238 Minn. 283 | Minn. | 1953
Plaintiff had a verdict, and the court granted defendant judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment.
County highway No. 1 in Goodhue county runs east and west.
Highway No. 1 is a gravel and crushed-rock road with a driving surface 27 feet wide. In the area involved here it is practically straight. Swenberg road is a poor road with very little gravel on it with a downgrade to No. 1. Plaintiff was driving on No. 1 on the right-hand side going west at a speed of 50 to 55 miles an hour. He saw the defendant’s truck coming down the Swenberg road from the right when it was 200 feet from the intersection, traveling at about 35 miles per hour. Plaintiff was then about 300 feet from the intersection. He was thoroughly familiar with the intersection. There was nothing to obscure his view, and he watched defendant’s truck continuously. When he first saw it, he was not sure what direction it was going to turn but later determined that he was going to turn toward the east. When defendant’s truck was about 50 feet from the intersection coming down the grade and moving forward at a reduced speed (15 miles per hour at 25 feet from the intersection), plaintiff thought he was going to stop although there was no stop sign there. Defendant’s driver testified that when he was about 12 feet from the intersection he was driving between 10 and 20 miles an hour, so there is practically no dispute between the parties as to the speed the defendant’s truck was approaching the intersection. Plaintiff became aware that the truck was not going to stop but was going to proceed when he was about 150 to 175 feet
Upon this evidence the trial court directed judgment for the defendant notwithstanding the verdict on the ground of contributory negligence. The only question presented in this case is whether plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.
Where one road opens into another only on one side, there is a. space common to both roads, even at a 45°-angle junction, and the right-of-way rules apply. The direction in which the vehicles "travel at such an intersection causes the paths of such vehicles to conflict. Holman v. Ivins, 150 Minn. 285, 184 N. W. 1026, 21 A. L. R. 964; Chapman v. Dorsey, 235 Minn. 25, 49 N. W. (2d) 4.
In Bellman v. Posnick, 233 Minn. 268, 46 N. W. (2d) 475, we held that, where plaintiff’s own testimony disclosed that he entered an intersection only a split second ahead of the driver on his right and there was no evidence that the other driver was traveling
Furthermore, in this case we have been unable to spell out any negligence on the part of defendant’s driver that proximately contributed to the accident.
Affirmed.