mexico
Issuer: new-mexico Supreme Court
Date: August 30, 1954

273 P.2d 845 (1954) 58 N.M. 567 MADSEN v. READ. No. 5766. Supreme Court of New Mexico. August 30, 1954. Carpenter, Eaton &amp; Phelps, Roswell, for appellant. Frazier, Cusack &amp; Snead, Roswell, for appellee. SADLER, Justice. Shortly after the noon hour on March 18, 1953, at a point approximately one and one-half miles south of Roswell on Highway 285, little Judy Elaine Madsen, four *846 and one-half years of age, was struck by defendant's pickup truck and killed in front of her home on the west side of the highway. Damages on account of her death were sought in an action instituted by her father as administrator of her estate which resulted in a verdict for the defendant on which judgment in his favor was entered in the district court of Chaves County. The plaintiff in that action complains in this Court of the judgment and as the appellant here seeks its reversal. The parties will be designated here as they were below. It was about 12:45 o'clock p.m. on March 18, 1953, when the victim of the tragic accident resulting in her death crossed the road in front of the family home, located on the west side of Highway 285 extending south from Roswell to the Whitcamp store and filling station, situated directly east and across the highway from her home. After purchasing the gum and candy which had occasioned her trip, the child started to cross the highway again to return home. Observing a pickup truck approaching from the south, she stood on the edge of the paving for a brief period and then started to cross the road to the rear of the pickup which had just gone by. In the meantime the defendant, driving a pickup truck with a horse trailer attached at the rear, and accompanied by his three children, ranging from 14 to 9 years of age, was proceeding south at about 50 miles per hour and converging from a distance of 125 to 130 feet to the north on the route the child would take in crossing the highway. The mother of the child sensing danger to it had come from her house and had taken a position of watchfulness on the east side of the highway. She carried her young baby in her arms, and seeing the child about to start across the highway cried out, "Not yet, Judy!" But she was tragically too late. The child was already on the way. She was seen to disappear behind the pickup truck proceeding north, emerging from behind it on a dead run to the opposite side of the highway, only to be struck by defendant's pickup when within two (2) feet of safety. The broken body of the child was hurried to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. The scene of the accident was only 1.8 miles south of the city limits of Roswell, the weather was clear and the view was unobstructed for half a mile in either direction from the scene of the accident. A somewhat vivid picture of how it happened may be visualized from the testimony of Sergeant Lawrence A. Halverson, an employee of Walker Air Force Base in Roswell. He was traveling on a motorcycle behind defendant's pickup as they passed beyond the city limits of Roswell. Testifying as a witness for defendant, he was asked questions and made answers, as follows: Another witness for defendant, Mrs. John Ernest, who had waited on the child while in the store and had accompanied her almost to the edge of the paving, gave a dramatic summary of what happened, as follows: Still another witness for defendant, E.J. James, who had been on the stand prevously, testified: And on cross-examination, he testified: The defendant testified on direct examination, as follows: On cross-examination, among other testimony, the defendant stated: It should be added that the highway proceeds in a straight line for half a mile in either direction from where the accident occurred; also that the paved portion of the highway is 25 feet in width with a white center line and shoulders on either side 12 feet wide sloping gently into the bar pits. The foregoing presents a fair and concise summary of the facts at close of the case. Upon them and inferences deducible from them the jury's verdict must rest for support. The defendant asked for a directed verdict in his favor which the court denied. It also denied plaintiff's request for the submission of three special interrogatories, as *850 well as certain specially requested instructions, and the cause was submitted on instructions calling for a general verdict one way or the other. The jury returned into court a verdict finding the issues in favor of the defendant. In due course the court entered judgment in his favor from which the present appeal is prosecuted. The plaintiff's counsel present their claims of error on appeal under four points. The first is that the court erred in instructing on the sudden emergency theory because the evidence discloses the defendent was negligent as a matter of law. To state his position differently, it is argued on behalf of plaintiff that a defendant may not claim an instruction based on sudden emergency when the emergency relied upon is one deriving from his own negligence. 61 C.J.S. Motor Vehicles, § 535, p. 607; Nikoleropoulos v. Ramsey, 61 Utah 465, 214 P. 304; Prauss v. Adamski, 195 Or. 1, 244 P.2d 598. We may concede the correctness of this claim but it only carries us right back to the decisive inquiry was the plaintiff negligent? The jury's verdict furnishes a negative answer to the inquiry and if there be substantial evidence supporting its verdict, this claim of error must be resolved against the plaintiff. We are compelled to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant (appellee) in whose favor the verdict was returned. Mesich v. Board of County Commissioners, 46 N.M. 412, 129 P.2d 974, and Seal v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 48 N.M. 200, 147 P.2d 359. The weight of argument presented by counsel for the plaintiff is that with an unobstructed view of half a mile in either direction from the scene of the accident, and with the child standing on one side of the highway awaiting a crossing to opposite side near which her mother stood to receive her, the defendant may not excuse