Frederick v. San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways
Frederick v. San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal by plaintiffs from a judgment rendered in favor of the defendant San Francisco-Oakland Terminal Railways, a corporation, in an action brought by plaintiff, Tillie Frederick, and her husband,' Frank Frederick, to recover damages for personal injuries claimed to have been sustained by Mrs. Frederick through the negligence of the defendants while she was riding as a passenger on the street-car of said defendant corporation in the city of Oakland. The action was tried by the court sitting without a jury. The street-ear on which Mrs. Frederick was injured was at the time in charge of the defendant A. H. Stewart, as motorman, and of William J. Morehead, as conductor. The action abated as to the defendant Stewart on account of his death, which occurred prior to trial. *338 East 16th' Street without colliding with the street-car had cut across the corner and attempted to make the turn around and down East 16th Street and run parallel with the car, but was unable to do so, and crashed into the side of the street-car, breaking the air pipe-line controlling the air-brakes. There is a descent in the grade on Bast 16th Street eastwardly from 12th Avenue, and finding that the air-brakes were out @f commission, the motorman and conduey tor applied the hand-brakes; but the speed of the car was not sufficiently checked to prevent it from overturning when it reached a sharp curve at the corner of East 16th Street and 14th Avenue. The plaintiff, Tillie Frederick, was injured when the car overturned.
*337 The accident occurred on the evening of October-22, 1916, at about the hour of 9:40. The street-car at the time was traveling eastwardly along East 16th Street and had just crossed the intersection of 12th Avenue, which runs at right angles with East 16th Street, when it was struck by an automobile which had approached at a rapid rate of speed up 12th Avenue and being unable to make the crossing at
*338 Many witnesses were sworn on behalf of appellants, but all of them except one gave evidence concerning the character and extent of the personal injuries sustained by Mrs. Frederick. In view of the fact that the lower court held the respondent free from all negligence, those injuries, however serious, become unimportant on this appeal. The only witness for appellants whose testimony related to the cause of the accident was Mrs. Frederick herself.
In presenting their case to the lower court appellants relied upon the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur and the presumption of negligence carried with it. (Bonneau v. North Shore R. R. Co., 152 Cal. 406, [125 Am. St. Rep. 68, 93 Pac. 106]; Sellers v. Southern Pac.. Co.; 33 Cal. App. 701, [166 Pac. 599] ; Patterson v. San Francisco & S. M. R. R. Co., 147 Cal. 178, [81 Pac. 531].) And it is contended by appellants on this appeal that the evidence offered by respondent was not only insufficient to rebut the presumption of negligence but, on the contrary, showed that respondent was negligent in the following particulars: that the motorman failed to slacken the speed of the car when he saw the approach of the automobile up 12th Avenue; that he failed to apply the hand-brakes immediately upon learning that the air-brakes were rendered useless; and that he failed to reverse the motor in order, to cheek the speed of the car.
There are no questions of law presented so far as the evidence or its admissibility is concerned. The appeal in the main merely presents the question of the sufficiency of the evidence.
W. P. Jackson, the master mechanic of the respondent company, was also a witness. He testified that on the night of the accident, after it had occurred, he examined the hand-brakes and found nothing wrong with them, and on the next morning examined the air-brake system and found that it was in perfect order, except that the “nipple in the main reservoir line” was cracked in two places, which he explained was not an old break, and that it was also dented on the bottom side. He also explained that enough air would have been left in the air-brake cylinder and air pipe-line after the automobile ran into the car to give some indication of air-brake control, and that the mo *341 torman would not realize at once that the air pipe-line was broken, because his air-brake equipment would for a few seconds function in part. He further testified that in putting on the air-brak.es the brakeshoes will lock and the car slide, and that the practice to test this is to release and reset the brakeshoes until a reduction in speed indicates that the brakeshoes are taking hold properly; that the release is always accompanied by a hissing of escaping air, and that there was enough air left in the air pipe-line and cylinder to give the motorman the impression that the air-brake would take hold properly and stop the car.
On the point that the motorman should have reversed the motor appellants rely upon the printed rules of the company, wherein it is stated that under certain emergency conditions the motor should be reversed, but those printed rules also state that reversing a moving car is a very serious strain on the mechanism, especially if running at a high rate of speed, and must never be resorted to except to avoid accident, and that in every case where a car or train is reversed a prompt report should be made to the station foreman, so that examination can be made of the controllers and motor, and the motorman explained in his deposition that under the conditions present that night it would have been dangerous to reverse the motor, because, he stated, “It would have blown my overhead [fuse] and it would have had no effect.”
The evidence narrated shows sufficient justification for the findings of the lower court that respondent was not negligent in the operation of the car in the manner charged in the complaint, which brings the case within the rule that the conclusions of the lower court cannot be disturbed.
We find no error in the record, and the judgment is, therefore, affirmed. .
Waste, P. J., and Richards, J., concurred.
*343 A petition for a rehearing of this cause was denied by the district court of appeal on July 28, 1920, and a petition to have the cause heard in the supreme court, after judgment in the district court of appeal, was denied by the supreme court on August 26, 1920.
All the Justices concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- TILLIE FREDERICK Et Al., Appellants, v. SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND TERMINAL RAILWAYS (A Corporation), Respondent
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published