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Yancey v. Lea8/17/2001
Appeal pursuant to N.C.G.S. ยง 7A-30(2) from the decision of a divided panel of the Court of Appeals, 139 N.C. App. 76, 532 S.E.2d 560 (2000), finding no error in a judgment entered 7 December 1998 by Smith (W. Osmond, III), J., in Superior Court, Granville County. Heard in the Supreme Court 13 March 2001.
This is a wrongful death action, arising from a motor vehicle accident, wherein plaintiff, George C. Yancey, administrator of the estate of Lucy W. Yancey, driver of one of the vehicles, filed suit for damages for her death against the driver and owner of the other vehicle, defendants Artie Sylvester Lea and Huss, Incorporated, respectively. This case presents the issue of whether the trial court erred in granting defendants' motion for directed verdict as to plaintiff's claim of gross negligence and refusing to instruct the jury on the issue of defendants' gross negligence. We conclude that the trial court did not err and affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.
On 5 September 1996, the day before the subject accident, Hurricane Fran swept through North Carolina, and during the evening of 6 September, the weather was poor and the skies were still overcast. Defendant Lea was operating a tractor-trailer truck for his employer, defendant Huss, and was transporting a load, weighing approximately eighty thousand pounds, northbound on Interstate Highway 85 to his employer's terminal in Chase City, Virginia. Because of hurricane-related delays on I-85 north of Durham, defendant Lea decided to return to his depot via Highway 15 North, a two-lane highway. As Lea traveled through Granville County after dark, there was no street lighting or electricity to houses along the highway, and as a result, Lea could not see residential houses or driveways on either side of the highway.
As defendant Lea proceeded north on Highway 15 and approached the town of Bullock in Granville County, he observed and passed, without incident in a passing zone, a pickup truck pulling a trailer. The driver of the pickup truck testified that as he was passed by the tractor-trailer, defendant Lea may have been driving anywhere between fifty-five and sixty-five miles per hour in a fifty-five-mile-per-hour zone.
Defendant Lea testified that he was in the town limits of Bullock when he first saw the taillights of decedent's automobile as it passed over a knoll on the north side of town. When defendant Lea cleared this knoll, decedent's vehicle came back in sight, and he observed that it was traveling straight on Highway 15 but appeared to be slowing down. At this point, the vehicles entered into a passing zone for northbound traffic, and as the distance between the two closed, defendant Lea decided he should pass decedent's automobile. He testified that he could have stopped his truck behind this vehicle but consciously chose to pass instead. The speed limit was forty-five miles per hour in the location of the collision, and the roadway was straight and with unobstructed visibility.
In proceeding to pass decedent's vehicle, defendant Lea testified that he confirmed the passing zone, turned on his left-turn signal and blinked his headlights to warn the driver of the automobile of his intention to pass in the left-hand lane. Defendant Lea further testified that he did not see any turn signal or brake lights from the automobile at any time before he started to pass, and that when he was even with the automobile, he observed the automobile begin to turn and its left front fender cross in front of the truck's right fender. Defendant testified that he was in sixth gear at the time of the collision, so he could not have been driving faster than forty miles per hour. Upon colliding, the tractor-t
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