Pitcher v. Daugherty

Shehan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. John N. Daugherty, the appellee, sued John W. Pitcher, and his wife, for damages growing out of a collision between plaintiff’s motorcycle and defendants’ automobile, on the public road leading from Easton to Dover Bridge (which spans the Choptank River), and passes the police sub-station which is located about four miles from Easton. The principal question presented by the record arises out of a ruling of the lower court on a prayer to withdraw the case from the consideration of the jury, and to direct a verdict for the defendants. The lower court refused to grant this instruction, and, from a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the defendant appealed.

There was evidence in the case tending to prove these facts. Daugherty, an officer of the Maryland State Police, was proceeding on his motorcycle from Easton towards the police sub-station. The defendants were proceeding over the same road from Dover Bridge towards Easton. They were both approaching a curve on that road and driving in opposite directions, but the defendants’ car had passed the curve when the collision occurred.

As Daugherty approached the curve he was driving at about forty miles per hour on his right side ¹⁴⁷ of the road, and between three and four feet from its extreme edge, on the south side. As he approached the curve he decreased his speed and applied his brakes. He then observed a car coming towards him on his side of the road, and, when the car drew closer, noted that the operator’s head was turned in a northerly direction, looking towards an airport. He had previously to that applied his brakes and sounded his horn, but defendants’ auto continued to come towards him on his side of the road at such an angle that he saw that, unless one or the other changed his course, there would be a head-on collision, so he immediately swerved his motorcycle to the left to avoid the danger, but, as he swerved to the left, the appellants’ car, apparently, did the same thing, and they collided.

The front of his motorcycle hit the left front fender of the defendants’ car. Going east before the curve begins, the road is macadam, but where it approaches the curve there is a concrete apron. The macadam section of the road is about sixteen feet before you get to the concrete apron. The appellee had just got on the concrete apron when he observed defendants’ car, which was then rounding the curve.

His motorcycle was about three or four feet from the south edge of the road. He then immediately applied his brakes and sounded his horn. The car continued on appellee’s side of the road around the curve, cutting in to the left all the time. The point of the impact was about twelve to fifteen feet from the south edge of the road, but still on appellee’s side, of the road.

On cross-examination the appellee further testified that: “Q. Didn’t you say that the point of impact was twelve to fifteen feet from the south side of the road? A. Yes. Q. You guided your machine from this point (indicating) three to four feet from the south side of the road, to the point of impact, twelve to fifteen feet away from the south side of the road, did you not? A. No, sir.

That is not the way it happened. Q. Well, then, how did your machine get twelve to fifteen feet away from the south side of the road, if you didn’t steer it ¹⁴⁸ there yourself ? A. As I stated, I was coming into there —I saw the Reverend’s car come around the curve. Q. Yes?

A. I immediately applied my brakes and sounded my horn and continued on a straight course. When I saw that my avenue of escape would be cut off, and the Reverend looked as if his car were going to continue on across to the left-hand side, and more than likely crash, then I swerved my motorcycle to the left immediately, and that is when the accident occurred.” The road at that point turns at approximately a right angle, and the southwest corner of the intersection is materially cut back and a concrete shoulder or extension is laid down, twenty-one feet in width at the turn and extending for a considerable distance each way from the curve, and diminishing in width until it comes to points at each end of the concrete construction. The road on the north side seems to have been materially widened, so that at its greatest width at the turn it is seventy-eight feet. Upon cross-examination one witness, Peroutka, without objection, made this statement: “Do you think that is a dangerous curve?

A. No, sir, not since it has been widened and that concrete shoulder had. Q. Do you not regard forty miles