Rively v. Media, Middletown, Aston & Chester Electric Railway Co.
Rively v. Media, Middletown, Aston & Chester Electric Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
These two cases were tried together and verdicts for the defendant were rendered on October 26,1904. A motion for a new trial was made in each case on the following day and was
Verdicts were directed for the defendant on the ground of the contributory negligence of the plaintiffs. A mere recital of the facts as established by the evidence submitted by them is sufficient to show that the question of their contributory negligence should have gone to the jury. One of them — Albert K. Taylor — was the owner of the team in which he and the other plaintiff were riding. When they reached a certain point in the public road they found the driveway covered with ice, and, the horse being smoothly shod, it was almost impossible to drive over it. The defendant company operated a single-track electric street railway along the south side of this public road. The driveway was north of the trolley track. After a car going in the same direction had passed the appellants they drove over onto the track to avoid the icy driveway. The tracks were of flat rails and were constructed with a view to their use by teams as well as by trolley cars. After traveling upon the track for the distance of about 500 feet, and be
The plaintiffs had a right to use the track of the defendant company, subordinate, however, to its superior right to use it. The contributory negligence of which the court below pronounced them guilty was their leaving the driveway, when there was nothing to prevent them from traveling on it, and going on the tracks under the foggy condition of the morning, which prevented their seeing the approach of a car for more than seventy or eighty, feet. A jury could have fairly found that the icy condition of the driveway prevented the plaintiffs from traveling over it, but, even without any reason for leaving it, they were not trespassers in traveling upon the track. It was not negligence per se for them to be there: Thatcher v. Central Traction Co., 166 Pa. 66. If it had been a clear, bright day, it would not be pretended that the appellants would have been guilty of contributory negligence in going upon the track, and on this foggy day, though they could not see, they had a right to expect that some signal would be given them of an approaching car to enable them to get out of its way. It may or may not have been a prudent thing for them to leave the driveway and travel on the track, but as to this minds, can fairly differ. It. was absolutely impossible, or almost so, to proceed over the icy road, for the condition of which the appellee was responsible, and what more natural,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.