Plаintiff Johnnie Louise Smith suffered injuries to her tailbone February 6, 1967, when she slid off her seat and landed on the floor on defendant’s bus as the bus rounded a Detroit strеet corner. She sued defendant common carrier for alleged damages of $30,000. At the close of plaintiff’s evidence defendant madе a motion for a directed verdict* 1 which was denied. The case then proceeded through defendant’s evidence with the trial judge finally deсiding for the defendant.
The main issue on appeal is the correctness of the trial judge’s findings of fact. For clarity’s sake we quote the judge’s complete opinion:
"The Court: In order to render a verdict in this case, I have had to make a finding of fact and a conclusion of law.
"I find it is a fact thаt on the sixth day of February, 1967, that the plaintiff, Johnnie L. Smith, boarded a *293 DSR bus at Ferry Park and Fourteenth Street and that there were several other people on this bus and that they had just crossed Grand River Avenue in the area of Columbia and where a short distance beyond the crossing at a point where the road is straight and level, the bus gave a lurch and the plaintiff fell on the floor.
"I further find that prior to and up to and including this time, there was no evidеnce of any improper driving upon the part of the bus driver; that it was snowing and the pavement was covered with snow and that he was operаting the bus at a reasonable and proper speed and, as a matter of fact, not in excess of ten miles per hour; that the basis for the lurch can only be a conjecture on the part of this court because there is no factual situation appearing from the evidеnce to give any reason for the bus having lurched.
"All the evidence tends to show to this court that the bus driver was negotiating the terrain as a reasоnable, careful person would negotiate the terrain under similar circumstances.
"I £nd that there is no negligence upon the part of the bus drivеr and there are no circumstances from which an inference of negligence could be obtained.
"I further find that, the defendant is entitled to a verdict of no cause of action and I enter a verdict for the defendant.” (Emphasis supplied.)
While recognizing our duty to affirm the trial judge’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous, we are forced to conclude that clear error does exist here, and thereforе must reverse. GCR 1963, 517.1.
To begin, if there were "no circumstances from which an inference of negligence could be obtained” as the trial judge determined below, then he improperly denied defendant’s motion for a "directed verdict” at the close of plaintiff’s evidence. However, hаd he in fact directed a verdict for the defendant we would still need reverse here, since we disagree with the trial judge’s ruling that there were "no сircumstances from which an infer *294 ence of negligence could be obtained”. A brief review of the evidence substantiates our conclusiоn. Plaintiff testified that on the snowy morning of February 6, 1967, she got on one of the defendant’s buses to go to work. She sat on the left-hand seat on the right-hand side directly behind the rear door of the fully loaded bus. She was not in a position to see the condition of the street where the bus was being driven. As the bus turned the corner and crossed Grand River Avenue, plaintiff testified she saw the driver turning his steering wheel very fast around the curve, and she felt the bus lurch, "like hit something like — it was something like a jar”, throwing her out of her seat to the floor of the bus. The passenger next to her also slid slightly off his seat. She was helped by threе persons back into her seat, and remained on the bus until the end of the line in order to get the driver’s bus number. She continued on by cab to her job as a domestic servant, but left early in the afternoon to go to the hospital for treatment of her injuries allegedly suffered in the accident. The bus driver, Ernest Bell, testified he had been a bus driver for approximately five weeks at the time of the accident, and at that time he worked different rоutes every day. He remembered someone coming up to him at the end of the line, and telling him what had happened. He gave inconsistent testimony about whether he remembered the accident, at one point saying he remembered nothing, and at another saying to his knowledge there was no "lurch”, and that he made the turn at less than ten miles an hour. To us plaintiff’s testimony certainly provides the basis from which negligence might be inferred, especially since the only other evidence offered was the inconsistent, confused, and unenlightening testimony of the bus driver.
*295
Plaintiff relied on an assertion of the doctrine of
res ipsa
loquitur
2
to reach the same conclusion that we have. While the doctrine of
res ipsa loquitur
has apparently not been formally adopted in Michigan, a reasonable facsimile of it has on occasion been used by some Michigan courts to decide an issue of negligence.
Rose v McMahon,
Since we reverse and remand for a new trial we have no need to rеach other issues raised by plaintiff on appeal.
Notes
Since this was a nonjury action, the motion for a directed verdict should have properly been called a motion to dismiss.
Dauer v Zabel,
The four conditions for the substantive application of the concept of
res ipsa loquitur
are (1) the event must be of a kind which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of someone’s negligence, (2) the event must have been caused by an agency or instrumentality within the exclusive control of the defendant, (3) the event must not have been due to any voluntary action or contribution on the part of the plaintiff, and (4) evidence of the true explanation of the event must be more readily accessible to the defendant than to the plaintiff.
Rohdy v James Decker Munson Hospital,