{ "id": 8614414, "name": "MILTON HOBBS v. MARVIN T. DREWER and EDDIE N. JOHNSON", "name_abbreviation": "Hobbs v. Drewer", "decision_date": "1946-02-27", "docket_number": "", "first_page": "146", "last_page": "149", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "226 N.C. 146" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C.", "id": 9292, "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "223 N. C., 770", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8617272 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/223/0770-01" ] }, { "cite": "224 N. C., 211", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8597672 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/224/0211-01" ] }, { "cite": "223 N. C., 124", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8600573 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/223/0124-01" ] }, { "cite": "140 S. E., 598", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "194 N. C., 656", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8615578 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/194/0656-01" ] }, { "cite": "189 S. E., 499", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "211 N. C., 192", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8625499 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/211/0192-01" ] }, { "cite": "219 N. C., 205", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8621817 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/219/0205-01" ] }, { "cite": "200 S. E., 382", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "214 N. C., 689", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8632740 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/214/0689-01" ] }, { "cite": "198 S. E., 637", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "214 N. C., 188", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8629367 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/214/0188-01" ] }, { "cite": "224 N. C., 688", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8612616 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/224/0688-01" ] }, { "cite": "225 N. C., 625", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8615334 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/225/0625-01" ] }, { "cite": "158 S. E., 840", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "201 N. C., 51", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8622186 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/201/0051-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 508, "char_count": 9602, "ocr_confidence": 0.446, "pagerank": { "raw": 2.549700726048532e-07, "percentile": 0.8142131066328577 }, "sha256": "a237f22075cf972a4f53c6619e231c002935d2bdeaf46247da9b389564574fce", "simhash": "1:c92075321c603838", "word_count": 1677 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T21:52:42.041183+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [], "parties": [ "MILTON HOBBS v. MARVIN T. DREWER and EDDIE N. JOHNSON." ], "opinions": [ { "text": "Devin, J.\nThe defendants\u2019 appeal presents two principal questions: (1) \"Were defendants entitled to the allowance of their motion for judgment of nonsuit or directed verdict, and (2) passing that, did the court err in the instructions to the jury on the issue of contributory negligence, entitling defendants to a new trial?\n1. It was urged by defendants that the plaintiff, being familiar with the road and observing on the bridge an approaching motor vehicle the width and type of which he did not know, and aware that his own bus was 7% feet wide, should have paused to permit the truck to emerge from the bridge before entering and attempting a passage with clearance so limited, and that his failure so to do was a proximate contributing cause of the injury to his bus.\nHowever, it will be noted that the width of the roadway on the bridge was one foot wider than the paved surface of the highway leading to the bridge, and hence, if plaintiff could proceed at all on the paved highway when meeting a motor vehicle, the question of ordinary prudence on his part would not be foreclosed by his admission that he continued to drive at moderate speed onto the bridge where the road was level and straight and the known clearance of the bridge seventeen feet, in the absence of anything to put him on notice that the width or other characteristic of the approaching vehicle was such as to import danger. Furthermore, according to plaintiff\u2019s evidence, if each vehicle continued on its proper side of the roadway on the bridge, there was sufficient clearance for them to pass in safety, and he contends he had the right to assume that the oncoming vehicle would remain-on its right side of the road. Shirley v. Ayers, 201 N. C., 51, 158 S. E., 840; Cummins v. Fruit Co., 225 N. C., 625. Plaintiff testified he knew there was room to pass a truck eight feet wide (the maximum under Gr. S., 20-116), and that he did not know the approaching vehicle was a truck until just before he was struck. \u201cI discovered it was a truck when I saw that red body (of the truck) coming into me. I did not have time to put on my brakes.\u201d\nUnder these circumstances, and considering the evidence for the purpose of this motion in the light most favorable for the plaintiff, we are unable to say that as a matter of law contributory negligence was made conclusively to appear. It was said in Atkins v. Transportation Co., 224 N. C., 688, 32 S. E. (2d), 209 : \u201cA judgment of involuntary nonsuit on the grounds of contributory negligence will not be sustained or directed unless the evidence is so clear on that issue that no other conclusion seems permissible.\u201d See also Cole v. Koonce, 214 N. C., 188, 198 S. E., 637, and Manheim v. Taxi Corp., 214 N. C., 689, 200 S. E., 382. \u201cAs the burden of proof upon the issue of contributory negligence was upon defendants, it is the settled rule in this jurisdiction that judgment of nonsuit on this ground can be rendered only when a single inference, leading to that conclusion, can be drawn from the evidence.\u201d Hampton v. Hawkins, 219 N. C., 205, 13 S. E. (2d), 227; Hayes v. Tel. Co., 211 N. C., 192, 189 S. E., 499. On this motion the evidence is to be considered in accord with the rule stated in Harrison v. R. R., 194 N. C., 656, 140 S. E., 598, and Gregory v. Ins. Co., 223 N. C., 124, 25 S. E. (2d), 398.\nWe tbink it was a matter for tbe jury, and that tbe ruling of tbe court in this respect should be upheld.