175 Mich. 691 | Mich. | 1913
This is an action for damages claimed on account of personal injuries caused plaintiff by reason of being struck and thrown from his wagon by a car operated on defendant’s street railway in the city of Detroit on account of claimed negligence of defendant’s employees. A judgment in the case was rendered against plaintiff, upon a directed verdict for defendant at the close of plaintiff’s case, on the ground of contributory negligence. Plaintiff brings the case to this court for review upon a writ of error. The sole question involved is whether error was committed by "the trial court in directing said verdict. The record is very brief, and the only witness who testified relative to the accident is the plaintiff In view of the directed verdict against him, his testimony will be considered in its light most favorable to him.
The crucial question in the case is whether it can be said, as a matter of law, that plaintiff, when he saw the car coming rapidly toward him, should not have attempted to cross the second track. The exact distance of the car at the time when plaintiff discovered the necessity of hurrying across cannot be stated. At this time his horse was across the first track, and of necessity the. head of the horse must have been at or
“Giving to plaintiff’s evidence its greatest probative force, as we are bound to do where a verdict is directed against him, we are unable to say, as a matter of law, that he was guilty of contributory negligence.”
Putnam v. Railway, 164 Mich. 342, 343 (129 N. W. 860, 861), citing Ryan v. Street Railway Co., 123
The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and a new trial granted.