281 Mass. 186 | Mass. | 1932
This is an action for personal injuries received by the plaintiff through a collision with an automobile alleged to have been negligently operated by the defendant on November 24, 1927. The plaintiff at that time was thirteen years old. It appears from the record that Plymouth Avenue, a main highway in Fall River, is a wide street running in a northerly and southerly direction with a down grade to the north. The defendant at the time of the accident was proceeding in an automobile with a- companion along Plymouth Avenue in a northerly direction. The plaintiff, while crossing the avenue from Morgan Street, was struck by the defendant’s automobile at or hear the corner of the avenue and Nashua Street. The evidence was conflicting upon the questions of due care of the plaintiff and negligence of the defendant. The case was submitted to the jury upon these issues and a verdict was returned for the defendant.
The plaintiff’s counsel called the defendant as his first witness and cross-examined him, as he was permitted to do under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 233, § 22. During this cross-examination the defendant testified that he did not have a license to operate an automobile at the time of the accident. At the conclusion of this cross-examination his counsel said to him, “At the time you were operating this automobile . . . your license had expired?” This was admitted by the presiding judge and the defendant replied,
There was no error in the denial of the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial. A motion for a new trial is addressed to the sound judicial discretion of the judge. There is nothing to show that there was an abuse of that discretion in the present case.
Exceptions overruled.