Morris v. Schuylkill Railway Co.
Morris v. Schuylkill Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Main Street in the Borough of G-irardville runs east and west and Richard Street intersects it at right angles. A single track street railway lies in the center of Main Street, at Richard Street there is a branch railway leading to Shenandoah, and the track entering Main Street at Richard Street, turns west on Main Street. The track on Richard Street had not been operated during the winter of 1920 and what is called a “station car,” used as a temporary waiting room, was standing on Richard Street about even with the building line on Main Street. The plaintiff entered Main Street and proceeded west toward Richard Street. With him were five companions. They proceeded to drive west on Main Street, going at the rate of six or seven miles an hour. There was a work car standing on the track on Main Street. This work car could be seen by the plaintiff for some hundreds of feet. When the auto on which the plaintiff was a passenger got to within six to twelve feet of the curve at Richard Street, the work car was suddenly backed off the Main Street track on to the curve and in front of the automobile, so that Rice, the driver, had four alternatives presented to him; he could continue in his course and pass between the work car and station car and run the risk of being pinched between them, or he could turn sharply to the right and perhaps pass the station car, or turn to the left, which is the course he adopted, with disastrous results, or he could stop. The last would probably have been the best plan but there is some evidence that the distance in which he could stop his car bore close relation to the distance he was from the work car. Rice turned to the left and struck the side
We think the matter was properly left to the jury.
The assignments are overruled and judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Negligence — Contributory negligence — Automobiles — Sudden emergency — Question for fury. In an action to recover damages, the result of a collision between an automobile and a trolley car, evidence was produced on the part of the plaintiff to establish that he was proceeding in an automobile along a borough street at the rate of six or seven miles an hour. As he approached an intersecting street a work car, which was standing on the street along which the plaintiff was traveling, was suddenly without warning backed on to a track leading from the- main tracks immediately in front of the automobile of the plaintiff. Under such circumstances, the case was for the jury, and a verdict for the plaintiff will be sustained. When the plaintiff exercised the care and caution that a reasonably prudent and cautious man would have done under the circumstances, and is suddenly placed in a position of danger by a negligent act of another, he is not responsible for an error of judgment committed in trying to extricate himself, whereby he incurred another danger without negligence of his own.