16 N.W.2d 170 | Minn. | 1944
About 1:15, Keough returned to the scene to pick up the trailer, unaware of the fact that it had been moved ahead during his short absence. In approaching the loading platform, he drove directly behind another heavy truck down a steep driveway at right angles *368 to the parked trailer and did not observe the presence of the carpenters behind the trailer, their position being at least partially hidden by bales of paper piled along the side of the driveway. He swung his tractor ahead of the trailer and then, in the process of hitching the two vehicles together, backed into the trailer, causing it to move backward. Dahl was thereby caught between the platform and trailer and suffered fatal injuries. While backing his tractor into the trailer, Keough concentrated his attention upon that operation, making his observations through the rear window rather than the left window of the truck.
These are the basic facts, which, in the interest of brevity, we have not elaborated upon. They amply sustain the verdict for defendants upon the ground of want of negligence on Keough's part, as well as upon the ground of contributory negligence on decedent's part. No other questions being presented, an affirmance necessarily follows.
So ordered. *369