Baker v. Shettle

GRASON, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This case was tried in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County before a judge thereof for damages to a tractor-trailer and the loss of its use, resulting from a collision with an automobile. A verdict was rendered in favor of the defendant, and from judgment thereon the plaintiff appeals. ⁶⁶⁹ The defendant, John F. Shettle, who at the time of the accident was 21 years old, left his father’s home in Towson, on January 16, 1948, at about eight o’clock, driving his father’s Nash automobile, with his sister, who was 15 years old, to go to the Senator Theatre. At the place of the accident York Road is 44 feet wide and can accommodate four lanes of traffic, two northbound and two southbound.

The defendant was driving in the southbound lane to the right of the middle of the road; directly behind him a man by the name of Roberts was following. A southbound car in the westernmost lane was close to the rear of the defendant’s car. The plaintiff was driving his tractor-trailer, loaded with kerosene, north on the York Road, on the east side thereof and in his lane of traffic. A northbound car passed the tractor-trailer when it was opposite to the southern entrance of the Maryland State Teachers College, which is on the West side of the York Road, and without warning turned to the left for the apparent purpose of going into the College grounds.

The defendant swerved his car to the left and struck and damaged the tractor-trailer. The plaintiff testified in the case but called no witnesses. Corporal Bosley, of the Baltimore County police force, testified that when he arrived at the scene of the accident the defendant was incoherent, and had apparently suffered a concussion of the brain. His sister had been thrown out of the car and was lying unconscious near the tractor-trailer.

Both the defendant and his sister were taken to a hospital. Bosley stated there were no skid marks. Bosley interviewed the plaintiff, who told him that a car traveling north passed him at Hillside (which is an avenue that runs east from the York Road and a short distance south of the entrance to the State Teachers College) ; when about fourteen feet ahead of him this car made a sharp left-hand turn into the entrance of the College, in front of the car driven by the defendant, who swerved his car and ran into his tractor-trailer. At the trial the plaintiff denied this and testified ⁶⁷⁰ that the defendant, when at a point about 150 feet north of the accident, running between 40 and 50 miles an hour, passed a southbound car, swerved his car and ran into his tractor-trailer; that there were a number of cars traveling southbound and all stopped in time to avoid hitting the car that turned into the College entrance.

At the traffic hearing he made none of the charges that he testified to, and both he and the defendant were exonerated of violating traffic regulations. He was asked why he did not describe how the accident happened to the officer or to the trial magistrate at the traffic hearing, as he described it at the trial of this case. He answered, “I didn’t broadcast it to anybody”. A statement of what John Melvin Roberts would testify tó, if present, was admitted and forms a part of the record in this case.

Roberts, in his statement, said that he was following the defendant’s car and that he would judge the defendant was traveling about 25 miles per hour. “The car ahead of me was traveling in the' southbound car tracks. All of a sudden the northbound car made a left turn directly in front of the southbound car.- - The southbound car pulled to the left and struck the northbound oil truck about