69 A.2d 167 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1949
Argued October 4, 1949. This is an appeal by the plaintiff in a case involving damage to his automobile resulting from an intersection collision with defendant's truck. At the close of plaintiff's testimony, the trial judge entered a compulsory nonsuit which the court en banc refused to take off and this appeal followed.
In Sargeant v. Ayers,
The sole question involved is whether the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, and in determining this we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to him and give him the benefit of every doubtful or obscure fact and the reasonable inferences that a jury might deduce from the evidence: McCreery v. Westmoreland Farm BureauCo-operative Assn.,
The collision out of which the case arose occurred on November 9, 1945, at the intersection of Sixth and Pine Streets in Philadelphia. Each street is 26 feet wide with single trolley tracks in the center and each is a one-way street, Sixth for southbound traffic and Pine for westbound. A traffic signal light is erected at the intersection. Driving south on the west side of Sixth Street, the plaintiff stopped his car for a red traffic signal on Pine, with a line of cars following him. A truck being driven by one Militello was also traveling south on Sixth, arrived at the intersection at about the same time and stopped about two feet ahead of plaintiff's car and to its left. When the light turned green, the plaintiff looked to his left but could not see east on Pine Street because of Militello's truck. He did, however, have an unobstructed view of the intersection which was clear as *575 both his car and Militello's truck moved forward into the intersection. Militello, whose view to the left or east on Pine was unobstructed, seeing defendant's truck traveling "between 30 and 35" miles an hour about "20 or 30 feet back on Pine Street", apparently about to be driven through a red light "stopped immediately" but the plaintiff "pulled out and stopped a few feet" beyond the front of Militello's truck where the plaintiff's car was struck by defendant's truck which "swerved and hit me, mashed my whole car up".
The learned court below held that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence as a matter of law because, although the traffic light was in his favor, he entered the intersection when his view east on Pine Street was obstructed by Militello's truck: "The testimony of the plaintiff that he proceeded to cross Pine Street without being able to see oncoming traffic on that street, proves his causal negligence beyond reasonable contradiction."
This case differs in no material fact from Pellegrini v.Coll,
In our opinion this appeal is ruled by the Pellegrini and Rea cases and, therefore, the plaintiff's negligence is for a jury's determination.
Judgment reversed, and new trial awarded.