Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting): Upon this motion for a nonsuit the plaintiff is entitled to the most favorable inferences to be drawn from the testimony. He was trailing a Scheneetady-Albany interurban trolley ear in a westerly direction on State street, Schenectady, N. Y., for a short distance and while turning in a southerly direction in the act of crossing the double tracks of the defendant from the northerly side of State street, into Martin street, in the rear of this west-bound interurban car which was standing on the northerly track discharging passengers at the lower and westerly crossing of said State and Martin streets, the plaintiff’s automobile was struck in the rear by one of the defendant’s ears which was then proceeding easterly on the defendant’s southerly track at an excessive rate of speed of thirty to forty miles an hour without signal or warning of its approach. At the time of said accident said east-bound trolley ear was being operated at a greater speed than was permitted in that section of Schenectady by an ordinance of that city. The plaintiff says that when he was about one hundred feet from Martin street he looked down the street in the direction from which the other car came and saw no car approaching. We do not know just how far the west-bound car was ahead of him at the time that he looked but the inference from his testimony is that he had crept up fairly close to it. A fair inference could be drawn from the testimony that, at the time when he looked, the trolley car, which he was following, which was a fifty-foot interurban car, so obstructed his view as to prevent him from seeing the approach at that time of the east-bound car which struck him. We cannot say that his view was so unobstructed that his testimony that he looked and did not see the approaching car is incredible as a matter of law. Upon that phase of the case there was a question of fact for the jury. The further contention of the defendant is that in turning as he did, ten feet in the rear of this standing trolley ear where he was unable to see whether any car was approaching easterly on the other track, the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law; that it was plaintiff’s duty as a prudent person to wait before attempting to cross until the standing car had moved away sufficiently to clear his vision as to a possible car approaching on the other track. I cannot distinguish this case in principle from the holding in the case of Wall v. International R. Co. (233 N. Y. 309), in which case the Court of Appeals said, with reference to the contributory negligence of a passenger alighting from a standing trolley car and passing to the rear of it was struck by another trolley car proceeding in
Lead Opinion
Judgment affirmed, with costs. Cochrane, P. J., H. T. Kellogg, Van Kirk and McCann, JJ., concur; Hinman, J., dissents, with opinion.
