Reed

Plaintiffs, the surviving widow and minor children of John Reed, a California Highway Patrol Officer, brought this action for damages for his death, which occurred as the result of a collision between a motorcycle operated by the decedent and an automobile driven by defendant Robert Nathan Simpson. Judgment was entered, pursuant to .the verdict of a jury, in favor of defendants, and plaintiffs have appealed therefrom. As ground for reversal, plaintiffs urge that the trial court committed prejudicial error in instructing the jury. A review of the record establishes the merit of their position.

The accident occurred about 11:20 p. m., May 18, 1944, on Sunset Boulevard near the city limits of Los Angeles, where the decedent and his companion officer, Ralph Fritsche, were working as a pair on motorcycles under their assignment to oversee traffic in that vicinity. The boulevard, which extended in an easterly and westerly direction, was well lighted and the weather was clear. Traffic was rather heavy and was moving at about 35 miles an hour. The officers observed a west-bound automobile going down the boulevard in an erratic manner, oscillating over the center line. Deciding to…