310 Mass. 749 | Mass. | 1942
These are two actions of tort to recover damages for the death of the plaintiff’s testatrix which, the plaintiff alleges, was due to the negligent operation of a motor vehicle by the individual defendant, as an employee
The jury could find the following facts: The testatrix, a woman eighty-five years of age and five feet and four inches tall, was walking in a northerly direction on the westerly sidewalk of Pond Street toward her store, which was located in a building to the north of the railroad station on the westerly side of this street. The sidewalk along which the testatrix was travelling was four inches higher than the street and abutted the depot yard and the adjacent premises of the testatrix. A boy, fourteen years of age, and his sister, eleven years of age, while on their way to her store had passed the testatrix at a point approximately seventy feet from her store. The boy and girl entered the store, the boy holding open the door for the testatrix for a short time and then joining his sister who was at the counter. The girl then looked out of the store window and saw the motor vehicle at the place where the body of the testatrix was found, which was about twenty-eight feet from the store. The body was lying to the west of the sidewalk with the feet a few inches from the inner line of the sidewalk. The testatrix suffered fractures of several bones and also a fracture of the skull so extensive as to permit the evisceration of the brain. There was no evidence of conscious suffering. The motor vehicle, a twenty-nine passenger bus, twenty-eight feet in length, seven feet and nine inches wide, with an overhang of five feet and seven inches extending from the center of the rear wheels, and with windows along the sides and in the rear, was driven northerly along Pond Street and the front of it driven into a vacant lot upon the easterly side of the street; it was
The operator, in backing the bus over the sidewalk, was required to exercise a degree of care commensurate with the probable harmful consequences that might be sustained by pedestrians travelling upon the sidewalk if there were a lack of such care. Minsk v. Pitaro, 284 Mass. 109. Capano v. Melchionno, 297 Mass. 1. Whether the operator ought to have seen the testatrix in time to stop the bus and avert striking her was a question of fact, which was properly submitted to the jury. Noonan v. P. M. Leavitt Co. 238 Mass. 481. Millay v. Town Taxi, Inc. 242 Mass. 314. Smith v. Whittall, 257 Mass. 306. Mulroy v. Mari-nakis, 271 Mass. 421. Hirrel v. Lacey, 274 Mass. 431. Sullivan v. Napolitano, 277 Mass. 341. Legg v. Bloom, 282 Mass. 303. White v. Checker Taxi Co. 284 Mass. 73. Fras-ciello v. Baer, 304 Mass. 643.
It was not necessary for the plaintiff to show the precise manner in which the bus came in contact with the decedent. Brown v. Daley, 273 Mass. 432. Eaton v. S. S. Pierce Co. 288 Mass. 323. Capano v. Melchionno, 297 Mass.
Exceptions overruled.