Wood Leonard Sholly Et Ux. v. Larry K. Annan, James H. Clark

Larry K. Annan and his employers, citizens of Utah, appeal a judgment after a trial without a jury holding them liable for negligent injury inflicted upon Wood L. Sholly, a citizen of Arizona in a highway accident. We affirm.

Sholly’s original negligence complaint was filed in the Arizona Superior Court, but was removed by the defendants to the federal District Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1441 .

On May 25, 1968, Sholly was driving his pickup truck in a southerly direction on US 89, a two-lane highway, in Arizona near Amado. Annan, concededly within the scope of his employment, was following directly behind in a truck and trailer. The collision occurred as Sholly began a left turn across the northbound lane of traffic in which Annan was driving in order to pass Sholly’s pickup on the left.

Appellants claimed below that Sholly had been contributorily negligent in that he had failed to signal his intention to turn left for the one hundred feet required by the Arizona Motor Vehicle Code, Arizona Revised Statutes, § 28-754, but had swerved without signaling in front of Annan’s truck as he attempted to pass the decelerating pickup. To rebut this allegation, Sholly introduced the…