Citation Numbers: 11 N.J. Misc. 243
Filed Date: 3/25/1933
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/25/2022
This action arises out o£ a collision between plaintiff’s automobile and defendant’s bus at a street intersection in the borough of Rutherford. The judge, sitting without a jury, rendered judgment for the plaintiff.
Of the several points sought to be made by the defendant on its appeal we find substance in none except the second, which is that the court erred in reaching a conclusion based on a factual finding not supported by the evidence. The questioned part of the court’s finding is as follows:
“I don’t think the bus driver could see the light at any point after he had passed the point on a line with the bench, unless he stooped low, because the court is familiar with the construction of the bus and knows the sun visor that they have on, and at this particular location, where the bus is coming down hill, I don’t think that he could see that light at any time after he passed Raymond avenue, unless he stooped low to look up. The court will therefore find in favor of the plaintiff for $500.”
The judge was sitting without a jury, but we know of no latitude that permitted him to reach a judgment except according to the evidence. Courts may take judicial notice of facts that may be regarded as forming part of the common knowledge of every person of ordinary understanding and intelligence, and jurors may exercise their knowledge of human nature in determining the truthfulness or untruthfulness of a witness; but the present instance is not one of such.
Even where a view of premises, under legislative or judicial authority, has been had by a jury the Court of Errors and Appeals has held that the appeal should be decided upon what appears in the record (Garland v. Furst Store, 93 N. J. L. 127, 137; 107 Atl. Rep. 38), and that the mental impressions received by a jury under such circumstances are not to be
The pivotal fact question in the instant case was what colors were shown by the traffic light as the vehicles of the respective parties entered upon the street intersection. The defendant’s driver had testified that as he entered upon the intersection the light from his direction was green. We think that the court erred in basing its disbelief of that testimony upon the physical arrangement of the sun visor on the defendant’s bus in relation to the grade of the highway and the position of the light — conditions that were not disclosed by the evidence and concerning which the court assumed to have knowledge from sources foreign to the ease.
The judgment below will be reversed and a venire de novo will issue, costs to abide the event.