Court Opinion

ID: 9546328
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:27:40.309312+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:16.416121
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J., Dissenting.
I agree that the judgment in favor of plaintiff M & M Livestock Transport Co. should be affirmed, but I cannot agree that plaintiff Baker was not contributively negligent as a matter of law.
Section 530 of the Vehicle Code provides not only that overtaking and passing shall be “completely made without interfering with the safe operation of any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction or any vehicle overtaken,” but that “In every event the overtaking vehicle must return to the right-hand side of the roadway before coming within one hundred feet of any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction.” (Italics added.) Thus, even if “safe operation” *855in the first clause means what a reasonably prudent driver would regard as “safe operation,” the standard of care required by the second clause is not what the reasonably prudent driver would do under the circumstances but what the Legislature has commanded, namely, that the driver of an overtaking vehicle return to the right-hand side of the roadway within the distance prescribed unless prevented from doing so by “ ‘causes or things beyond [his] control . . ” (Ornales v. Wigger, 35 Cal.2d 474, 479 [218 P.2d 531].) Baker did not return to the right hand side of the roadway within the distance prescribed. Nor could he have done so even if his gears had not slipped or if French had not stopped his truck. It is undisputed that those incidents occurred simultaneously with the appearance of defendant’s truck round the curve. The evidence viewed most favorably to Baker clearly shows that, even if the gears had not slipped and French had not stopped, Baker could not have completed the passing maneuver or fallen behind French and thus returned to the right-hand side of the roadway within 100 feet of any vehicle approaching from the opposite direction even at a speed of only 55 miles an hour. (See Veh. Code, § 511.)
To leave to the trier of fact the question whether Baker’s violation of the statute was excused, i.e., whether he could reasonably believe that he could pass without crossing the center line or return to his proper lane without endangering oncoming traffic, is to substitute for the statutory rule the view of the trier of fact as to what constitutes reasonable conduct. (See my concurring opinion in Satterlee v. Orange Glenn School Dist., 29 Cal.2d 581, 594 [177 P.2d 279].)
I find no evidence in the record to support the conclusion that the accident would have occurred even if Baker had not attempted his ill-fated passing maneuver. The evidence clearly shows that Madrid was in control of his truck and was in his proper lane until he rounded the curve, saw Baker’s truck in a position of danger, and applied his brakes in an attempt to avoid the collision. There can be no doubt that Baker’s violation of the statute was a substantial factor in bringing about the collision and was, therefore, a contributing cause thereof.
Spence, J., concurred.