Benson v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.
Benson v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is an appeal from the refusal of the court below to take off a judgment of compulsory nonsuit. The plaintiff, a pedestrian upon the street, was injured by the fall of a trolley pole, which was drawn from its socket upon the roof of a car, which was moving around a curve. It appears that the accident resulted from the fact that the trolley wheel slipped from the overhead wire, and caught in a crotch of the supporting wires, which lifted the pole from its' socket, so that it after-wards fell to the ground, striking the plaintiff. There was nothing in the evidence which tended to show that anything was wrong with the apparatus, or that the pole was not adjusted in its place in the ordinary and proper way. The accident was the result of an unusual combination of circumstances. In the ordinary operation of a car it is necessary that the trolley pole be left free at the upper end where the wheel comes in contact with the wire from which the current is derived, in order that the pole may be detached or shifted from the trolley wire, as frequent occasion may require. The accidental slipping of the wheel from the trolley wire is difficult to prevent, but ordinarily no harm results therefrom; but, in the present case it happened to leave the wire at the precise point where the tension of the spring upon the pole threw the end of it into a fork or crotch of the supporting overhead wires, where it caught and held fast, while the car moved on. The result wás, that the pole was drawn out of the socket, in which it was fastened at the lower end. Such a combination as to time and place, as here occurred, when the wheel of the trolley pole left the track, could reasonably be expected to occur but rarely, and even if such a possibility had
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Benson v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Negligence — Street railways — Trolley poles — Fall — Injury to pedestrian — N onsuit. Where a trolley wheel accidently ran off the trolley wire and the pole was caught in other wires as the car turned a comer, and was drawn from its socket so that it fell upon the ground, striking a pedestrian, a nonsuit was properly entered in an action for injuries sustained, in the absence of evidence showing that the apparatus was defective either in construction, maintenance or operation, or that, even if such an occurrence could have been anticipated, there was any practicable means of preventing it.