McMurtrie v. Wheeling Traction Co.
McMurtrie v. Wheeling Traction Co.
Opinion of the Court
The parties occupy the same position here as they did in the trial court and will be referred to as plaintiff and defendant.
The action is one for personal injury sustained by the plaintiff by being struct by the interurban car of the defendant, while she was crossing its tracts for the purpose of becoming a passenger upon the car which struct her.
The action is grounded upon negligence, and the issue is made by a denial of negligence and an averment that the injury, if any, was caused by the sole negligence of the plaintiff.
The issue of contributory negligence was raised by the evidence.
The record discloses that the plaintiff resided west of defendant’s track and near to stop 27; that at that point defendant did not receive and discharge passengers from its west side, but did receive and discharge passengers from its east side, and had constructed on the east side of its track a platform for that purpose, from the north end of which there was a path across the track, with a foot-bridge consisting of two railroad ties placed side by side across a ditch adjacent to the track, which was used by the patrons of the defendant residing in that vicinity on the west side of the track; that on the day in question plaintiff waited for the coming of the car at a store directly opposite the platform, and some thirty-five to forty feet west of the track; and that upon the approach of the car she left the store, proceeded easterly across the track, and, while so doing, was struck by the car and injured.
The accident occurred within the view of a number of persons, who were called as witnesses at the trial,' and their versions of the acts of the parties and their relative positions differed to such an extent that in arriving at a conclusion as to what each party prob
In arriving at the probable truth it is the privilege of the trier to believe such witnesses as he considers
It will at once be said that the above is not a fair statement of what the evidence tends to prove, that these witnesses at other times in this and other trials gave testimony inconsistent with the above version, and that from the whole evidence an entirely different situation is disclosed. All of which may be conceded. But how is that comprehensive and understanding view of the situation to be obtained? Necessarily by a weighing of the evidence, as the jury were in duty bound to do. The court of appeals did this upon their first review, and, having done it, ar
In this case, upon this record, the court could not determine whether the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence without considering the evidence as a whole, or at least a considerable portion of it. The fact, then, of the existence or nonexistence of contributory negligence, was not capable of being determined as a matter of law; but was determinable as a matter of fact by a trier of facts, and could well have been the controlling fact upon which the first reversal was based.
Section 11577, General Code, does not contemplate one reversal upon the weight of the evidence for esach branch of a case. Such reversals are usually based upon the weight of the evidence as to a particular element as distinguished from every element of the case.
The judgment of the court of appeals will therefore be reversed, and that of the court of common pleas will be affirmed.
Judgment reversed.
Reference
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- Negligence — Exercise of care and contributory negligence— Questions of fact or law, when — Court of appeals — First reversal upon weight of evidence — Second reversal for contributory negligence — Section 11511, General Code, applies, when. 1. Where any phase of the facts, as shown by the evidence upon the subject of contributory negligence, will warrant the inference that the plaintiff, at the time of the injury, was exercising due care, it cannot be said that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, as a matter of law. 2. In all oases where in determining the existence or non-existence of contributory negligence it becomes necessary to detect tlie truth from conflicting evidence, it becomes a question of fact and not of law. 3. A court of appeals having once reversed a case upon the weight of the evidence is not prohibited by the provision of Section 11577, General Code, to again pronounce judgment of reversal upon the ground that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law. But where it requires the weighing of evidence to determine whether plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence it becomes a question of fact, and the provisions of that section apply.