Ellison S. Purington v. Harold A. Newton

In this action the plaintiff seeks to recover the damages resulting to his automobile from a collision with a car driven by the defendant, and alleged to have been caused by the defendants negligence. Viewing the evidence most favorably to the plaintiff the following facts appeared: With the permission of the plaintiff his wife drove his car from Northfield, Massachusetts, to Brattleboro to take Caroline A. Whitaker to see a friend at the Osgood Infirmary. In Brattleboro Mrs. Purington drove westerly on Western Avenue, and finding that she was going in the wrong direction, in order to turn around, backed a short distance into Cedar Street, and stopped therein in line with the sidewalk on Western Avenue, from where she could look westerly 150 to 200 feet onto that street. Before starting forward she looked in both directions onto Western Avenue and there was no one in sight, and she then proceeded in low gear and had gone about two car lengths to past the center of Western Avenue and had about completed a left turn to go easterly thereon, and was going 8 to 10 miles per hour, when defendants car traveling easterly on Western Avenue at a speed of 40 miles per hour collided with the right rear side of her car. As a result of the collision her right rear door, the right running board and the right rear fender were jammed and damaged, and the two cars were locked together. The value of plaintiffs car before the accident was about $950.00, and it cost $129.75 to repair it after the accident.