Hodges v. Gonzales

On September 4, 1931, plaintiff and his wife were traveling west in their automobile on Orangethorpe Avenue in Orange County. Shortly after 5 o’clock in the afternoon the engine stopped and the car coasted to a stop with its left wheels just on the north edge of a twenty-foot pavement, which pavement was in the center of the highway. Its right wheels were near the south edge of a ditch on the north side of the pavement.

Plaintiff was an automobile mechanic. He alighted from the stalled car, walked to its side, raised the hood and hunted for the trouble. He found that the distributor gears had…