Wooldridge

This is an action for personal injuries in which Fred Wooldridge, Jr., a minor, through his guardian ad litem, recovered a verdict and judgment in the sum of $6,000 against defendants Joe G. Mounts and Granite Materials Company. Defendant Mounts was employed by defendant Granite as a truck driver.

Plaintiff, a 16-year-old high school student at the time of the accident, was part of a crowd of two hundred to three hundred students which had assembled to watch a fist fight in the street where the accident occurred after school on September 16, 1957.

At the time of the accident defendant Mounts was driving a Granite truck with a dump bed on it and with a trailer behind it. Mounts was driving on the street where the fight occurred but his passage was blocked by the crowd for a period of 15 to 20 minutes.

When the truck moved plaintiff who was on the edge of the mob was caught by the left front wheel of the trailer and thrown to the ground. The trailer tires then passed over plaintiff’s leg causing the injuries for which plaintiff brought this suit.

Defendants raise two basic contentions on their appeal: (1) plaintiff was guilty of the violation of a malum prohibitum statute, which…