Welsh v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.
Welsh v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff at 6:30 a. m., November 20, 1913, came down Fiftieth street in the City of Philadelphia and at Girard avenue saw the east bound car, which she intended to take, approaching. The car usually stopped on the west side of Fiftieth street. She was on the east side of the street intersection. A man who usually boarded the car with her was on the west crossing and was signalling to the motorman to stop. Under the ordinances of the city the car was required to slow up at the west side of Fiftieth street and it was admitted at the trial that “slowing up” meant stopping if there was any one waiting to get on the car. At the time the plaintiff took her last look at the car before entering the east bound track upon which it was approaching, it was ten yards beyond the other crossing where the man who signalled to it was standing. The distance at which the car was last seen by the plaintiff, the duty of the motorman to reduce its speed, and if signalled by an intending passenger, to stop, his failure to observe his duty in this respect, but instead of so doing coming on at a speed which was undiminished, and which carried the car three times its length beyond the place where it struck the plaintiff, present a state of facts which warranted the submission of the case to the jury.
As was said in Dunn v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co., 244 Pa. 176, cases of this kind stand on their own facts. The plaintiff was not bound to anticipate that the company would violate its rule of duty: Lewis v. Wood, 247 Pa. 545; Reeves v. D., L. & W. R. R. Co., 30 Pa. 454. “Although no one has a right carelessly to put himself in a position of danger relying entirely on the assumption
Although the case is a close one, we think the jury could properly find that the plaintiff acted as the ordinarily prudent person would under similar circumstances.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Welsh v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company
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- Syllabus
- Negligence — Street railway companies — ■Injuries to pedestrian at street crossing — Stopping of car — Far side and near side. In an action against a street railway company to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by a pedestrian, a woman, while crossing the tracks of the railway, at the far side of a crossing, the case is for the jury where it appears that the car usually stopped on the near side, that under an ordinance it was required to slow up; that “slowing up” meant stopping if there was any one waiting to get on the car; that at the time the plaintiff took her last look at the ear before entering upon the track upon which the car was approaching, it was ten yards beyond the near crossing where she saw a man standing and signalling for the car to stop; that the car did not stop or slow up but went three times its own length beyond the place where it struck plaintiff, before it was stopped.