165 A. 681 | Conn. | 1933
The plaintiff brought this action to recover for injuries suffered by being thrown from an automobile in which he was riding as the guest of the defendant. The jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and the defendant has appealed from the denial of his motion to set that verdict aside. As the accident happened in Massachusetts, the law of that State governs as far as the substantive elements necessary to a recovery are concerned. James v. VonSchuckman,
The jury might reasonably have found the following facts: The plaintiff and defendant were returning from a trip into New York State and were proceeding in a southerly direction from Pittsfield toward Winsted in the town of Otis. A short distance before the accident, the character of the roadway changed to a macadam with a rather smooth surface and this change could be readily seen by the driver of an automobile. It *548 was raining and misty at the time of the accident and the road was slippery. The automobile was coming down an incline toward a thirty degree curve which was visible for a considerable distance before it was reached. The vision of the driver was somewhat obscured by the curve, trees on its inner side, and a rising incline beyond. At the beginning of the curve an unimproved highway led off to the west. The automobile had been proceeding all the way from Pittsfield at a speed of from fifty-five to sixty miles an hour and did not slow down as it went through the village of Otis, despite a warning painted upon the surface of the highway to the north of the village instructing drivers to slow down to twenty miles an hour. As the automobile approached the curve it was going at sixty miles an hour. It was then proceeding upon its left side of the highway, cutting the curve. The plaintiff had, several times after leaving Pittsfield, warned the defendant as to his speed, and a little before the accident told him he had better slow down as they were approaching a curve, but the defendant continued at the same speed. As he came to the curve he applied his brakes slightly, the car skidded and turned around, the door on the side where the plaintiff was sitting opened and he was thrown out. The defendant knew before the accident that the catch to the door was somewhat defective, so that it would at times partially release the door, but it does not appear that the catch had ever before so released the door that it had opened of itself.
Upon these facts, the jury might reasonably have reached the conclusion that the defendant was guilty of gross negligence within the meaning of the rule established in Massachusetts. Manning v. Simpson,supra; Learned v. Hawthorne,
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.