Perry v. Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Co.
Perry v. Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is an action of tort brought by the plaintiff to recover damages sustained by his automobile as the result of a collision with an electric car of the defendant. At the close of the trial to a jury, the defendant filed a motion for a directed verdict. The motion was denied, the jury found for the plaintiff, and the case is before this court on the exceptions of the defendant duly taken and the refusal so to direct.
The accident happened on Broadway, in the city of Chelsea, at 11:45 a.m., near the corner where Eleanor Street intersects Broadway at right angles. Broadway at that point runs northeast toward Lynn and southwest toward Chelsea with a grade slightly sloping toward the southwest. There are two sets of car tracks located on Broadway: the tracks for Chelsea bound cars being on the northerly side and the outbound tracks on the southerly side. Near the place of the collision the distance from the southerly rail of the inbound tracks to the curbing on the northerly side of Broadway was ten or twelve feet. December 10, 1920, was a “drizzling” day and the condition of the street and rails was “wet and dirty, muddy and slushy.” The events which preceded the collision, in substance, are as follows: The plaintiff, after loading bags and paper on his truck standing at
Upon the above statement of facts, in the opinion of a majority of the court, there was an issue of fact for the jury upon the question whether it was negligence to drive the electric car at a rate of speed which, judging by the event, made it impossible to stop within a distance of forty-five or fifty- feet after the motorman saw a collision would be liable to result if the electric car was not stopped within that distance. Maderios v. Boston Elevated Railway, 254 Mass. 302. The evidence did not warrant a ruling that the plaintiff as matter of law was not in the exercise of due care.
Exceptions overruled.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Benjamin Perry v. Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company
- Status
- Published