51 A.2d 732 | Pa. | 1947
The action of trespass, here involved, was instituted by Joy E. Scholl, acting individually and as administratrix of her deceased husband's estate, in an effort to recover damages for personal injuries to herself and for the alleged wrongful death of her husband resulting from a grade crossing collision between a trolley car of the defendant company and an automobile driven by the plaintiff's husband in which she was a passenger. The *219 plaintiff alleges that the injuries to herself and her husband resulted from the negligence of an employee or servant of the defendant company in the operation of its trolley car. In connection with the cause of action so asserted by the plaintiff in her individual right, the defendant company joined her in her representative capacity as an additional defendant on an allegation that the accident was due to the negligence of the deceased husband in his operation of the automobile.
The defendant rested at trial without offering evidence, and the learned trial judge submitted to the jury two questions, (1) whether the defendant company, acting by its employees or servants, was guilty of causative negligence and (2) whether the deceased husband was contributorily negligent. The verdicts, as returned by the jury, were in favor of the plaintiff and against the original defendant in the respective sums of $120 to the plaintiff in her individual right and $6,858.50 to the plaintiff as administratrix of her deceased husband's estate. At the same time the jury, by its verdict, exculpated the deceased husband of any negligence responsible for the accident. The defendant filed a motion for judgment n. o. v., and the plaintiff moved for a new trial of her personal cause of action. The court below dismissed both motions, and judgments on the verdicts were duly entered. The plaintiff did not appeal in her individual action where her motion for a new trial was refused. The instant appeal is by the defendant company from the judgment for the plaintiff as administratrix.
The appellant contends that the evidence fails to show the defendant company negligent but that it does prove the plaintiff's deceased husband to have been guilty of the causative fault. We necessarily turn, therefore, to the facts, mindful of the requirement that ". . . in reviewing the denial of a motion for judgment n. o. v. we must read the testimony in a light most advantageous to plaintiffs' decedent and all conflicts *220
therein must be resolved in [his] favor: Muehlhof v. Reading Co.,
On September 21, 1944, at approximately 7:15 P. M., Scholl, the decedent, was driving his sedan automobile northwardly on the easterly side of Turner Avenue in Drexel Hill, Delaware County, just south of the intersection of Turner Avenue and the defendant company's right of way in that area. The right of way runs east and west and contains a double set of tracks which cross Turner Avenue at substantially right angles. Mrs. Scholl, the plaintiff and appellee, was seated beside her husband. It was still daylight; the weather was clear; and the roadway, dry. At the particular time, the defendant, by its agents and employees, was operating one of its trolley cars eastwardly between Media and the 69th Street Terminal on the eastbound or south track. Just west of the crossing the defendant's tracks curve sharply to the north. On the easterly side of Turner Avenue, a few feet south of the crossing, there is a sign marked "Railroad Crossing — Stop — Look and Listen". Along the westerly side of Turner Avenue, south of the crossing, are trees and bushes extending to within twelve feet of the nearest rail of the tracks. There is no scheduled car-stop at the intersection and no traffic light. When Scholl's automobile, proceeding at a speed of seven to nine miles an hour, was in the course of crossing the near or eastbound track, it was suddenly struck by the defendant's trolley car squarely amidships *221 on the lefthand, or driver's, side. As a result of the impact the automobile was pushed by the trolley car some thirty-five feet down the tracks and off to the side where it came to rest with its front facing west, the left wheels in the north or westbound track and its right side leaning against a pole on the north side of the tracks. When the trolley car finally came to a stop, it was approximately one hundred and fifty feet beyond the point of collision. As a result of the collision, the decedent suffered injuries which caused his death four days later and the plaintiff suffered certain personal injuries not presently material.
The primary question raised by the appellant is whether the evidence is sufficient to warrant a jury's finding that the injury to the plaintiff and her decedent was the result of negligence on the part of the defendant company. We think that question must be answered in the affirmative. From the evidence, the jury could justifiably find that, at the time of the collision, the defendant's trolley car was being operated by its employee in a reckless manner without regard for the life or limb of pedestrians or other travellers engaged in the lawful use of the intersecting public highway. That the crossing is a dangerous one will hardly be denied, — a condition that is accentuated by the absence of either crossing watchman or traffic signal. At a dangerous public crossing the operator of a trolley car (even though it has a superior right of way) owes a duty of exercising a high degree of care towards persons reasonably to be expected to appear at the crossing, such as pedestrians, motorists and other travellers: Kuhns v.Conestoga Traction Co.,
It is true, as the appellant points out, there is no testimony as to the speed of the trolley car on amiles-per-hour basis. But, that is not crucial. Frequently, estimates of speed are little better than guesses and are less informative than what the physical facts disclose. Nor does speed, as the appellant also reminds us, of itself constitute negligence: Jerdon v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company,
A further fact indicative of the operator's lack of care and, consequently, evidence of the defendant's negligence lies in the operator's failure to sound a warning whistle or bell as he approached the crossing. Testimony that a whistle was sounded at Rosemont Avenue, a block away from the intersection, can in no sense be considered conclusive that the operator discharged his duty to warn of the trolley car's approach to the highway crossing. Indeed, with a double track railroad and trolley cars running in both directions simultaneously, a signal sounded a block away is not to be taken conclusively as an indication of a trolley car's approach to the crossing. At best, the weight of that incident, if any, was for the jury. To hold, as a matter of law, in the circumstances *224
here shown that the plaintiff failed to prove the defendant negligent would amount to a judicial usurpation of the jury's function to resolve the issues of fact and make appropriate findings. There being evidence to support the jury's verdict in the instant case, it may not be interfered with on appeal:Dougherty v. Brandt,
In considering the appellant's further contention that the plaintiff's decedent was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, there is to be borne in mind the principle that a court can so declare upon an existing set of facts ". . . only in cases so clear that there is no room for fair and sensible men to differ in their conclusions from the available data": see Caulton v. Eyre Co., Inc.,
At the outset, the deceased driver of the automobile, which figured in the accident, is to be presumptively deemed to have exercised due care for the safety of himself and others in his attempted crossing of the trolley tracks: Delmer v. PittsburghRailways Company, supra; Schmidt v. Philadelphia ReadingRailway Company,
One further argument of the appellant, in this same connection, needs be considered. The contention is rested upon the so-called "incontrovertible-physical-facts" rule, viz., where the physical facts and irrefutable circumstances attending an accident are such as to demonstrate that the person involved could not have looked or listened, or, if he did so, he must have seen what was plainly visible and heard what was clearly audible, and that, consequently, it is idle for a person in such circumstances to say that he fulfilled his duty to exercise care: see Ehrhart v. York Rys. Co.,
Judgment affirmed.