Walsh v. Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway Co.
Walsh v. Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
We have examined this case with care, and notwithstanding the thirty-two assignments of error filed by the appellant we discover no reversible error in the record. Eighteen of the assignments allege error in the answers to appellant’s request for instructions to the jury. These points were properly refused because they assumed as facts matters in dispute, or asked for binding instructions. Three assignments complained, without cause, of the learned judge’s charge which was more favorable to the appellant company than the facts warranted. Nine of the assignments allege error in the court’s answers to appellee’s requests for instructions to the jury, one of them complaining that the court refused appellee’s ninth point. Of the other two assignments, one alleges error in not withdrawing a juror, and the other in not entering judgment for the defendant non obstante veredicto.
The case was properly submitted to the jury in a charge of which the appellee had more reason to complain than the appellant. There was ample evidence to warrant the jury in finding that the motorman was negligent. The abrupt turn of the track as it entered Tenth street from Lincoln street required the motorman to keep a careful
The appellee was the guest of her father and the team was driven by her brother who was not her servant or under her control. Under these facts negligence of the driver of the wagon, if any, cannot be imputed to the appellee: Jones v. Lehigh & New England R. R. Co., 202 Pa. 81; Little v. Telegraph Co., 213 Pa. 229.
Whether the appellee exercised the care of a prudent person in permitting the driver to attempt the crossing under the circumstances was for the jury and not for the court. The test of the appellee’s contributory negligence is, under our cases, whether she joined in testing a patent danger or violated a fixed rule of law. Her brother, as was clearly established by the testimony, had knowledge of horses from his earliest years, and was a careful and' competent driver. There is no testimony to show that the horses were unruly or were not gentle. The crossing
We are not convinced that the errors complained of in the second and tenth assignments did the defendant any harm. The amount of the verdict shows that the appellant was not injured by the illustration given by the learned judge in his charge as to the proper manner of estimating the damages. We do not approve of the language used by him in submitting the case on the question of damages and complained of in the second assignment, but it is apparent that it worked no injury to the appellant in this case, and, therefore, the assignment is not sustained.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Walsh v. Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway Company
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- Syllabus
- Negligence — Street railways — Motorman inattentive — Plaintiff jumping from wagon under fear of collision — Contributory negligence — Imputed negligence — Test of negligence of passenger in a private conveyance. 1. In an action to recover damages for personal injuries the case is for the jury where they could find from the evidence that the plaintiff was riding in a wagon, outside of and parallel to defendant’s tracks on a city street, that as the team approached the corner of an intersecting street, where the tracks made a short turn into the intersecting street, and where the view at the intersecting street was obstructed by houses, and attempted to cross the tracks, a car came around the curve without sounding any signal and struck the wagon; that the motorman of the car was looking across the street instead of along the track as the car turned the curve and was not aware that the team was crossing until the conductor rang the bell at the suggestion of a passenger on the rear platform; and that the plaintiff, seeing the car coming and fearing a collision, jumped from the wagon and seriously injured her ankle. 2. If, in such a case, the plaintiff, without her fault, was placed in danger of a collision between the wagon and the car by the negligence of the defendant company and she had a well grounded fear that the collision would result in serious injury to her, she, if acting in good faith and as a person of ordinary prudence, was not guilty of negligence in leaping from the wagon to escape the threatened danger, although it was not the safest or wisest course to pursue. 3. In such a case, where it appears that the plaintiff was the guest of her father and that the team was driven by her brother who was not her servant or under her control, the negligence of the driver of the wagon, if any, cannot be imputed to her. 4. The test of plaintiff’s contributory negligence, in such a case, is whether she joined in testing a patent danger or violated a fixed rule of law. Where in such a case, the evidence tends to show that plaintiff’s brother was a careful and competent driver and that there was no obvious or imminent danger in a passenger permitting a capable driver to make the crossing, the questions as to whether the circumstances under which the accident occurred required the plaintiff to act differently and whether she was negligent in permitting the driver of the vehicle to attempt the crossing, are for the jury. Negligence — Damages—Improper calculation by a trial judge — Harmless error. 5. An improper calculation or statement by the trial judge as to the measure of damages is no ground for reversing a judgment in an accident case, where the amount of the verdict shows that the defendant was not injured by the remarks of the judge.