285 Mass. 207 | Mass. | 1934
The plaintiff boarded a "one-man” street railway car of the defendant by way of the front door and
It was not negligent for the operator to start after the plaintiff was within the body of the car and before she had reached a seat. Binder v. Boston Elevated Railway, 265 Mass. 589. Nor is the defendant liable if the movements of the car which caused the plaintiff to fall were such as ordinarily accompany the starting of street cars, for movements of that character must be anticipated and their consequences guarded against by passengers. Desautels v. Massachusetts Northeastern Street Railway, 276 Mass. 381, and cases cited. Witnesses to the accident who testified other than the plaintiff did not describe any abnormal or extraordinary movements of the car or unusual effects upon themselves when the car was set in motion. The question here presented is whether the plaintiff’s own description of the happening can be said to furnish adequate basis for a finding by a jury that the starting of the car was attended by movements which were unusual and extraordinary and thus of the sort to impose legal liability on the defendant. The plaintiff testified that she was walking up the aisle toward the rear, helping herself along by taking hold of the handles on the seats on each side of the car, when it started with a jerk; that. she was jerked backward and then forward, her hands were wrenched back and came off the seats, she was not able to hold on, was thrown off her balance, lost control of herself, and was thrown and fell over another passenger’s suitcase which was beside a seat and in the aisle.
Undoubtedly movements of the car in starting played a part in the plaintiff’s accident but liability of the defendant arose only if those movements were unusual or extraordinary. What in fact happens to the person of a passenger walking in a street car in the manner and under the circumstances here described may depend upon the passenger’s firmness of hold and condition as to balance as well
The plaintiff also contends that she was entitled to go to the jury on the question whether the operator was negligent in allowing the suitcase to remain in the aisle. There was evidence that at the time of the accident a “medium-sized” lady’s suitcase was resting on the floor “lengthways
Exceptions overruled.