Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Co. v. Williams
Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Co. v. Williams
Opinion of the Court
The action is to recover damages for personal injuries received on account of a collision between an electric street car and a wagon in which plaintiff was riding. The two vehicles were, just a moment before the accident, traveling in the same general direction and along the same street, and at the moment of the accident the wagon was attempting to cross the car track. The street for wagon traffic, and the car line, were on the same grade; only the rails were above the surface of the bed. of the street.
The defendant Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Company objected to many questions propounded to witnesses, seeking to elicit evidence as to whether cars of that company were operated on the lines or tracks of the other company, and as to whether the conductors and motormen of the one line did not, on their runs, go from one line to the other, and also excepted to each ruling allowing such questions to be answered. There was no error in any of these rulings. Such evidence was clearly competent and proper, owing to circumstances of this case, to enable the jury to ascertain which of the two companies should respond for the acts of the servants or agents in charge of the particular car on the occasion in question, as well as to show or tend to show that the relations, connections, and arrangements between the two companies were such as to make each responsible to strangers or the public for the wrongs of both in connection with their joint arrangement, if the jury should find that such an arrangement existed. — See Central of Georgia Railway Co. v. Wood, 129 Ala. 483, 29 South. 775. All those questions inquiring whether cars of one company were operated on the lines of the other, and
There was no error in refusing any of the defendant’s requested charges. The liability of either or both of the defendants, under the issues and the evidence as shown by the record, was a question for the jury, under proper instructions from the court.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.