Matthews v. State ex rel. Hoffman

Marbury, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. On December 7, 1959, James William Hoffman (herein sometimes referred to as the decedent) was killed as the result of an accident which occurred at the intersection of State Route 97 and the Hughes Shop Road, in Carroll County, Maryland. He was employed as a laborer by the State Roads Commission. On that date at about 9:20 a. m. he was working as a helper, riding on a Roads Commission truck, driven by Charles Ernest Blacksten, engaged in plowing snow on State Route 97, which connects Westminster with Taney town, and runs in an easterly-westerly direction.

The State truck was of one and one-half ton capacity, with metal body, loaded with salt and equipped with a snow plow in front, a spreader hitched to its rear, and an amber blinking warning light, double faced, with a glass lens about eight inches in diameter. ¹⁵⁷ Shortly before the accident the Roads truck had stopped in the Hughes Shop Road, facing Route 97, when an automobile driven by one Haifley proceeding in an easterly direction on Route 97, skidded at the intersection and landed in a snow bank on the south side. He was unable to extricate his automobile and enlisted the aid of the State Roads employees to get his vehicle back on the road. The Roads truck was backed in close to the front of Haifley’s car for the purpose of towing it onto the roadway. Flaifley attached a chain to the front of his automobile and the decedent hooked the other end of the chain to a hitch on the Roads truck located beside the spreader on the rear of the truck.

It was at this time that a dual wheel, two ton, stake body truck, loaded with partially filled gas bottles, weighing over three tons, owned by the appellant Francis S. K. Matthews, and driven by his employee, William Arthur Chase, the other appellant, proceeding in an easterly direction on Route 97 came over the crest of a hill 525 feet west of the scene of the accident, and while proceeding down an incline skidded slantwise so that the right portion of the Matthews truck collided with the spreader and left rear end of the Roads truck, crushing Hoffman between the two trucks. According to the witnesses who saw the decedent immediately prior to the accident he was facing East with his back to the West at the chain connecting the two vehicles. It had snowed a day or two prior to the accident and Route 97 had been plowed, resulting in a snow bank of one or two feet high just off the macadam surface on each side of the road. At the time of the accident it was snowing lightly.

From the crest 525 feet west of the accident to the scene of the accident and eastwardly snow was being blown across the road by a wind blowing south to north. This was a “hard” but a “puffy” wind. There were about one or two inches of slushy snow on the surface of the road, and it was slippery. All witnesses testified that visibility was poor.

The amber blinker lights were on all during this time and showed in both directions. Matthews’ vehicle was not equipped with snow tires, had no chains on the tires, and none in the truck. Chase, the driver of the truck, testified that the first thing he saw when ¹⁵⁸ he got “middleways” of the hill was a “tractor