Dodds

This is an appeal from an order granting a new trial in a suit for damages in an automobile casualty case, after a judgment had been rendered in favor of the defendant.

The plaintiff was riding as a guest with the defendant who was operating her own car. They were driving southerly along the state highway between Delhi and Atwater. It was a clear evening in November. The automobile lamps were lighted. The highway was straight and level. They were trailing a truck and two other machines which were traveling at a rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour. Both parties were familiar with the roadway in that vicinity. They were friends. The plaintiff had no occasion to question the defendant’s ability as a cautious driver. The plaintiff neither possessed nor assumed control over the operation of the machine. The defendant attempted to pass the machines which were proceeding ahead of her car. No automobile lights were observed approaching on their left-hand side of the paved highway. Turning to her left the defendant had traveled a distance equivalent to two or three city blocks without being able to pass .the preceding cars, when suddenly she came upon the abutments of a concrete…