Dunn v. Eitel

¹⁸⁸ Per Curiam. The appellant, Mrs. Dunn, injured when struck by an automobile while crossing Harford Avenue in Baltimore, seeks to escape the effect of the jury’s verdict against her by arguing here that the trial court erred, to her prejudice, in not instructing the jury that the doctrine of last clear chance was applicable. Mrs. Dunn’s version of the accident is that as she was crossing Harford Avenue from east to west (not in the pedestrian walk), she was struck by the automobile of the defendant coming north as she stood momentarily on the yellow center line facing north with her hand up to stop southbound traffic. Her testimony was that when she started across the street, an automobile (never identified as that of the defendant) was some two hundred feet away; and when she was part of the way across, with time to safely reach the center line, it was still some one hundred to one hundred fifty feet away.

She did not look again to' the south. She heard a horn and almost instantly thereafter was struck. All other witnesses, including the appellee, a disinterested spectator, and (by inference from where a scuff mark and the prostrate victim were found by him) the investigating police officer, place the point of impact on or near the white line marking the east side of the left hand northbound lane. The appellee and the disinterested spectator say Mrs. Dunn walked into the automobile.

The appellee says he saw traffic ahead of him swinging from the right hand northbound lane into the left hand lane and he followed, suspecting an obstruction ahead in the right lane. When he was some fifty feet from Mrs. Dunn, he saw her for the first time, standing still. He would have cleared her had she remained still. Instead, at the last second, she walked into the car.

It is clear that there was no testimony which would have justified an instruction as to last clear chance. Any negligence of the motorist was