This suit for damages for personal injuries sustained by the minor plaintiff on June 13,1929, was instituted in the Court of Common Pleas No. 4, and has been tried three times. At the first trial a judge of this court entered a compulsory nonsuit, and this was taken off by the court in banc. By reason of the consolidation of the trial lists of the five Courts of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, the second trial was before a judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2, and a compulsory nonsuit was again entered. This was also removed by that court in banc. At the third trial, which was before another judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 4, after defendant’s motion for a nonsuit was declined, the defendant presented no evidence, its point for binding instructions was refused, and the jury rendered a verdict for the plaintiffs, for the minor in the amount of $1,000, and for his parents in the sum of $853. Defendant then moved for judgment n. o. v., and this motion was dismissed by the court in banc. Defendant’s appeals followed, and so we now state the reasons for our action.
Sterling Cropper, who was standing on the southeast corner of Sixteenth and Delancey Streets, testified that he saw an automobile parked 5 or 6 feet south of the south curb line of Delancey Street; that he saw the plaintiff going across Sixteenth Street about 5 feet south of the south curb line of Delancey Street; that he saw the cart stuck in the tracks and the plaintiff swinging the cart trying to get it out; that he saw the trolley car stopped at Pine Street taking on passengers; that he saw the plaintiff get the cart loose, but something else attracted his attention and he did not see the impact; that he heard it, and that the trolley car then went about 100 feet before it stopped.
This was all the evidence relating to the manner in which the minor plaintiff received his injuries, and it was defendant’s contention that a case clear of contributory negligence had not been made out.
There is no doubt that the operator of defendant’s trolley car was negligent. He had a clear view of the street and of the tracks in front of him, of the automobile parked on the east side of Sixteenth Street just south of Delancey Street, of the pushcart on the tracks, and of the minor plaintiff trying to remove it. As he approached, he did not slacken the speed of the car, as he should have done with an object on the tracks in front of it, but continued at 25 miles per hour, and he was not able to bring it to a stop after it hit the cart until it had gone 100 feet. Indeed, the defendant did not contend that he was not negligent but relied on the alleged contributory negligence of the minor plaintiff.
Defendant’s argument was that the minor plaintiff never was on the tracks; that he was in a position where by letting go of the pushcart, he could have stepped back
When the trolley car did not stop but continued to approach, the minor plaintiff was suddenly confronted with the necessity of choosing in an instant whether to let go of the pushcart or to make one more effort to dislodge it. He did the latter, and as the cart came loose on his final heave so that he was able to turn it off the tracks, his judgment was not entirely wrong. However, “It is well known that, instinctively, one in an emergency is more apt to fail in exercising sound judgment than where there
“A street car company has not the exclusive right to the use of a street on which it operates its road; nor has it such right to its own tracks. The streets . . . are for the use of the traveling public and the right of the street railway company to use them is in common with the public. . . . each must exercise its rights thereon with care and a due regard for the rights of the other. While . . . a street car company must have a superior right to use its tracks in the operation of its road, yet this does not forbid their use by the public but only requires that in their use the right of the public, under certain circumstances, shall be subordinate to that of the railway company. By placing himself or his horse and vehicle [or his automobile or pushcart] on the tracks of a street railway for any legitimate use of the street, the traveler does not become a trespasser, and will not become such unless he unreasonably and unnecessarily obstructs the company in the use of the tracks”: McFarland v. Consolidated Traction Co., 204 Pa. 423, 427, 428, and unless he does so, it is not for the court to declare him guilty of contributory negligence: Struse v. P. R. T. Co., 87 Pa. Superior Ct. 46, 47. “While the street railway company has the right of way it must give the driver of a vehicle an opportunity to clear the track”: Harper et al. v. P. R. T. Co., 258 Pa. 282, 288.
The situation in which the minor plaintiff found him
Thus, in Craven v. Pittsburgh Railways Co., 243 Pa. 619, the plaintiff, a street cleaner, testified that he turned the loaded cart which he was pushing upon the track of a street railway company in order to pass a standing horse and wagon, proceeded along the track until the horse and wagon were passed, and then attempted to turn the cart off the track, but its wheel caught on the rail, started to slide and slid about 6 or 8 feet, and the cart was struck by a trolley car, which he had seen approaching 500 feet away, when the cart entered the track, but which he did not look at again until it was 6 feet away. It was held that the question whether he was negligent was for the jury, the court pointing out, at page 623, that his “attention was riveted” -upon getting the cart off the track, and that he “was not an ordinary pedestrian with no care other than his own safety”, but was “engaged upon his work”. Such was the situation of the minor plaintiff in the present case. Although he did look again at the approaching car after the cart was caught on the track, his attention was directed to removing it. He could not watch the car all the time and at the same time endeavor to dislodge the cart. Likewise he was not merely a pedestrian
Schwenk v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 315 Pa. 434, and Hawk et ux. v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 307 Pa. 214, cited in defendant’s behalf, had to do with passengers in automobiles at railroad crossings, and as was pointed out in McPherson v. P. R. T. Co., supra, at page 277, where the motor of an automobile “stalled, not on a railroad, but on a street railway track”, it was for the jury, not the court, to say whether the plaintiff should have expected that the street car would be operated so as to hit the stalled automobile which was in plain view. So in the in-, stant case, it was for the jury to determine whether the minor plaintiff was negligent. “The failure to anticipate negligence which results in injury is not negligence and will not defeat an action for the injury sustained. A party is not bound to guard against the want of ordinary care on the part of another; he has a right to presume that ordinary care will be used to protect him and his property from injury. No one can complain of want of care in another where care is only rendered necessary by his own wrongful act”: Wagner v. P. R. T. Co., 252 Pa. 354, 359, 360. (Italics ours.)
In Clark v. Pittsburgh Railways Co., 314 Pa. 404, and in Koppenhaver v. Swab, 316 Pa. 207, 210, also cited for defendant, the plaintiffs were pedestrians, and, of course, they were “freer to act” than moving vehicles, or than the minor plaintiff, who was, as was pointed out above, “not an ordinary pedestrian”, but was encumbered with or operating a pushcart.
The difference of opinion of the various judges who
NOTE. — An appeal from the foregoing decision was taken to the Superior Court, but was subsequently withdrawn.
