Hyatt

—This is an appeal taken from a judgment entered upon a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff. The action is one for damages for personal injuries suffered as a result of an automobile accident on September 22, 1971. The case was tried subsequent to Li v. Yellow Cab Co. (1975) 13 Cal.3d 804 [ 119 Cal.Rptr. 858 , 532 P.2d 1226 , 78 A.L.R.3d 393 ], wherein the Supreme Court adopted the comparative negligence system assessing liability in direct proportion to fault.

Sometime after midnight on the date of the accident John Hyatt, plaintiff and respondent herein, was driving a 1960 Volkswagen on a four-lane highway in a westerly direction on Highway 28, near Carnelian Bay, Placer County. He was travelling in the right lane nearest the paved shoulder and was near his temporary motel residence when the accident happened.

There were no witnesses to the collision, and plaintiff was unable to supply any information that led up to the accident because of retrograde amnesia. However, the evidence revealed that plaintiff’s car struck a glancing blow against defendant’s eight-foot-wide boat trailer parked along the highway up against a dike, and thereafter skidded or rolled and had a…