Lenora Gorman Smith v. General Motors Corporation

TUTTLE, Circuit Judge.

This appeal from a directed verdict for the defendant in a negligence action presents the question of how clear a case a plaintiff must show by circumstantial evidence in order to establish a jury question, when there is no direct evidence available to show what the actual events in dispute were. Early in the morning of February 6, 1952, J. E. Smith, Jr., left his Leesburg, Florida home for work in Orlando, Florida, in his 44-day old 1951 Oldsmobile 88 Super DeLuxe sedan. At approximately 5:30 A. M. he stopped at the Sunny Side Drive-in Restaurant in Leesburg, where he…