Young v. Dietzel

Moylan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The accident out of which this case arose occurred on December 13, 1967, at about 2:47 p.m. Vehicles driven by the appellant, Frances Young, and one of the appellees, Phyllis Dietzel, collided in the intersection of Oakleigh Road and Taylor Avenue in Baltimore County. The intersection was controlled by a traffic light.

The case hinged exclusively upon the resolution of the question of which of the two drivers had the green light. Mrs. Dietzel testified that she and her son, Michael, had approached the intersection while driving in a northerly direction on Oakleigh Road. Shortly before the collision, they had left a shopping center located approximately one mile from the scene of the accident. They then proceeded toward their home by travelling northward on Oakleigh Road.

Mrs. Dietzel testified that while she was still approximately two blocks south of the Taylor Avenue intersection, she observed that the traffic light controlling that intersection was green for vehicles travelling in her direction. She approached the intersection at a speed of between ten and fifteen miles per hour. While still some fifteen feet south of the intersection, she observed the traffic light turn to amber and she applied her brakes. She brought her vehicle to a full stop ¹⁶¹ before entering the intersection.

According to her testimony, she remained in a stopped position for approximately twenty seconds. When the traffic signal turned green for her, she looked to her right and then to her left and observed no approaching traffic on Taylor Avenue. She then resumed her progress northward, proceeding into the intersection. She testified that she had travelled approximately twenty feet northward and had accelerated to a speed of no more than fifteen miles per hour when she heard her son holler, “Mother, watch out, the lady is coming through a red light.” At that point, she saw the Young vehicle in front of her, immediately before the impact.

She applied her brakes and tried to avoid the collision by turning her car sharply to the right. She then struck the left rear side of the Young vehicle. She testified that Mrs. Young had made no effort to stop — that “she just kept coming, looking straight ahead, without stopping.” Corroborating Mrs. Dietzel’s version of the accident was the testimony of Mrs. Carole Dietrick. Mrs. Dietrick testified that she also had been driving her vehicle in a northerly direction on Oakleigh Road.

When the light turned red for traffic on Oakleigh Road, she brought her vehicle to a stop immediately behind the stopped Dietzel vehicle. When the light turned green, she observed the Dietzel vehicle resume its northerly progress and she then resumed her own progress in the same direction. She then observed the collision between the Dietzel vehicle and the Young vehicle. Mrs. Dietrick testified that the Young vehicle “ran through the light.” After the initial collision, Mrs. Dietzel lost control of her car and it then collided with a parked truck, owned by a Justin Weinberg, one of the appellees, which was resting on a parking lot immediately to the northwest of the intersection.

Mrs. Young, the appellant, testified that just before the accident she had been proceeding on Taylor Avenue in a westerly direction, from the Maryland School for the Blind toward her home. She testified that she re ¹⁶² membered travelling along Taylor Avenue and remembered stopping at the intersection of Taylor Avenue and Perring Parkway for a traffic light. She then had a vague recollection of having crossed Perring Parkway and proceeding up a hill, about two blocks east of the Oakleigh Road intersection. She further testified that she did not remember anything that happened after that point until she was aware of “coming to” in her vehicle after the accident.

Mrs. Young was taken to the hospital in the same ambulance with Mrs. Dietzel and her son. At the hospital, Mrs. Young required several stitches for a break in the skin. She was conscious during the ride to the hospital and asked one of the attendants how badly her car had been damaged. Also testifying for the appellant was a taxicab driver, Hiram Bullen.

He testified that he had been approaching the intersection of Taylor Avenue and Oakleigh Road in an easterly direction when he observed the collision. He testified that at the time of the collision the color of the traffic light was green for traffic proceeding on Taylor Avenue. He said that he was approximately 200 to 250 feet west of Oakleigh Road when he observed the collision. He also said, however, that he' was in the vicinity of Bon Air at the moment when he observed the collision.

Bon Air is actually 715 feet west of the intersection. The jury had submitted to it issues agreed upon by all of the parties. The jury, answering the issues, found that the appellant, Mrs. Young, had entered the intersection in question on a red traffic signal and they assessed damages to be awarded. The trial judge thereupon entered judgments in favor of the plaintiffs.

On appeal, the appellant raises the single contention that the trial judge was in error in refusing to grant the requested instruction that the jury could presume that the appellant was exercising ordinary care for her safety at the time the accident occurred. By the instruction, the appellant sought to utilize the presumption (or inference) of due care as a distinct item of substantive evidence to be added to her side of the scales along with the ¹⁶³ testimony of Mr. Bullen in an effort to outweigh the countervailing testimony of the appellee and of Mrs. Dietrick. It is unnecessary to reach the challenging and complex question of whether the “presumption of due care” is 1) a “presumption of fact” or (preferably) a “permissible inference of fact” with its attendant problems of what quanta of proof on one side of the issue or the other will permit it to be