Cowee

Defendant Marsh appeals from a judgment rendered against him and in favor of plaintiffs Cowee, Evans and McNulty for damages resulting from an automobile accident in which three automobiles were involved. Respondent Cowee was driving from Chico toward Oroville, appellant was driving from Oroville to Chico just ahead of a third ear, called the Smith car. The cars being driven by Cowee and appellant sideswiped as they were passing and Cowee’s car, out of control, collided headon with the Smith car. The sole question presented is the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the trial court’s finding that the negligence of appellant was the sole proximate cause of the collision between his car and Cowee’s car and of the resulting collision between that car and the Smith car. If that question be resolved adversely to appellant then all plaintiffs were entitled to recover.

A prior trial to a jury had resulted in a discharge of the jury for inability to agree. In the second trial, there came into evidence in one way or another, much of the testimony of witnesses at the first trial, all of the depositions of witnesses taken before trial, parts of the evidence at the coroner’s inquest into…