207 Mass. 553 | Mass. | 1911
The plaintiff was rightfully in the upper level of the Sullivan Square station of the defendant awaiting one of its cars bound for Medford Hillside. This car arrived and departed on the same track, the rear of the car as it came in being the front as it went out. The platform, alongside which this car came, was of ample length as a stand for two cars without either being opposite its curve. It was straight, except that its outward end was the arc of a circle, whose radius was twenty-three and one fourth inches. It was therefore forty-six and one half inches wide as it began to grow narrower. The custom of the defendant was to receive passengers into a car at this platform by the rear door as it came in. The place was light, and the plaintiff was one of a considerable number waiting. She was familiar with the station and the customs as to its use. As the Medford Hillside car came into the station, instead of moving
Although the question of the plaintiff’s due care is close, we incline to the opinion that it was for the jury. The evidence appears open to the construction that while the plaintiff was walking upon a platform less than four feet wide toward the car in the ordinary way with a crowd, which prevented her convenient view of the platform, and which may have somewhat impelled her movement involuntarily, and was in the act of getting toward the car door, she suddenly found herself over the edge of the platform at or near its end. It is not certain from the evidence whether she fell off the end of the platform or ir the space between it and the car, which for some distance may have been found to have been eighteen inches or more in width.
In accordance with agreement of the parties let the entry be
Judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of $500.