Court Opinion

ID: 9710770
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:17:22.744289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:59.872677
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Justice Ladner:
I agree that the non-suit was correctly entered as to the husband defendant but I do not agree that a non-suit was properly entered with respect to the wife defendant.
To my mind where a motor vehicle crosses a dual highway separated by a center strip and crashes into another motor vehicle travelling on its correct side, the question of negligence is for the jury because whether the accident was unavoidable in this case due to an *502uncontrollable skid became a matter of defense. Tbe majority concedes that had tbe plaintiff merely proved that tbe collision occurred on tbe west bound lane where defendant’s car should not have been, tbe burden would have been upon tbe defendant to offer exculpatory proof. But tbe settled rule of law is that on a motion for a non-suit tbe court must take a view of tbe evidence most favorable to tbe plaintiff: Szukics v. Ruch, 367 Pa. 646, 81 A. 2d 903 (1951). Tbe plaintiff, at one point of bis testimony said, “This car came over across tbe medial strip and into my car, crashed into my car.” This statement standing alone tbe majority admits would have entitled him to go to tbe jury. How can it be any less for tbe jury because be said at another point, tbe defendant’s car “skidded or crossed over tbe medial strip” into tbe west bound lane of traffic into bis car. Or because one of bis witnesses, Sumey, testified when asked where and bow tbe accident happened, “West of Somerset, I don’t know tbe distance ... a car skidded across from tbe east bound traffic lane and went into a skid and apparently struck another car. It was murky. I couldn’t be sure of too much of anything.”
Where in one part of a plaintiff’s testimony be is entitled to have tbe case submitted to tbe jury, and in another part be is not, it is for tbe jury to reconcile tbe conflicting statements and determine which shall prevail: Greene v. Philadelphia, 279 Pa. 389, 392, 124 A. 134 (1924); Bisaillon v. P. R. T., 84 Pa. Superior Ct. 153, 156 (1924). Tbe same rule applies where tbe testimony of a witness conflicts with that of tbe plaintiff: O’Farrell v. Mawson et al., 320 Pa. 316, 182 A. 538 (1936); Cardone v. Sheldon Hotel Corp., 160 Pa. Superior Ct. 193, 195, 50 A. 2d 700 (1941).
Sumey also testified tbe drivers of both cars were rendered unconscious by tbe force of tbe impact. He further testified that they bad been travelling behind *503the defendant’s car a distance of about 500 yards, that they were travelling about 20 miles an hour and that they had followed defendant’s car for about ten miles. Asked whether the defendant’s car had been on the inside or outside lane of the east bound part of the highway, he answered, “The inside, the right lane, I am not sure of that either.” But he did say his own car was on the right lane. From this the jury might infer because of the witness’s prior testimony that he had been following defendant’s car, that the defendant’s car just before the accident was also in the right or outside lane of the east bound way. Plaintiff’s other witness was Painter, the driver of the car in which Sumey was a passenger. He testified he was intent on driving when Sumey called his attention to something up the road. He glanced up and saw defendant’s car moving across the center strip into the west bound lane and then the collision took place. This witness said he was driving his own car very slow, “maybe 15 miles an hour.”
The learned court below reviewed many of the skid cases and drew from them the proper governing rule of law which is that: Proof of skidding of a motor vehicle does not of itself constitute negligence though circumstances may be such as to impose on the owner or driver of the skidding vehicle the burden of proving there was no negligence in the operation thereof. I agree with this statement of the rule which was announced in Griffith v. V. A. Simrell & Son Co., 304 Pa. 165, 155 A. 299 (1931), and constantly reiterated in the numerous skidding cases, which I refer to in a footnote appended at the end of this opinion. Both in that case and in Cook v. Miller Transport Co., Inc., 319 Pa. 85, 179 A. 429 (1935), we also said, “The wet and slippery condition of the street must be taken into consideration by the driver and he is bound to reduce his speed to the point where he can control the movement of the *504car.” I think the learned court erred in the application of these principles to the facts as we have reviewed them. While it is true that a motor vehicle’s skid may under some circumstances be unavoidable yet it is equally true as the cases testify that a skid may be caused by negligent operation such as, e.g., a speed too great under the conditions of . weather, the road, the location, or a too sudden or improper application of the brakes.
Here we have a case with intervals of falling snow, poor visibility and icy patches on the road, in which the defendant’s car travelled in its skid from the right hand lane of east bound portion of the highway, a distance of at least 40 feet clear across the center strip and collided with a car almost at rest with such violence as to render both drivers unconscious. From these facts the jury, irrespective of the speed estimates of the witnesses,1 would have had the right to infer that the driver of the car which crossed the medial strip from the east bound roadway to the extreme side of the other was travelling at a speed too great under the circumstances in violation of Section 1002 of The Vehicle Code of May 1, 1929, P. L. 905, as amended, 75 P.S. 501. This section requires a person driving a vehicle on the highway to “drive the same at a careful and prudent speed, not greater than nor less than is reasonable and proper, having due regard to the traffic, surface and width of the highway, and of any other restrictions or conditions then and there existing.” As well said by Mr. Justice Horace Stern in Eisenhower v. Hall’s Motor Transit Co., 351 Pa. 200, at page 205, *50540 A. 2d 458 (1945), “. . . what may be a permissible rate of speed at one' time and place and under given circumstances may be wholly improper on other occasions and under different circumstances, and in cases where, as here, unusual conditions existed, it has been uniformly held that the question as to whether the speed was excessive was for the jury: . . Thus even if the speed of 20 miles an hour were an accurate estimate it was still for the jury to say whether the speed was not too great under the circumstances.
With but few exceptions, cases where the defendant’s vehicle skidded into a car proceeding in the opposite direction on the other side of the street, we have held to be for the jury. Certainly we have been able to find no case in which a nonsuit was ever entered where a vehicle skidded clear across a dual highway over a division strip into a car on the extreme opposite lane of travel.2
*506I would reverse the judgment of non-suit as to the defendant Gladys Patterson, and award a new trial.

