321 Mass. 368 | Mass. | 1947
The plaintiff was hurt while riding as an invited guest in an automobile operated by the defendant. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant’s one exception, which was to the denial of his motion for a directed verdict in his favor, presents the issue whether the accident was caused by his gross negligence.
We summarize the evidence most favorable to the plaintiff: The plaintiff was injured after 11:45 p.m. on Christmas eve, 1940,. on a public way in that part of West Boylston known as Oakdale, while on the way to attend a midnight mass at a church in Oakdale. She was seated on the front seat, and a Miss O’Toole (who later married the defendant) was seated between the plaintiff and the defendant. There were no other passengers. It was a clear, dry night. The automobile, followed by another automobile containing friends and driven by one Foley, had proceeded from the plaintiff’s house in Clinton to Lancaster, and had
Where, as here, there is ample evidence of the defendant’s negligence, it often is largely a matter of opinion whether the evidence discloses gross negligence. Quinlivan v. Taylor, 298 Mass. 138, 140. This is apt to be true of any question involving a difference of degree. And the distinction between ordinary negligence and gross negligence is one of degree. Altman v. Aronson, 231 Mass. 588, 591-592. Cook v. Cole, 273 Mass. 557, 561. Before reaching the road on which the accident occurred, the defendant on several occasions had been cautioned as to speed, and, although he invariably complied, he had as invariably resumed a faster rate. For more than a mile before striking the pole, the defendant had been driving in the dark" at an uninterrupted rate of speed of nearly a mile a minute over an unlighted road containing numerous curves, and “all the time all the way” he had been looking in the mirror trying to watch the headlights of the automobile which was following. We think that the jury could have found that there was, on the part of the defendant, that deliberate inattention to the operation of the automobile which is one of the common indicia of gross negligence. See Lynch v. Springfield Safe Deposit & Trust Co. 294 Mass. 170, 172. We also are of opinion that the jury could have found that this unbroken inattention was the reason for the complete failure to observe the long curve to the left in season to enable him to make the turn. Kirby v. Keating, 271 Mass. 390. Meeney v. Doyle, 276 Mass. 218. Green v. Hoffarth, 277 Mass. 508, 516. Dow v. Lipsitz, 283 Mass. 132. Crowley v. Fisher, 284 Mass. 205. Copeland v. Russell, 290 Mass. 542. Cycz v. Dugal, 295 Mass. 417. Koufman v. Feinberg, 298 Mass. 270. Picarello v. Rodakis, 299 Mass. 33. Granger v. Lovely, 302 Mass. 504. Connell v. Harrington, 312 Mass. 436. In this
We need not determine whether there were present any of the other common indicia of gross negligence. But see Channon v. Lynch, 292 Mass. 316; Dean v. Bolduc, 296 Mass. 15, Goodwin v. Walton, 298 Mass. 451; Dombrowski v. Gedman, 299 Mass. 87.
Exceptions overruled.