Court Opinion

ID: 9751514
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:33:04.199775+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:49.902407
License: Public Domain

Delaplaine, J.,
delivered the following dissenting opinion.
I think the trial judge acted correctly in submitting this case to the jury. It is true that the bus was traveling on a favored highway, and that Koppenhaver, who was driving the 1.941 Oldsmobile, entered the favored highway from a nonfavored highway. It is also unquestioned that a driver on a favored highway is not required to slow down at every intersection, or to slow down because an automobile approaching at high speed is visible at a considerable distance from the intersection. Every driver before entering a through highway is required by the statute to come to a full stop and to yield the right of way to vehicles approaching on the through highway. Code Supp. 1947, art 66½, secs. 178, 187. However, even though a bus driver is traveling on a through highway, he is not necessarily free from negligence in colliding with a vehicle which entered from an intersecting highway.
The fact that a bus driver has the right of way does not relieve him from negligence in failing to keep a proper lookout and to yield the right of way when he finds that a motorist is not going to yield the right of way. While a bus driver on a favored highway may assume that a motorist will obey the law and stop before *280entering the favored highway, nevertheless the fact that the bus driver has the right of way does not justify him in plunging ahead regardless of the consequences. Carlin v. Worthington, 172 Md. 505, 508, 192 A. 356; Greenfeld v. Hook, 177 Md. 116, 130, 8 A. 2d 888, 136 A. L. R. 1485; El Paso City Lines v. Prieto, Tex. Civ. App., 191 S. W. 2d 59, 62; Nichols v. City of Phoenix, 68 Ariz. 124, 202 P. 2d 201, 206.
In considering whether a common carrier is liable to a passenger injured in its bus on the ground of its driver’s negligence, the court measures the action of of the driver, not by his duty to other motorists on the highway, but by his duty to exercise the highest degree of care and skill for the passenger’s safety consistent with the practical operation of the bus. Dilley v. Baltimore Transit Co., 183 Md. 557, 39 A. 2d 469, 155 A. L. R. 627.
First, the testimony in this case is conflicting. The established rule is that the trial court resolves all conflicts in the evidence in favor of the plaintiff and assumes the truth of all evidence and all inferences that may naturally be deduced therefrom which tend to support the plaintiff’s right to recover. Heffner v. Admiral Taxi Service, 196 Md. 465, 77 A. 2d 127. The bus driver in this case stated that he was only a few feet from the intersection when he saw that the automobile was not going to stop. On the other hand, Koppenhaver testified that, when he reached 33rd Street, he did not see any car coming except the bus which was “just coming up over the hill” near the Eastern High School Stadium about a block and a half away. He declared that the bus was so far away that he thought he had ample time to cross the street safely. He further testified that when he reached the area of the grass plot, he looked again to the right and saw the bus at a point near the sign in front of the High School. He testified that he started across the eastbound lane, but his engine stalled and his automobile came to a stop when the front bumper was south of the south curb of the street. He *281said that he tried twice to start the motor just before the bus crashed into his automobile.
I think there was room for an inference that the bus driver could have seen danger ahead, just as Mrs. Helen Nieberding, one of the passengers, did. Mrs. Nieberding was sitting on the left side of the bus near the front. She stated that she noticed that the man ahead (Koppenhaver) “had trouble with his car or something.” I think an inference of negligence on the part of the bus driver might be drawn from the fact that this passenger, who was a witness for the transit company, indicated that the danger of a collision was so apparent that she moved from the window and held the nearest rail, whereas the bus driver, who was charged with the duty to exercise the highest degree of care and skill to safeguard the lives of the passengers, did not see any danger. I think the jury could properly find that, if the automobile had stopped, as Koppenhaver swore it did, the bus driver could have seen the automobile in time to avert a collision. It was broad daylight and the atmosphere was clear. The bus driver had an unobstructed view of the automobile for a considerable distance. Thus I think it could be rationally inferred that the bus driver failed to steer the bus carefully when he could easily have seen the automobile.
Secondly, I think the jury could properly find that the bus driver was negligent in swerving for some reason to the right. It is true that there was testimony that the automobile did not stop. But Koppenhaver testified that the engine stopped when he was in the eastbound traffic lane, and a part of his automobile was beyond the eastbound lane when it came to a stop. The eastbound lane is nearly 25 feet wide. If the bus driver had turned slightly to the left, instead of turning to the right, he might have avoided the accident.