Dallas v. De Yoe

The plaintiffs recovered judgment against the defendant in the sum of $11,875 as damages for the death of Martha R. Dallas, the wife of plaintiff Robert R. Dallas and mother of the other plaintiffs. The defendant appeals from the judgment.

The undisputed facts are that the defendant was in Ms automobile, a Hudson Super Six, on the east side of Tenth Street, in the city of Modesto, facing north, immediately preceding the time of the injury of wMch complaint is made. Other automobiles were parked diagonally across the center line of the street. The defendant threw the control lever into reverse and commenced to back his car for the purpose of gaining clearance to pass another machine in front. From some cause, as to the exact nature of which conflicting inferences may be drawn from the evidence, the powerful machine at once got beyond the defendant’s control, the engine “roaring like an airplane” and the automobile, speeding backward in a semi-circle to the west, passed partly through a vacant parking space, struck a Ford and threw it out of its path, and continued on its course over the curbstone and on to the sidewalk, where it was brought to a standstill by striking a pier near…