Socony Mobil Corp. v. Forbes

This case begins with a rear-end collision between a tank truck and a hay baler on the night of September 18, 1961.

John Forbes, defendant driver, had just finished a day’s work baling hay for his neighbor and drove his high-wheeled International tractor, pulling an International hay baler, out onto the highway to return home. About one-half mile from the field, as the tractor and baler moved westerly down the highway in the darkness at 10 to 15 miles per hour, plaintiff’s tank truck, moving in the same direction at a speed of 48 miles per hour, overtook and struck the baler on the left rear.

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