295 Mass. 581 | Mass. | 1936
This is an action of tort brought to recover for personal injuries and property damage alleged to have been caused by negligence of the defendant in the operation of his automobile. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.
It appears that at the time of the accident the plaintiff was operating her automobile on Massachusetts Avenue from Cambridge southerly toward Boston, and the defendant was operating his automobile on Memorial Drive in an easterly direction from Brookline toward Boston; and that there was a collision of these automobiles at the intersection of the ways. On the date of the accident there was an underpass in process of construction at the intersection. Memorial Drive was divided into two sections of roadway, northerly and southerly. The intersection was
It is stated in the record that there was other conflicting evidence as to the courses of both automobiles, and the precise place where the collision occurred; and that the evidence as to the speed of the defendant’s automobile at the time of the collision was conflicting. The defendant and witnesses called by him testified that his speed was between thirty-five and twenty miles an hour. Called by the plaintiff for cross-examination, he was asked by counsel for the plaintiff: "Now, before you left did you give your chauffeur some instructions?” and he replied: ‘"As I remember it I did.” Q. "What instructions did you give him?” This question was excluded subject to the plaintiff’s exception. The plaintiff offered to prove that the instructions were to investigate the accident, to get the names of the witnesses, to “look out for” the plaintiff, and to "talk with her and the witnesses.” Thereupon the plaintiff offered “to prove further that Miss Hagerty would testify that the chauffeur told her that Mr. Tyler was driving the car because the chauffeur would not drive it fast enough to suit Mr. Tyler, and that shortly before the accident he had been traveling between sixty and seventy miles an hour.” The latter offer of proof was also excluded subject to the plaintiff’s exception. The question as to the nature of the instructions given by the defendant to his chauffeur was rightly excluded. The plaintiff contended that such instructions were admissible in evidence to show that the chauffeur had authority as agent of the
Exceptions overruled.