273 Mass. 24 | Mass. | 1930
This is an action of tort for damages to the plaintiff’s automobile resulting from a collision. It was tried with four cross actions, two of which were for personal injuries, one for medical expenses and one for damages to the defendant’s motor vehicle caused by the same collision. The jury returned verdicts for the defendant Jones in the cross actions and for the plaintiff in this action. The defendant herein excepted to the denial of his motion for a directed verdict based solely on the ground that as matter of law the plaintiff’s negligence was a contributing cause of the accident. He relied in support of this contention upon the testimony of the plaintiff. The jury were permitted to view the premises.
On February 9, 1929, described as “ythe worst driving day of the winter,” the plaintiff was operating a sedan on a highway between Westminster and Gardner. Much sleet, rain and snow were falling and freezing, and at the time of the accident a mist was in the air. The automatic windshield wiper on the plaintiff’s automobile was working but would not keep the windshield clear. When within about two and one-half miles from the place of the accident the plaintiff stopped and cleaned his windshield, and it was clear at the time of the collision. At the place of the accident there is a curve in the road, and the plaintiff observed the defendant’s truck coming from the opposite direction about three hundred fifty to four hundred feet away when about to enter upon the curve. He saw it turn abruptly, cutting the corner diagonally, so that before the accident the truck was on its left side of the road and the left wheels of the plaintiff’s automobile were about three feet from the white line on the road and on the plaintiff’s right hand side of it. The plaintiff had been going at the rate of twenty to
Negligence of the defendant would not relieve the plaintiff from his duty to exercise reasonable care for his own safety, Sutherland v. Caruso, 258 Mass. 513, 515, but upon
Exceptions overruled.