Shams v. Saportas

THOMAS, J.:

A passenger in an automobile, the guest of the owner who was driving, received injuries when the car skidded from the highway and overturned. He brought an action based upon gross negligence and was awarded a verdict.

The first point in controversy is the sufficiency of the declaration to charge the highest degree of negligence. Substance of the allegations is that at the time of the mishap the car, equipped with tires “so worn as to be almost smooth,” was traveling a “smooth black-topped highway,” wet “due to showers of rain,” at a speed of seventy miles per hour.

It is difficult to…