 Mere estimates of speeds of moving objects we have frequently beld must necessarily be for the jury: Miller v. Measmer, 353 Pa. 18, 20, 44 A. 2d 284 (1945) and cases gathered by Mr. Justice Allen Stearne in Cunningham v. Pa. R. R. Co., 352 Pa. 571, 575, 43 A. 2d 825 (1945).

 The following cases In which defendant’s car skidded across the highway and struck plaintiff’s car on the opposite side were all held to be for the jury: Szvitih v. Doernte, 360 Pa. 415, 61 A. 2d 823 (1948) ; Davin v. Levin, 357 Pa. 554, 55 A. 2d 364 (1947) ; Miles v. Myers, 353 Pa. 316, 45 A. 2d 50 (1946) ; Mulheirn v. Brown, 322 Pa. 171, 185 A. 304 (1936) ; Griffith v. V. A. Simrell and Son Co., 304 Pa. 165, 155 A. 299 (1931) ; Laessig v. Cerro, 149 Pa. Superior Ct. 155, 27 A. 2d 731 (1942) ; Matzasoszki v. Jacobson, 122 Pa. Superior Ct. 180, 186 A. 227 (1936) ; Corse v. Ferguson, 118 Pa. Superior Ct. 606, 180 A. 65 (1935) ; Bernstein v. Smith, 86 Pa. Superior Ct. 366 (1926).
Other cases in which the skidding was held to be for the jury are: Schulz v. Reading Trans. Co., 354 Pa. 373, 47 A. 2d 213 (1946), where bus on which plaintiff’s decedent was a passenger skidded 150 feet into and broke a telephone pole ten inches in diameter while travelling 15 to 20 miles an hour on slippery highway that curved down grade; Miller v. Measmer, 353 Pa. 18, 44 A. 2d 284 (1945), where defendant skidded, turning into an intersection with street icy and slippery at 30 miles per hour according to plaintiff’s evidence; Eisenhower v. Hall’s Motor Transit Co., 351 Pa. 200, 40 A. 2d 458 (1945), where a tractor trailer skidded a *506distance of 80 feet while rounding a curve and crashed into a tree driving motor through dash board; Cirquitella v. Callaghan, Inc., 331 Pa. 465, 200 A. 588 (1938), where defendant following funeral procession going 8 to 10 miles an hour on slippery street skidded into the car in front when it stopped; Cook v. Miller Transport Co., Inc., 319 Pa. 85, 179 A. 429 (1935), where defendant’s truck going 28 to 30 miles an hour on icy, slippery street skidded into a minor plaintiff in process of crossing street; Luderer v. Moore, 313 Pa. 71, 169 A. 106 (1933), where defendant coasting down hill at 40 miles an hour on wet road skidded into bank of road; Fitzpatrick v. Pralon C. & D., 129 Pa. Superior Ct. 437, 195 A. 644 (1937), where defendant’s truck, without chains, skidded down an icy hill while going 30 to 40 miles per hour, striking plaintiff’s car at an intersection; Smith v. Gross, 113 Pa. Superior Ct. 568, 173 A. 478 (1934), where defendant, to avoid an approaching car on a two-lane highway, jammed on his brakes to get behind the car he was passing, highway wet and slippery, guest passenger injured; Goldenberg v. P. R. T. Co., 112 Pa. Superior Ct. 163, 170 A. 360 (1934), where bus driver while travelling 25 miles per hour put on his brakes in middle of intersection and rear end of bus skidded into plaintiff’s car which had stopped at the intersection; McGettigan v. Quaker City Auto Co., 48 Pa. Superior Ct. 602 (1912), where rear of defendant’s auto in negotiating a corner skidded and struck child on sidewalk.
The following cases were held not to be for the jury: Master, Admrx., v. Goldstein’s Fruit & Produce, Inc., 344 Pa. 1, 23 A. 2d 443 (1942), defendant’s truck skidded into path of car driven by plaintiff’s decedent. No ice on highway except where accident occurred. Speed of defendant’s truck 15 to 20 miles an hour (But in Kotlikoff v. Master, Admrx., 345 Pa. 258, 27 A. 2d 35 (1942), which arose out of the same accident, and with the additional evidence that the truck was going 45 to 50 miles an hour and that the ice extended from 50 feet west of the crest of the hill to a point somewhere beyond the bottom of the hill, this court held the question of negligence to be for the jury) ; Lithgow, Exrx., v. Lithgow, 334 Pa. 262, 5 A. 2d 573 (1939), defendant skidded on loose gravel going around curve, no other evidence; Dahlman v. Petrovich, 307 Pa. 298, 161 A. 550 (1932), plaintiff attempted to go up a snowy hill and could not make it. Defendant, after passing plaintiff at*507tempted to go up the hill. He also could not make it and slid back into plaintiff’s car hitting him as he was putting on chains; Simpson et ux., v. Jones, 284 Pa. 596, 131 A. 541 (1925), defendant’s car after going around a curve at 25 miles an hour skidded and hit a culvert throwing car over a bank; Wertz v. Shade, 121 Pa. Superior Ct. 4, 182 A. 789 (1936), defendant’s ear skidded into a truck in which plaintiff was sitting. No evidence of excessive speed; Hatch v. Robinson, 99 Pa. Superior Ct. 141 (1930), defendant’s car going at 30 miles an hour skidded into path of plaintiff’s car. No evidence that there was a general condition of icy road.