Link v. Watts

Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The plaintiff in this case was injured when an automobile driven by her son collided with one owned and operated by the defendant at or near the intersection of Park Heights Avenue and Slade Avenue in the suburbs of Baltimore. The occupants of the two cars, who were the only witnesses, differed widely as to the place and circumstances of the collision. According to the testimony on the part of the plaintiff, the car in which she was riding, at a moderate speed, southwardly on the west side of Park Heights Avenue, was about to enter the area, of its intersection with Slade Avenue, when the defendant’s car, proceeding eastwardly on the north side of that thoroughfare, turned northwardly into Park Heights Avenue to the left of the central point of the intersection, and struck the automobile carrying the plaintiff on its left side.

As described by the defendant and a guest in her automobile, the accident happened as the defendant turned her car to the north on the eastern side of Park Heights Avenue after passing beyond and to the right of the point where the center lines of the avenues intersect. The defendant testified that when the impact occurred the car driven by the plaintiff’s son was heading southwardly and was partly on the eastern half of Park Heights Avenue, and that the defendant’s car was struck on the left rear fender. The verdict was in favor of the defendant, and the plaintiff has appealed from the resulting judgment. ¹⁷⁰ It is contended that the issue was confused, and the plaintiff’s theory of the case ignored, by an instruction, granted at the defendant’s request, that under the motor vehicle law of Maryland, automobiles approaching from the right shall have the right of way at intersecting roads, and if the jury believed from the evidence that the automobile of the defendant was approaching to the right of the one in which the plaintiff was riding “and was as close or closer to the intersection as plaintiff’s automobile was,” then the plaintiff’s automobile, under the law, “should have yielded the right of way to the defendant,” and the verdict should be for the defendant, unless the jury believed from the evidence that the defendant saw, or by the exercise of reasonable care could have seen, the automobile of the plaintiff, and