Campbell

A jury having awarded plaintiff $7,000 damages for injuries sustained by him in an accident which occurred as he was alighting from defendant’s automobile, defendant appeals from the judgment entered upon that verdict and from the trial court’s order denying his motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. 1 Defendant’s contentions on appeal are two-fold, first that the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a nonsuit, which motion was based on the ground that plaintiff’s recovery was barred as a matter of law by the automobile guest statute (Yeh. Code, § 17158) ; 2 and second, in the alternative, that the trial court, *758 in instructing the jury in terms of the guest statute, should have given an instruction requested by defendant defining certain language of the guest statute.

The Record

At the time of the accident plaintiff and defendant were co-employees. Although plaintiff customarily rode a bus home from work, on several occasions when he was delayed at work and thus missed his regular bus, defendant gave him a ride to the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Willow Street in San Jose, where plaintiff could catch a bus. This ride, which took a course west…