193 Mass. 133 | Mass. | 1906
These two actions brought to recover damages by reason of injuries received by the plaintiff in the first action were tried, together. We shall speak only of the first because the second stands or falls with it.
The defendant’s track ran by the side of the road; and between the track and the sidewalk there was a gutter in the form of a ditch about one foot wide and about one foot deep, the nearest line of the ditch being two and one half feet from
The car did not start until after she had alighted. The place where the car stopped was a part of the highway over which the defendant had no control. The case is thus distinguishable from cases like Joslyn v. Milford, Holliston & Framingham Street Railway, 184 Mass. 65. “ The street is in no sense a passenger station, for the safety of which a street railway company is responsible.” Barker, J. in Creamer v. West End Street Railway, 156 Mass. 320, 321. The plaintiff however contends that it was the duty of the conductor to caution her against stepping into the gutter, and that his failure to do so was negligence. But this contention is untenable. Gutters like the one described are not uncommon features of streets in our country towns. They are generally between that part of the highway which is wrought for public travel and the sidewalk. The plaintiff knew that she was alighting from the car upon the “ sidewalk side,” and the conductor may well have assumed that she was familiar with the existence of gutters and would govern herself accordingly.
It is unnecessary to consider what would have been the duty of the conductor had there been some unusual cavity into which she was likely to fall.
Exceptions in each case overruled.