295 P. 916 | Colo. | 1931
IN an automobile damage suit, defendants in error, defendants below, had judgment upon a verdict directed by the district court which plaintiff in error, plaintiff below, here seeks to review.
The record discloses that plaintiff was driving his Ford automobile south on the Montrose-Ouray highway. Defendant, Oris DeJulio, a minor, was driving a Dodge car owned by his father, east on the Dave Wood road, which terminated at the intersection of the two roads, intending to travel northward to Montrose on the first mentioned road. Plaintiff testified that he saw defendants' car approaching from his right approximately 150 feet from said intersection at a time when he was 60 feet therefrom, defendants' car then being driven at an excessive rate of speed and on the wrong and north side of the Dave Wood road, plaintiff's car being driven at the rate of 15 miles per hour. Plaintiff further testified that his brakes were in good condition and that he had ample time to stop, but instead of so doing, he turned to the left and on the wrong side of the Montrose-Ouray road where the accident occurred at a point just south of the northerly line of the Dave Wood road extended and on the extreme easterly side of the Montrose-Ouray highway. Under these circumstances, the court held the plaintiff guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law and directed the verdict which is here questioned.
[1] The plaintiff by his own testimony was clearly guilty of contributory negligence and the facts being undisputed, it became the duty of the court to so hold as a matter of law. Fairmount Cemetery Ass'n v. Davis,
[2] St. Mary's Academy v. Newhagen,
"It is claimed that she was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. The claim is right. InLivingston v. Barney,
[3] Plaintiff's testimony in this case shows that he was guilty of contributory negligence in a greater degree than the plaintiff in the Newhagen case, because he turned his car to the left and on the wrong side of the road directly in the path of defendant's car and deliberately placed himself in a position where defendant must have violated the rules of the road to have avoided a collision.
Judgment affirmed.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE ADAMS, MR. JUSTICE BUTLER and MR. JUSTICE BURKE concur.