Opinion
39589.
DECIDED SEPTEMBER 5, 1962.
Action for damages. Chattahoochee Superior Court. Before Judge Thompson.
Swift, Pease, Davidson Chapman, W. G. Scranton, Tom S. Slade, for plaintiff in error.
L. B. Kent, Albert W. Stubbs, Hatcher, Smith, Stubbs Rothschild, contra.
1. "`In passing on the general grounds of a motion for new trial, this court passes not on the weight but on the sufficiency of the evidence. It is our duty to determine whether the verdict as rendered can be sustained under any reasonable view taken of the proofs submitted to the jury.' Ingram v. State, 204 Ga. 164, 184 ( 48 S.E.2d 891)." Farlow v. Brown, 208 Ga. 646, 648 ( 68 S.E.2d 903). See also Bibb Cigar c. Co. v. McSwain, 95 Ga. App. 659, 661 ( 98 S.E.2d 128).
2. "One not himself violating the law is not charged with the duty of anticipating that it will be violated by another." Southern Bell Tel. c. Co. v. Bailey, 81 Ga. App. 20, 25 ( 57 S.E.2d 837).
3. The evidence presented by the defendant was not self-contradictory or equivocal so as to require it to be construed most strongly against him.
4. The evidence adduced on the trial supported the verdict for the defendant and the trial court did not err in overruling the plaintiff's motion for new trial.
Judgment affirmed. Frankum and Jordan, JJ., concur.
DECIDED SEPTEMBER 5, 1962.
Milton V. Poppell sued Albert L. Smutney to recover property damages resulting from a collision between a tractor-trailer, owned by the plaintiff and being driven by an employee, and an automobile owned and being operated by the defendant. The defendant filed a cross-action in which he sought to recover for his injuries and damages arising out of the collision. On the trial the jury returned a money verdict for the defendant on his cross-action and thereafter the plaintiff's motion for new trial based on the usual general grounds and one special ground, an amplification of the usual general grounds, was overruled, and the plaintiff now assigns error on such judgment.
The evidence showed without dispute that the plaintiff's truck was traveling north and the defendant's automobile was traveling south on U.S. Highway 27, that the collision occurred at a point approximately three miles south of Cussetta and approximately fifty feet north of Hitchee Creek, and that the point of the impact as to the tractor-trailer was the left rear wheel of the trailer and as to the automobile the left front and side. The plaintiff introduced expert evidence to show that the collision took place on the right side of the center line for northbound traffic, and the defendant introduced evidence that the collision took place on the right side of the highway for southbound traffic, including evidence of an admission by the plaintiff's driver that the plaintiff's vehicle was across the center line and that it struck the defendant.