Kellner

Lotta L. Kellner is the widow and Jessica R. Kellner is the daughter of Louis Kellner, deceased. They brought this action to recover damages for his death which resulted from a collision between an automobile which he was driving in a southerly direction on the state highway and a truck belonging to the appellant August Witte and driven by his employee, Joseph J. Seale, in a northerly direction on this highway. The accident occurred about 18 miles north of the city of Bakersfield. The highway rises on a slight grade for several hundred feet northerly from the point of impact. At that place the paved portion of the road was 30 feet in width with a dirt shoulder on each side.

The accident happened about 4 o’clock on the afternoon of August 25, 1931. The day was clear. J. A. Root was driving northerly on the highway with Ms wife and daughter in a coupe at a speed of between 25 and 30 miles an hour. His left wheels were about four feet easterly from the center line of the highway. The truck, driven by Seale, gradually overtook the Root automobile and tried to pass. It could not make a speed in excess of 35 miles an hour. During his attempt to pass the Root automobile the Kellner car…