Alexander Franzoni v. Geno Ravenna Et Al

Ravenna's automobile, in which Franzoni was riding as a gratuitous guest, collided with a truck driven by Peterson. Franzoni was hurt, and he brought this suit against both Ravenna and Peterson, claiming a recovery against the former on the ground of gross negligence, and against the latter on the ground of ordinary negligence. A trial by jury resulted in a verdict for Peterson and against Ravenna. The latter excepted, and the only question relied upon in this Court arises from the ruling of the court refusing to grant Ravenna's motion for a verdict. The accident happened on the morning of March 10, 1931, on the highway between Center Rutland and Proctor. The road was deeply rutted, and the walls of the ruts were frozen. Ravenna was driving his car, the plaintiff sat on the front seat with him, and three other passengers were riding on the back seat. Ravenna's car was going northerly and there were two sets of ruts in the road. Instead of his taking the ruts on the right-hand side of the road, he was driving with his right wheels in one set of ruts and his left wheels in the other set. When he saw the truck approaching from the north, Ravenna seasonably attempted to turn his car to the right, but he could not get the wheels out of the ruts. He persisted in this attempt and finally brought his front wheels out, but was unable to get his rear wheels out. So he turned the front wheels back into the ruts. Again he attempted to force his car out of the ruts to the right and continued in this attempt until it was too late to stop his car, and it crashed into the truck, which had in the meantime been brought to a stop.