## Facts

- A fatal automobile collision occurred on May 20, 1937, at the intersection of Highline Road and Oat Canal Road in Imperial County, California.
- Richard Clinkscales drove west on Oat Canal Road; Herman Roland Carver drove north on Highline Road.
- A stop sign had been placed on Highline Road at the intersection in 1936 by a county road foreman with permission from the district supervisor to control traffic and give right-of-way to vehicles on Oat Canal Road.
- Carver was familiar with the stop sign but did not stop before entering the intersection; he looked but did not see Clinkscales’s vehicle.
- The collision killed Richard Clinkscales.
- The decedent’s widow and minor child sued Carver for wrongful death, alleging negligence based on failure to stop at the sign.
- The trial court instructed the jury that northbound drivers on Highline Road were required to stop and that failure to stop, if a proximate cause, supported liability.

## Issues

1. Whether Vehicle Code § 577 imposed a duty to stop at an intersection where a stop sign was present and visible but allegedly not erected in strict compliance with governing authorization procedures.
2. Whether the trial court erred by instructing the jury that Carver was required to stop and that failure to stop could support a plaintiff’s verdict if it proximately caused the collision.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for the plaintiffs.
- The court held that a driver must obey a stop sign that is actually erected, visible, and maintained by public authorities even if there were irregularities in the sign’s authorization or installation.
- The court upheld the jury instructions requiring a stop and allowing liability based on failure to stop if the violation was a proximate cause of the accident.

## Legal Principles

- A statutory duty to stop at a “signposted” intersection applies based on the stop sign’s actual presence and notice to drivers, not on proof that every step in the sign’s authorization was technically valid.
- Traffic control devices erected and maintained by public authorities function as de facto regulatory commands on the roadway; drivers must conform their conduct to conditions as they exist.
- A driver may not justify disregarding a visible stop sign by later claiming defects in the administrative process behind the sign’s placement.
- A violation of the stop requirement may support a finding of negligence and causation when the failure to stop contributes to a collision in the intersection.

## Conclusion

Because the intersection was in fact marked with a stop sign that Carver knew about and disregarded, the court treated the sign as binding on motorists despite alleged authorization defects and affirmed the wrongful-death judgment based on the jury’s finding of negligent failure to stop and proximate causation.


Clinkscales v. Carver, 22 Cal. 2d 72, 136 P.2d 777 (Cal. 1943)