Buck

Two appeals are here involved; one is an appeal from a judgment entered on the pleadings against the plaintiffs, and the other following a verdict by a jury. The first appeal, numbered 17524, is hereafter referred to as the Buskovich appeal, and the second appeal, numbered 17522, is made up of two appeals, one by the plaintiffs from a judgment in favor of defendant Standard Oil Company of California, and the other from a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendant Bond and Bushing and from the denial of that defendant’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

On October 27, 1954, sometime shortly after 6:30 in the evening Paul and Phyllis Buck left the town of Tracy to go watch the Wednesday night fights on television at the wife’s parents’ house, which was some two miles westerly of Tracy. Paul Buck drove the car, and while proceeding westerly on United States Highway 50 he saw a puddle on the highway after he had passed a bus. He put his foot on the brakes and started to skid. He had no control over the car; his forward vision was suddenly obscured, and he could see nothing for a moment, but after he hit the main portion of the puddle, the car skidded…