Seligson v. Bay State Street Railway Co.
Seligson v. Bay State Street Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
There was a direct conflict between the evidence introduced by the plaintiff and that introduced by the defendant in this action, but the jury were warranted in finding that the facts of the case were in substance as follows: On a Sunday morning in the summer a girl fourteen years of age boarded an open car of the defendant to go to the “depot stopping place for cars which do not enter the grounds of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company.” She sat down at the farther end of the rear seat, being the seat immediately in front of the rear platform. The seat which she took was the last empty seat in the car. At the transfer station at the City Hall, which the car reached before it came to the “depot stopping place,” a number of persons got on the car. All the seats in the car being full (as we have already said) those persons had to and did stand on the running board. When the car reached the “depot stopping place” the plaintiff stood up and moved across to the end of the rear seat
It is the duty of á common carrier to exercise the highest degree of care (which is consistent with its equal duty to its other passengers) to afford a passenger who wishes to alight at a stopping place at which its car has stopped a reasonable opportunity to do so. See for example Jacobs v. West End Street Railway, 178 Mass. 116,119; McCumber v. Boston Elevated Railway, 207 Mass. 559, 562. In the case at bar the jury were warranted in finding that the conductor who was on the rear platform saw or ought to have seen what took place as stated above. And they were warranted in making the further finding that he was negligent in not seeing to it that the plaintiff had an opportunity to step down on to the running board and from there to the ground in alighting from the car.
The defendant’s main contention is founded on the fact that the plaintiff in her cross examination testified: "that she did not think there was any disorder on the car; that everybody seemed to be orderly; everybody behaving themselves.” And in that connection it relies upon what was said by this court in McCumber v. Boston Elevated Railway, 207 Mass. 559, 562. But that was a case in which the plaintiff was pushed off a car by other passengers and it was in that connection that this court said that “there is nothing in the evidence to indicate that the passengers inside the car were turbulent or disorderly in any respect. . . . The plaintiff does not show any conduct on the part of other passengers which would naturally have caused a careful conductor to appre
There is nothing in the other cases cited by the defendant which requires special notice.
The entry must be
Exceptions overruled.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Sarah Seligson v. Bay State Street Railway Company
- Status
- Published