Court Opinion

ID: 9859071
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 18:38:30.654851+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:05:58.411185
License: Public Domain

Boberds, J.,
Dissenting.
The wrong person brought tbis suit. Plaintiff should have been defendant. The case was tried out on the issue whether or not Snowden gave a left-turn signal.
*677Plaintiff introduced two, and only two, witnesses on that question — herself and Newell.
She testified she passed Newell and came back into the east, or right, lane of the road and was traveling directly behind the Snowden car; that he gave no signal; that she pulled to the left to pass him. Her statement that Snow-den gave no signal is the only testimony in this record that he did not do so. She, of course, was very much interested in the outcome of the lawsuit, and her testimony is greatly weakened by two factual situations: First, the testimony proves, and pictures disclose, that there was a concrete bridge leading off the main highway to the road running to the left, visible to motorists going in both directions on Highway 45. Mrs. Webb admitted she saw that Snowden was slowing down and, as a reasonable person, she might have anticipated he was going to turn to the left. In addition, to show the unreliability of her testimony, when asked whether she blew her horn as a warning to Snowden she was going to pass him, she said, “Well, I just blew the horn, and I don’t know whether it was a long blow, or just two or three little ones. I imagine it was a long blow. ” Boiled down this means she does not know whether she blew the horn or not.
Newell testified he was driving north and Mrs. Webb passed him when he was three hundred yards south of the Snowden car; she cut back into the east lane some sixty feet ahead of him. He admitted he could not see the Snowden car after she got back into the lane ahead of him. He did not know, and did not purport to say, whether Snowden gave a left-turn signal or not. He simply said he did not see any. He did say that he never heard Mrs. Webb blow her horn after she passed him.
That was the testimony of plaintiff on the crucial question whether Snowden gave a left-turn signal.
This is the testimony on behalf of defendant on whether or not the signal was given. There were five men in the *678Snowden car. All of them testified. It is not shown that any of them, other than Snowden himself, had any interest whatever in the outcome of this litigation.
C. E. Tolbert testified he was a carpenter and lived in Meridian. He and Jackson and Hall were on the back seat of the Snowden car. Witness was sitting directly behind Snowden, the driver. He said that Snowden put-his left hand outside the left window and gave a proper turn signal some sixty feet before getting to the turn-off. The left window was down; that he continued to give this signal for a distance from the witness stand to the back end of the courthouse in Meridian. In the meantime Snowden was gradually slowing down and was going about ten miles per hour as he approached the turn-off. He said Mrs. Webb was running about sixty miles per hour as she undertook to pass the Snowden car. She struck the Snowden car on the left thereof.
Jackson was riding in the middle on the back seat. He said Snowden was driving about forty miles per hour until he got to within about 200 feet of the turn-off; that he put his left hand out the window and continued to give a left-turn signal, slowing down to ten miles per hour as he approached the turn-off; that the Webb car struck the left side of the Snowden car just as Snowden was beginning to turn. He didn’t estimate the speed of the Webb car but did say it continued some 150 feet north after the collision.
Hall was on the right side of the back seat. He saw Snowden give the turn signal by placing his hand out the left front window. He then looked back through the rear view window and saw a car approaching in the same lane some distance back; that the reason he looked back was because he saw Snowden give the turn signal. He said Snowden had slowed to ten miles per hour and was about to turn when the accident occurred. He estimated Mrs. Webb was running about 75 miles per hour when she tried to pass the Snowden car.
*679Charles Craven was riding on the right of the front seat. In other words, he was sitting beside Snowden. He operated a service station in Meridian. He said he was familiar with automobiles. He testified Snowden began to give the turn signal 150 feet before reaching the turn-off and he continued to slow down and give the signal until he reached the turn-off and had to pull his left hand in to shift the gears of his car for the turn. He said he saw a car behind the Snowden car when Snowden began to give the turn signal; that the rear car was some two hundred yards behind the Snowden car. He could not tell how fast the car was running, but as the Webb ear collided with the Snowden car he estimated the speed of the Webb car to be around 75 miles per hour.
Snowden testified he was driving about 35 miles per hour; that about 100 to 150 feet before reaching the turnoff he put out his left hand and gave a proper turn signal; that he gradually slowed down reducing his speed to some 5 miles per hour as he approached the turn-off; that he continued to give the signal until it was necessary to pull in his hand to aid in shifting the gears into second gear to make his turn; that he saw a car approaching from the rear; that it was around two city blocks back when he began to give his signal; that he did not then know, and could not tell, how fast it was running; that the Webb car hit the left rear and left side of his car; that it was then running some 70 miles per hour. Snow-den said he had been driving an automobile for many years; that he had had much experience in driving jeeps during the Second World War.
Snowden put on other witnesses who were nearby the scene of the accident, whose testimony was favorable to his contention, but I deem it unnecessary to set it out.
It will be noted that all of defendant’s witnesses, whose testimony is set out above, were right in the car with Snowden. They had reason to note his actions and were in position to see and know the facts. Plaintiff did not attack the credibility of any one of them.
*680July 3, 1953
35 Adv. S. 13
65 So. 2d 839
Mrs. Webb lived in Jackson, Tennessee. Sbe testified sbe bad been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Sbe bad driven all tbe nigbt before. Sbe bad not slept during that night except abont two hours in tbe car some 25 miles south of Meridian. Sbe was behind time on her return to her husband and three children. Sbe was in tbe car alone. This combination of circumstances has some bearing upon her urge to pass tbe other motorist ahead of her and her failure to see, if sbe did fail to see, tbe signal given by Snowden.
It does seem to tbe writer that tbe verdict in this case was against tbe great weight of tbe evidence.