Court Opinion

ID: 9693945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:12:14.56131+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:52.693354
License: Public Domain

Opinion by
Ervin, J.,
This appeal is from the refusal of the court below to grant a motion for judgment n.o.v. filed by defendant, John Dugan, Jr., who was involved in an accident at an intersection. The sole question is whether the plaintiff, Wilbert F. Bell, was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.
On December 8, 1956, at about 9:40 p.m., plaintiff was driving a Chevrolet pick-up truck in a northerly direction on State Highway Route 51, also known as Brodhead Road, in the Borough of Aliquippa. Defendant was driving a Buick sedan in a westerly direction on Admiral Street in the same borough. State Highway Route 51 is a main thoroughfare and Admiral Street intersects this main thoroughfare from *324the east but does not extend to the west. There were no stop signs or. traffic signals at the intersection. Shortly before the accident defendant had traveled northwardly along this main thoroughfare and when he reached Admiral Street he turned right. He drove some distance on Admiral Street, turned his vehicle around and proceeded back toward the intersection. He testified that he was traveling on Admiral Street at 15 miles an hour-.. Not being aware; that -he had reached the intersection, he drove .into i.t immediately in front of plaintiffs vehicle, which he did not see until the time of impact. He also testified that he would have stopped had he known he had reached' Route 51.
Plaintiff was ■ traveling toward the intersection • of Admiral Street at a speed of between 25 and 30 miles per hour in a posted 35 miles per hour zone. When approximately 90 feet from the intersection. he noticed defendant on Admiral Street approximately 50 feet from the intersection. Plaintiff took his foot off the gas when he Avas betAveen 40 and.50 feet from the.intersection. He testified that it “looked like he was coming up to stop.” When, however, plaintiff realized defendant was not stopping it Avas too late to avoid the collision and he collided with the left side of defendant’s vehicle, causing both personal injury to himself and property damage to his truck. At the end of the charge, which adequately covered the issues and which was free from error, defendant’s counsel, upon being asked by the court for “comment,” made none and took no exceptions. Having presented a point for binding instructions, which was refused, defendant’s counsel filed a motion for judgment n.o.v.
Defendant relies • principally upon §1013 of The Vehicle Code of 1929, P. L. 905, as amended, 75 PS §572-(a)-, which provides:-“When two .vehicles . . . approach or enter . an intersection at- approximately, the same *325time, the driver . ...,on the left, shall yield the right of way. ...”
Contributory negligence should be declared as a matter of . law only when it is so clearly revealed that fair and reasonable persons could not disagree as to its existence: McMillan v. Mor Heat Oil & Equipment Co., Inc., 174 Pa. Superior Ct. 308, 311, 101 A. 2d 413.
The defendant also relies heavily upon the case of Rosato v. LaMent, 346 Pa. 360, 30 A. 2d 698. In that case, when the plaintiff reached the north curb line he saw defendant’s car about 65 feet away, approaching “very fast.”
In Gourley v. Boyle, 346 Pa. 113, 29 A. 2d. 523, plaintiff saw defendant’s car about 75 feet or 100 feet away, approaching “round forty or forty-five, miles an hour,” which defendant increased to 55 to 60 miles per hour.
In Stevens v. Allcutt, 320 Pa. 585, 184 A. 85, the plaintiff did not see the defendant’s truck until it struck him because he was not looking.
In Toyer v. Hilleman, 320 Pa. 417, 183 A. 53, the defendant was approaching the intersection at great speed and the Court said: “In analogous circumstances we have held that the driver who commits himself to a crossing at an intersection in the face of a rapidly approaching vehicle thereby tests an obvious danger. . . .”
In Haney v. Woolford, 124 Pa. Superior Ct. 208, 188 A. 405, when plaintiff was about 15 feet from the intersection and had reduced his speed to 12 or 15 miles an hour, he saw defendant’s automobile 140 to 150 feet away approaching the intersection at 50 to 60 miles per hour.
In McMillan v. Mor Heat Oil & Equipment Co., Inc., supra, when the plaintiff had reached' the north curb line he first saw the lights of the defendant’s *326truck 75 feet away, coming at a speed of 30 or 35 miles an hour.
In each, case we must take into consideration all of the facts and circumstances, such as the speed of plaintiff’s car, his ability to stop in a short distance, the rapid approach of the defendant’s car and the distance to be traveled before the paths of the two would interisect. If these facts and circumstances are such that a reasonable person would know that he is testing an obvious danger to go forward when he could have stopped and avoided injury, then the court should de clare the plaintiff con tribu torily negligent as a matter of' law. Where, however, the facts and circumstances are such that a reasonable person would properly conclude that he could cross the intersection safely without testing an obvious danger, the court should not be permitted to declare the plaintiff contributorily negligent. Where the facts and circumstances fall within the gray area between these two extremes, the question is one for the jury’s determination. This case falls within the last category. The plaintiff, while traveling 25 to 35 miles an hour and being 90 feet from the intersection, saw the defendant 50 feet therefrom, traveling at 15 miles per hour, and he testified that it “looked like he was coming up to stop.” Defendant testified that he would have stopped had he known he was at the intersection. Would a reasonable person traveling on a main thoroughfare, as above described, have a right to conclude that the defendant was going to stop and permit him to pass through the intersection? This we believe, under all the facts and circumstances in this case, was a proper question for the jury. The defendant was not obliged to stop if he reached the intersection at approximately the same time as the plaintiff because, being on the right, he would normally have the right of way: §1013 *327of The Vehicle Code of 1929, as amended, 75 PS §572: (a),1 but if the defendant, traveling at a very slow rate of speed, gave the impression that he was stopping his car, the plaintiff could not be declared eontributorily negligent as a matter of law if he relied upon the facts present in this case.
Judgment affirmed.

The only way a through highway and a stop intersection can be made is by the erection of proper signs by the proper authorities: 75 PS §712. Section 573(a) of the Code is not applicable to this situation because Admiral Street was a public highway and not a private road or drive. Section 573(c) of the Code could not apply because the driver on Admiral Street was not entering a through highway or stop intersection “established as such under provisions of this Act.’’