\n2. Tbe defendants assign error in tbe following instruction to tbe jury on tbe issue of contributory negligence: \u201cTbe burden of that issue (tbe second) is on the defendant(s). Before you can answer that issue yes, which means that you find Milton Hobbs is guilty of contributory negligence, as I have explained contributory negligence to be, tbe defendant^) must have offered evidence which satisfies you from the evidence and by its greater weight that Milton Hobbs was guilty of contributory negligence. If you are so satisfied you would answer tbe second issue yes: if you are not so satisfied you would answer it no.\u201d\nTbe defendants insist that tbe trial judge unwittingly restricted their defense on this issue by instructing tbe jury that before they could find the plaintiff chargeable with contributory negligence the defendants must have offered evidence which should satisfy them of this fact, and that tbe jury was thereby precluded from considering plaintiff\u2019s admissions, and the evidence of plaintiff\u2019s witnesses, as well as that elicited on cross-examination, as bearing on this question. On the record before us this is the only instruction given the jury on .this issue. We find nothing to counteract or explain or cure the prejudicial effect of the language used. We are constrained to hold there was error in this instruction. Conley v. Pearce-Young-Angel Co., 224 N. C., 211; S. v. Ellerbe, 223 N. C., 770, 28 S. E. (2d), 519.\nIt is unnecessary to consider tbe other exceptions brought forward in tbe assignments of error as they may not arise on another bearing.\nFor the error pointed out there must be a\nNew trial.", "type": "majority", "author": "Devin, J." } ], "attorneys": [ "John H. Hall for plaintiff, appellee.", "W. A. Worth and J. Kenyon Wilson for defendants, appellants." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "MILTON HOBBS v. MARVIN T. DREWER and EDDIE N. JOHNSON.\n(Filed 27 February, 1946.)\n1. Automobiles \u00a7 18g \u2014 Evidence held not to establish contributory negligence as a matter of law.\nThe accident in suit occurred between defendants\u2019 truck and plaintiff\u2019s bus, traveling in opposite directions, during darkness, just as plaintiff\u2019s bus was entering onto a bridge 60 feet long, with steel sides and traveled portion 17 feet wide, center line marked. Defendants moved for nonsuit and directed verdict on the ground that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in failing to pause to permit the truck to emerge from the bridge before he entered thereon. The evidence considered in the light most favorable to plaintiff tended to show that the roadway on the bridge was one foot wider than the paved surface of the highway leading to- the bridge, that he knew there was room for him to pass a truck 8 feet wide (G. S., 20-116), that he was traveling on Ms right at a moderate speed, that if each vehicle continued on its proper side there was sufficient clearance for them to pass in safety, and that plaintiff did not know the approaching vehicle was a truck until just before he was struck. Held,: Contributory negligence was not made conclusively to appear, and defendants\u2019 motions were properly denied.\n2. Negligence \u00a7 19b\u2014\nInvoluntary nonsuit on the issue of contributory negligence is proper only when that conclusion is the only one which can be reasonably drawn from plaintiff\u2019s evidence, without considering defendant\u2019s evidence except in so far as it explains plaintiff\u2019s evidence and is not in conflict therewith.\n3. Negligence \u00a7 20: Trial \u00a7 29b\u2014\nAn instruction that defendants must have offered evidence satisfying the jury by its greater weight that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in order for the jury to answer that issue in the affirmative must be held for reversible error in depriving defendants of their right to have plaintiff\u2019s admissions and the testimony of plaintiff\u2019s witnesses, as well as that elicited on cross-examination, considered by the jury on the issue.\nAppeal by defendants from Hams, J., at November Term, 1945, of Gates. New trial.\nThis was an action to recover damages for injury to plaintiff\u2019s bus resulting from collision witb defendants\u2019 motor truck. The vehicles were traveling in opposite directions, and the collision occurred on or near the south end of a two-way bridge, on State Highway 17, in Camden County. The bridge was 60 feet long with the traveled portion 17 feet wide, center line marked. The paved surface of the highway leading to the bridge was 16 feet wide, straight and level. The plaintiff\u2019s bus was proceeding north and the defendants\u2019 truck-south. It was early in the morning and yet dark.\nPlaintiff offered evidence tending to show that he was driving his bus at the rate of 15 miles per hour on his proper side of the highway, and that defendants\u2019 truck was being operated by defendants\u2019 driver at 40 miles per hour, with undimmed lights, and that at the time of and immediately before the collision the truck was being driven two feet to the left of and over the center of the roadway. The bus was in the act of entering the bridge when struck by the truck and its side badly injured. The left front of the truck struck the left side of the bus behind the driver\u2019s seat. The steel sides of the bridge were dented by the bodies of the truck and bus, as result of the collision.\nDefendants\u2019 evidence, on the other hand, tended to show the truck was proceeding at 30 to 35 miles per hour, on its right side of the roadway, with proper lights, and that it was struck by plaintiff\u2019s bus. Plaintiff was familiar with the road and bridge. Defendants pleaded the negligence of plaintiff as a bar to his action and as the basis for counterclaim for damages for injury to defendants\u2019 truck. It was contended that plaintiff should have seen that he was meeting a large truck on a narrow bridge with steel sides and that the vehicles would have to pass so close to each other as to constitute a potential hazard, and hence plaintiff should have waited for defendants\u2019 truck to pass before entering on the bridge.\nMotions for judgment of nonsuit, and directed verdict were denied.\nIssues of negligence, contributory negligence and damage were submitted to the jury, and answered in favor of the plaintiff. From judgment on the verdict defendants appealed.\nJohn H. Hall for plaintiff, appellee.\nW. A. Worth and J. Kenyon Wilson for defendants, appellants." }, "file_name": "0146-01", "first_page_order": 194, "last_page_order": 197 }