Suman v. Hoffman

Horney, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. For the injuries sustained in a collision between a motor ³⁰⁴ cycle and an automobile, a jury returned a verdict of $3500 in favor of Lawrence L. Hoffman (Hoffman), the passenger on the motorcycle, against both Dale L. Shank (Shank), the operator of the motorcycle, and William A. Suman (Suman), the operator of the automobile. On this appeal we are called upon to decide the correctness of the ruling of the Circuit Court for Washington County in refusing to grant Suman’s motion for a judgment n.o.v. Shank did not appeal. On the evening of August 13, 1957, the three parties to this action and a fourth young man—William Henneberger (Henneberger) who appeared as a witness at the trial—were attending the Hagerstown Fair.

All were in their late teens and resided in or near Boonsboro, about ten miles south of Hagerstown. About half an hour before they left, the four of them discussed their plans for the remainder of the evening. Suman, who had his father’s automobile, was to take Henneberger with him, and Shank was to follow, carrying Hoffman on the tandem seat of the motorcycle. Suman claims that he told Shank that he (Suman) planned to turn in at the road leading into the Boonsboro School in order “to see if there were any couples parked up there” and said he understood Shank to say he would follow him into the school grounds before they all went into Boonsboro.

Shank, however, stated that he knew Suman was going to turn off at the school, but that he (Shank) had planned to wait for Suman at Hoffman’s house and that Suman “probably got confused” in believing that he (Shank) was going to follow Suman into the school. At about midnight the boys left the fairgrounds and, in accordance with their prior conversation, traveled without incident until they reached the road leading into the school where the collision occurred. The school road, in relation to the operators of the motor vehicles, intersected the highway on the left at right angles. There was no illumination or markers at the intersection which was constructed of macadam.

The weather was clear and the road was dry. The speed of the vehicles was moderate and there was no evidence of any impropriety on the part of either operator other than the movement of the motorcycle in attempting to pass ³⁰⁵ the automobile and the movement of the automobile in attempting to make a left turn in front of the motorcycle which led to the collision. Shank, who knew the intersection was there, but did not see it on that night, thought that Suman was slowing down to let him pass and made an attempt to do so. On the other hand, Suman, who knew that the motorcycle was following him because he “could see the lights in the mirror” as it came around a curve just as he started to make the turn, stated that he thought the motorcycle was then “about seven or eight car lengths” behind him, meaning thereby (so he further stated) that the motorcycle was not close enough to make him think that Shank was going to pass.

The exact testimony of Suman in reply to a question on direct examination, as to what he did when he approached the intersection, will best describe what transpired at that point: “I slowed up and I put my hand out and I just started to make the turn and as I did I looked and saw these headlights coming right toward me and I tried to turn back on to the road and not make the turn into the school and there is a ditch and a telephone pole there and so I came back on the road and I made a 45-degree turn instead of a 90-degree [turn] and just about the time I got off the road a little bit he [Shank] ran into me.” Estimates as to when or at what point the hand signal was given ranged from a distance said to be about “two and a half or three times the length of” the court room—estimated by Suman to be 25 or 30 feet but which was actually from 50 to 60 feet according to the trial judge—compared with “six or eight car lengths” as an approximation by Henneberger, to a time said to be “just as I started to pass him” according to Shank compared with the forthright statement by Hoffman that “it [Suman’s arm] was already out when I noticed it.” In fact Shank admitted that Suman might have given his signal sooner but he could not have seen it because he was traveling to the rear of the center of Suman’s automobile where his vision would have been obstructed. Suman ad ³⁰⁶ mitted that he did not look to his rear between the time he made his left turn signal-—-when Shank was “seven or eight car lengths behind” him—and the time he began his turn at the entrance to the