Jester v. Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington R. R.
Jester v. Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington R. R.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is an appeal from an order refusing to take off a compulsory nonsuit. Appellant was injured and his automobile destroyed in attempting to pass over the appellee’s tracks, where they intersected Second street, in the Borough of Fernwood. The approach to the tracks is up a slight incline. The court below believed appellant was guilty of contributory negligence in committing his car to the crossing when he had a clear view of the track for a distance sufficient to enable him to avoid •the injury.
We have carefully examined the testimony; it presents a very close case. After giving the plaintiff the benefit of every inference fairly deducible from the evidence, we are led to the conclusion the case should have been submitted to the jury. We have frequently said a
Having taken due precaution within the range of vision testified to, considering the character and width of the roadway, and the difficulty in starting his machine and keeping in the roadway, we cannot say, as a matter of law, he was guilty of contributory negligence because he did not stop with the front of his car in the middle of the first track so that he might get a clear view of the track — conceding this was the only place it could be obtained. Apart from the fact that this was a busy main line track, it would be requiring too much of the drivers of motor vehicles to thus accurately gauge the exact place where the vehicle should stop. The margin of safety between this point and the next track on which the train would approach, with the well-known difficulty of stopping a car traveling over loose stones and ballast, within two or three feet of a track on which a train is moving or approaching, causing bewilderment of mind, are considerations which must be given due weight in determining whether proper care was exercised by the driver. Ordinarily 600 or 700 feet would be a sufficient
Judgment reversed with a procedendo.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jester v. Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington R. R. Co.
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- 17 cases
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- Syllabus
- Negligence — Railroads—■Automobiles—Collision—Stop, loole and listen — Grade crossing — Contributor negligence — Sudden danger —Confusion of driver — Law or fact — Case for jury — Nonsuit. 1. A nonsuit can be entered only in clear cases, when it is inconceivable on any reasonable hypothesis that a mind desiring solely to reach a just and proper conclusion in accordance with the relevant governing principles of law, after viewing the evidence in the light most advantageous to plaintiff, could determine in his favor the controlling issue involved. 2. When the standard of care shifts with the circumstances, the jury ordinarily must determine what it is, and if it has been, observed. 3. In an action against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries sustained in a collision at a grade crossing, the trial court is in error in not submitting the case to the jury, where the evidence tends to show that the approach to a three-track system of defendant’s tracks at the crossing was up a slight incline; that plaintiff stopped, looked and listened at a point, when the front of his car was two or three feet from the first rail, and his seat in the car was nine feet back from the front; that from this point he looked in both directions; that he could see to the right only 600 to 700 feet, because, according to his testimony, his view was obstructed by a small watchman’s box about 400 feet from him, and other obstructions, such as a station, telephone poles, bridge and “different things,” whose distance he'did not locate; that, neither Seeing nor hearing the approach of a train, he drove his car over a narrow roadway composed of loose ballast, to the first track; that the car front was about the middle of this track, when he saw the train about 50 feet away on the second track traveling from the right towards him at a speed of 50 to 55 miles an hour; that before he could stop, the engine struck the car throwing it to the south, the direction from which he was traveling, demolishing it and injuring him; that as the car advanced towards the track, plaintiff’s attention was largely taken up with getting the car under way and keeping on the. road, and that his view was increased very little in the approach, not over 25 or 50 feet, according to his testimony. 4. In such a case, the court, taking into consideration the grade, width and composition of the roadway, the vehicle to be driven, the precautions which plaintiff had taken, the difficulty of stopping a car on loose stones and ballast within two or three feet of the tracks on which a train was approaching, — causing bewilderment of mind, — cannot say that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence because he did not stop with the front of his car in the middle of the first track, so that he might get a clear view of such track. 5. Nor could the court say as a matter of law that the objects intercepting the view were so located that plaintiff must have seen the train .approaching from a sufficient distance to have avoided a collision.