Opinion ID: 1933341
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plaintiff first complains because the trial court refused to submit for the jury's consideration the specification charging defendant was negligent as follows:

Text: (e) In failing to reduce the speed of the motor vehicle when approaching a hill and steep descent, as provided in section 321.288, Code of Iowa. This allegation is not in the precise language of the statute. However, it is clear plaintiff was entitled to have this charge submitted to the jury only if there was evidence defendant was at the time approaching and traversing    a steep descent. This is the only portion of section 321.288 having any possible application here. The trial court withdrew this ground of negligence, finding the record did not support the allegation. We agree with the trial court. Whether a specification of negligence should be submitted depends, of course, upon the evidence which supports it. Giving the testimony the interpretation most favorable to plaintiff, the record fairly shows the nearest hill crested some 350 feet north of the place of the accident. From that point on, there was only a slight downgrade. This is not only the import of plaintiff's own testimony, but also that of his witness, Maurice Shever, in front of whose farm the accident occurred. The trial court found from the testimony and the photographic exhibits of the scene there was no steep descent here. Under the record we hold the refusal to submit this issue was a proper exercise of the trial court's discretion. Gaskill v. Gahman, 255 Iowa 891, 895, 124 N.W.2d 533, 535, and citations.