Richards v. Goff

Powers, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The facts in this case are uncomplicated, and the significant facts are uncontroverted. The law which must be applied to those facts requires that we reverse the judgments entered in favor of the plaintiffs below. Suit was filed in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County by James Stephen Goff, a minor, and Harry S. Goff, his father, against Ruth White Richards.

The declaration contained two counts for damages arising out of an automobile-bicycle accident. The first count was for injuries sustained by the minor, and the second count sought to recover the medical expenses incurred by his father. After removal of the case to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, 1 a jury trial was held in that court on 28 and 29 March and 1 April 1974. At the close of the evidence a motion by the defendant for a directed verdict in her favor was denied.

The jury found in favor of the minor plaintiff and his father. From the judgments entered on those ³⁴⁶ verdicts after denial of a motion for judgment n.o.v. or for a new trial, Mrs. Richards appealed. She contends in her appeal that the trial court erred in denying her motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the evidence, and that the court erred in its instructions to the jury in eleven different respects. Since we conclude that the motion for a directed verdict should have been granted, it is unnecessary to consider the instructions.

The evidence showed that all parties lived on Crandall Road, in Anne Arundel County. Crandall Road was a paved county road, 22 feet wide, with no land or center line markings. Shoulders of loose stone and gravel were about four feet wide. The road was about 3/4 of a mile long, running north and south.

At the south end, it intersected Route 258, and from there, going north, it came to a dead end. Mrs. Richards lived in the last house at the north end of Crandall Road. The Goffs lived about 600 to 700 feet to the south, and a family named Schruhl lived about 500 feet south of the Goffs. At this point Crandall Road was straight, and slightly downhill to the south.

The posted speed limit was 30 miles per hour. In the afternoon of 12 May 1972 James had been visiting at the home of his friend Chuckie Schruhl. At about 3:45 P.M. James left the Schruhl’s yard, riding his bicycle. The day was clear and bright.

He rode down the driveway, which sloped downhill, between high banks, to intersect with the east side of, and enter Crandall Road. James rode out onto Crandall Road. At the same time Mrs. Richards, with her sister-in-law as a passenger, was driving an automobile south on Crandall Road. The bicycle and the automobile collided, and James was severely injured.

Trooper Ralph C. Lewis, Jr., of the Maryland State Police, called by the plaintiffs as a witness, said that he answered the call and arrived at the scene. The report of the accident was made by Trooper James H. Mollman, who arrived a few minutes later. Both took part in the investigation. Trooper Lewis said, “When you are going south on Crandall Road, you come to the private drive.

You cannot see up the ³⁴⁷ driveway up to your left if you are driving your car going straight ahead. You have to be almost to the driveway to see up the driveway.” He testified that his diagram showed the distance to be 22 feet, that you could see something coming out of the driveway. Mr. Goff testified that he “did some measurements yesterday, experimented with them”. Asked how far back he could observe the Schruhl driveway when he was heading south, he responded, “I’d say between sixty and seventy feet.” As to how far up the driveway he could see from that point he answered, “I’d say, approximately fifteen feet”.

Both police officers said that there was nothing to indicate the point of impact on the roadway, such as dirt, glass, paint, or other debris. Parts of the broken bicycle were on the shoulder on the right side looking south. James was lying on that shoulder. Trooper Lewis testified to a statement made to him by Mrs. Richards at the Schruhl home a few minutes after the accident.

He read a series of questions asked of Mrs. Richards, and her answers that he recorded at that time. She had told the Trooper that she was driving south on Crandall Road from her home to take her sister-in-law home. There were no other automobiles on the road. He read further from his report: “Question: How far was this person or vehicle away when you first observed him?

Answer: Right in front. Darted out from between banks. Question: What was the condition of your brakes, foot or emergency, at the time of the accident? Answer: Good.

Question: How fast were you driving at the time of this accident? Answer: Twenty-five to thirty miles per hour. Question: With reference to this accident, how far did your vehicle travel after the accident before coming to a complete stop? ³⁴⁸ Answer: Fifty or sixty yards. Question: What was the condition of the street, dry, bumpy, et cetera?

Answer: Dry. Bank of dirt. Question: Describe the lighting conditions at point where accident occurred, daylight or dark? Answer: Daylight.

It was bright. Question: How was the visibility? How far could you see ahead, right or left? Answer: Clear visibility front.

Clear to right. Bank to the left. Question: Were the lights on your vehicle lighted? Answer: No. Question: Have you anything else to say for — I can’t quite read all this, but it pertains to have you everything else to say as to what happened?