himself from seeing what was plainly obvious. In other words he must have seen, indeed, could not have avoided seeing, whatever was in his line of vision, had he been using ordinary care in driving his pickup truck immediately prior to striking the child. The fact that the Sergeant Halverson, riding a motorcycle and following defendant's car some 300 feet behind it, observed presence of the child on the road when an estimated 500 feet from where she stood, is treated by counsel as practically conclusive evidence that the defendant actually saw, or should have seen, the child in time to slacken his speed and to assume a degree of watchfulness essential to her safety. We have carefully reviewed the evidence in the case and although admittedly the question is a close one, we are constrained to hold the trial court did not err in permitting the jury to pass upon the defendant's negligence, vel non. While not unmindful of the force of the argument of plaintiff's counsel, the mere fact that the driver of a motor vehicle fails to see a pedestrian in his line of traffic in time to avoid striking him, is not always and necessarily to be taken as proof he was guilty of negligence as a matter of law. In some cases, yes in others, no. This seems to us a case where we must supply a negative answer to the inquiry. There are cases, of course, where no other conclusion will lie. It then becomes the duty of the court so to rule by taking the issue of negligence from the jury, or so declaring as a matter of law in non-jury cases. Ortega v. Koury, 55 N.M. 142, 227 P.2d 941. On the other hand, there may be circumstances under which, had the defendant been more observant, the presence of a pedestrian in a position of danger could have been seen, nevertheless, the movement of traffic or other circumstances may have interfered with that keenness of observation which would have disclosed the danger. It then becomes a question for the jury to say whether there was in fact negligence or contributory negligence. See Mayfield v. Crowdus, 38 N.M. 471, 35 P.2d 291. As said by this Court in Olguin v. Thygesen, 47 N.M. 377, 143 P.2d 585, 592: There are here present facts which in our view distinguish this case from that of Ortega *851 v. Koury, supra, so much relied upon by the plaintiff. There damages were sought for the death of a 3½ year old child being struck and killed on a certain street in the city of Sante Fe. The claim was that defendant must have seen the child, since he had an unobstructed view for 600 feet ahead of him. This Court held the facts convicted defendant of negligence as a matter of law. But there is this significant language in the recitation of facts [55 N.M. 142, 227 P.2d 942]: In the case at bar there was a northbound car passing the child standing beside the highway, at the very time, as the jury could have concluded, when the sweep of defendant's vision over the area ahead might otherwise have disclosed her presence. Close as the question may seem, we are satisfied the trial judge did not abuse his discretion in permitting the question of defendant's negligence to go to the jury. Mayfield v. Crowdus, supra; Frei v. Brownlee, 56 N.M. 677, 248 P.2d 671. The plaintiff's second claim of error relates to the trial court's refusal to give his requested instruction No. 11, reading: and the giving of the court's instruction No. 3, which reads: This point presented by counsel for plaintiff, reads: It would be enough to mention as a complete answer to this point that it is predicated by counsel on an assumption which is non-existent in the facts. He rests the proposition urged on an assumption that defendant has been, or should be, held to be negligent as a matter of law. The jury found otherwise and the record discloses substantial evidence to support that finding. But laying aside this consideration, we think the point lacks merit. A comparison of the instruction given (No. 15) with that refused defining "control" or "proper control," when read in the light of other instructions submitted without objection touching "due or ordinary care" (No. 6) leaves no doubt in our minds that the jury were adequately charged on the subject and could not have been misled. 1 Blashfield (Pt. 1) Cyclopedia of Automobile Law and Practice 677, § 748; Carruthers v. Campbell, 195 Iowa 390, 192 N.W. 138, 28 A.L.R. 949, and annotation at 28 A.L.R. 952. The plaintiff's third claim of error is that the trial court erred in refusing to submit to the jury three special interrogatories requested by him. They read as follows: It is claimed that the refusal represents an abuse of discretion on the part of the trial judge in applying Rule 49 of the District Courts, 1941 Comp. § 19-101(49), reading as follows: Notwithstanding the use of the word "shall," mandatory in form, counsel agree the trial court exercises a broad discretion in applying the rule. Larsen v. Bliss, 43 N.M. 265, 91 P.2d 811; Crocker v. Johnston, 43 N.M. 469, 95 P.2d 214. There were no involved or complicated questions in the trial of this case. The only questions to be submitted to the jury as the case finally shaped up before the jury were whether the defendant was negligent and, if so, whether that negligence proximately caused the death of the child. Even the latter inquiry might very well be eliminated from consideration for there was no doubt about proximate causation. The evidence being so considered, we see no abuse of discretion in the trial court's action in refusing the plaintiff's request in this behalf. To grant it could only tend to confuse. See cases cited above. Finally, counsel for plaintiff urge upon us the claim that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for new trial. Largely, it is a reassertion of previous questions already argued, but in the respects in which additional grounds of error are sought to be injected, we find them either to be without merit, or unavailable to plaintiff by reason of failure to reserve the claimed errors below. It follows from what has been said that the judgment under review should be affirmed. It is so ordered. McGHEE, C.J., and COMPTON, LUJAN and SEYMOUR, JJ., concur.