*This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(tm) Pro*
I am not sure we have all the facts in this case, no offense to the author
who may have relayed all the information that was available.
Whenever, I hear of some outrageous verdict like this I generally find there
was a bit more to the story. Even in Kalifornia we have to follow the law
and any verdict that does not follow the law is illegal and can be reversed.
The only... I repeat only defense for failure to yield right of way upon
entering a thoroughfare or main road from a side street (t-interesection) or
after completing a stop at same and failing to yield to through traffic, is
when the driver on the main road is traveling at a speed equal to twice the
posted speed limit. No exceptions. This is the law. The speeding driver is
guilty of reckless driving, however at lesser speed he can be found to be a
contributing factor and any award due him/her would be off set by his/her
degree of negligence that contributed to the accident or injuries. In many
case both drivers are cited. One for failure to yeild, the other for speed
and sometimes one gets it for reckless in which case the other driver is off
the hook unless they did a moving violation too.
As one member astutely pointed out if this was all it took to find
liability....then all white vehicles in a snow storm would be liable in case
of collision and they are not. So would gray vehicles in fog, green vehicles
on a park drive, tan vehicles on the desert..., but they are not. Any
military vehicle involved in a collision would automatically be at fault....
they are not.
As bad as things are here in Kalifornia and they are pretty miserable, even
we have not sunk to that level of stupidity. I won't deny a jury could have
made such a finding, juries can do weird things, but it does not make for
case law. Such verdicts are set aside or appealed and reversed.
Although I am far from the final word in law, I do teach it on occasion and
there is no case precedence that I am aware wherein the color of the vehicle
compromised the basic rules of right of way. I will try to find out more
about this case, if possible and advise you later.
Jack Lee
===Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list===
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: <mil-veh-off@uller.skylee.com>
To switch to the DIGEST mode, send e-mail to <mil-veh-digest@uller.skylee.com>
Send administrative queries to <mil-veh-request@uller.skylee.com>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 05 2000 - 22:42:39 PST