266 Mass. 141 | Mass. | 1929
These are four actions of tort; one by Robert E. Walker to recover for personal injuries and property damage as the result of a collision between an automobile, owned and driven by him, and an electric car of the defendant, and for medical and nursing expenses incurred in consequence of the injuries to himself, his wife and two minor children who were riding with him and.suffered the injuries for which the other three actions were brought. It was agreed that there could be no recovery by any of the occupants unless Robert E. Walker was entitled to recover. He will be referred to as the plaintiff. At the close of the evidence, the judge denied the defendant’s motion in each case for a directed verdict, and the only question for decision is whether the motions should have been granted.
The defendant conceded that there was evidence of negligence on the part of the motorman. The accident occurred about 7:45 a.m. in Boston at the intersection of Brookline Avenue, which runs substantially east and west, and River-
Some of these facts bearing on the defendant’s negligence might aid the jury in deciding whether or not the car was so far from the place of the accident when the plaintiff looked that his failure to see it was a careless act contributing to cause the accident. When the plaintiff looked the first and second times, the car may have been so far away that a reasonably prudent and careful man if he had looked and seen it
When we consider the fact that the accident occurred at intersecting streets, meeting as these streets met, the position of the billboards, the condition of the street surface, the weather, the distance the car may have been from the place of accident when the plaintiff looked, and the other circumstances in the case, we are unable to say as matter of law that the plaintiff was not in the exercise of due care. The question, whether he had negligently placed himself in a position of peril, was for the jury. Inasmuch as there was nothing in the evidence to justify a different conclusion in any of the cases the entry in each must be
Exceptions overruled.