Answer: The child darted from between the banks in front of the car. I swerved to the right to try to avoid hitting the child. Went over a bank into a field. So nervous, I realized I had my foot on the gas pedal, and then came to a stop in the field.” Also put in evidence by the plaintiffs were excerpts from a deposition of Mrs. Richards taken before trial.

This evidence included the following questions and answers: “Question: Now, as you came along on Crandall road going to state route 258, where was your vehicle located when you first observed the Goff boy? Answer: I was on the right side of the road, and I was, approximately, I would estimate, about twenty-five feet from the Schruhl driveway. Question: What was your rate of travel at that time? ³⁴⁹ Answer: I estimate between twenty-five and thirty. Question: When you first observed the Goff boy, where was he located?

Answer: He was coming out of the Schruhl driveway on his bicycle, and he came out on an angle over to my side of the road. He was meeting me headon. Question: You say his bicycle was meeting you headon? Answer: Right.

Question: When you first saw him, you were about twenty-five feet away traveling about twenty-five or thirty miles per hour? Answer: Right. Question: When you saw him, did you hit your brakes at that time? Answer: First I swerved over to the right to try to avoid hitting him, and attempted to apply my brakes.” “Question: Were you at any time on the shoulder prior to the collision?

Answer: No. Question: You say when you first saw him — Answer: When I first saw the boy, I got off. I swerved over to my right. There was, approximately, I would say, about twenty-five feet. I had gotten over on the shoulder.

Question: You had gone twenty-five feet over to your right? Answer: No, not twenty-five feet. I was twenty-five feet from the little boy.” “Question: Now, Mrs. Richards, after you first ³⁵⁰ observed the Goff boy on the bicycle, was he in the Schruhl driveway or was he on Crandall Road, to your knowledge? Answer: Well, he came out so fast, he didn’t have much time to be in the Schruhl driveway.

He came immediately out onto Crandall Road. Question: As he came out onto Crandall Road, was he turning to go towards his home or towards your home? Answer: Right.” “Question: Can you tell me, based on your experience in going up and down Crandall Road, how close do you have to be to the Schruhl driveway before you see up to it going towards Route 258? Answer: I, really, don’t know.

Going towards 258? Question: Yes, ma’am. Answer: I, really, don’t know how close you would have to be. Question: When you were, approximately, twenty-five feet back from the Schruhl driveway going towards Route 258, could you see up the Schruhl driveway?

Answer: No. Question: So that prior to the time that you were seeing the Goff boy, because of the bank, you couldn’t see him if he was coming down the driveway? Answer: Correct. Question: The driveway leading from the Schruhl house, that was a downhill grade, wasn’t it? Answer: That’s correct, a blacktop road.” Mrs. Richards testified at the trial as a witness in her own behalf.

She said that she was driving south on Crandall Road, in the right lane. She said she saw the boy on the ³⁵¹ bicycle coming out of the Schruhl driveway. He was not on the road when she first saw him. She said she swerved to the right and attempted to put on the brake.

He came out at an angle and then right up the road, meeting her head on. She went off the road to the right. Mrs. Myrtle Catterton, sister-in-law of Mrs. Richards, and her passenger at the time of the accident, testified that Mrs. Richards was driving on the right side of the road, at about 25 miles per hour. When the car was one or one and one-half lengths from the driveway the witness saw James come out of the driveway, right in front of the car.

She said that Mrs. Richards swerved to the right to try to avoid hitting him, and went down an embankment and out into the field. Mrs. Richards went to call for help and Mrs. Catterton stayed with the boy until help arrived. Mrs. Catterton said that when the bicycle came out of the driveway, it was coming over at an angle across the road up towards Mrs. Richards’ car. She said that at the time of the collision the bicycle was over to the right of Crandall Road, referring to the right side going south.

James testified that he had been visiting his friend Chuckie Schruhl, and left on his bicycle by the driveway. He did not remember the accident. He said that he had had bicycles since he was four years old. He was seven years and eight months old at the time of the accident.

At the time of the trial, almost two years after the accident, Mr. Goff said that James had had bicycles for about five years. He said, “I told him to be very careful on the road, watch out for the cars”. Both he and his wife had given their son instructions to be careful when riding the bicycle, and about looking for automobiles before going out to Crandall Road. Reliance is placed by the appellees upon physical evidence observed at the scene of the accident by Trooper Mollman, and testified to by him.

The Trooper observed a tire mark, which he said was not a skid mark, on the surface of Crandall Road. It lead up to the back of the vehicle. He said, “Facing in a southerly direction, using the right wheel of the vehicle, the right tire mark, would be six feet from the right side of the roadway facing southbound.” The mark ³⁵² continued 24 feet on the hard surface, 24 feet down an embankment to the