59 Ind. App. 565 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1915
This is a suit for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been received on account of negligence of appellant. The case was tried on an amended complaint in two paragraphs against appellant and the Gary and Interurban Railway Company, which was answered by a general denial. At the close of the evidence the court directed a verdict for the railway company. The jury returned a verdict for $500 against appellant and also answered several interrogatories. The error assigned and relied on for reversal of the judgment is the action of the court in overruling appellant’s motion for judgment on the answers to the interrogatories notwithstanding the general verdict.
In answer to the interrogatories the jury found in substance that at the time he received his injuries, appellee was a passenger in an automobile traveling north on Broadway in the city of Gary; that the point where he-received his injuries was a built-up business portion of the city, which extended from the Wabash tracks south to Eleventh avenue, a distance of about 1,200 feet; that the automobile was moving at a rate of speed of about eighteen miles per hour ; that appellee was riding in the back seat and there was nothing to prevent conversation between him and the chauffeur; that at no time before the accident did appellee inform the chauffeur that he desired him to slacken his speed; that appellee’s injuries were sustained because of the high speed and reckless driving of the automobile in which he was riding; that the brick pile with which the automobile collided was sufficiently lighted by an electric light in the vicinity to make it plainly visible for 100 feet south thereof, which light was thirty-nine feet from the brick pile; that there were lights burning on the automobile at the time of the accident; that it was dark when the automobile collided with the brick pile and .the space between the brick pile and the east curb was seventeen feet.
Appellant relies mainly on the cases of City of Vincennes v. Thuis (1902), 28 Ind. App. 523, 63 N. E. 315, and Flynn v. Chicago City R. Co. (1911), 250 Ill. 460, 95 N. E. 449. The facts of these cases are quite different from those of the case at bar. In the first case the injured person and the driver who were both intoxicated were seated by the side of each other in a buggy drawn by one horse, which was driven, rapidly in the nighttime over an unimproved street which was known to be obstructed, and the injury resulted from a collision with a hydrant located at a proper place on the street. The court held that the driver'
. The opinion reviews the decisions on the subject and when the law as therein declared is applied to the facts of this ease it sustains the trial court in overruling appellant’s motion for judgment on the answers of the jury to the interrogatories. Judgment affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 108 N. E. 876. As to concurrent negligence, see 16 Am. St. 250. On the effect of concurring negligence of third person on the liability of one sued for negligently causing injury, see 17 L. R. A. 33. As to imputed or contributory negligence of passenger riding in automobile driven by another precluding 'recovery against third person for injury, see L. R. A. 1915 B 953. Contributory negligence of driver as imputable to occupant of vehicle, see 3 Ann. Cas. 703; 9 Ann. Cas. 408. See, also, under (1) 38 Cyc. 1929; (2) 38 Cyc. 1928; (3) 29 Cyc. 487; (4) 29 Cyc. 657.