Coyne v. Pittsburgh Railways Co.
Coyne v. Pittsburgh Railways Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Aleen Coyne, 19 years of age, was struck and injured by an automobile when she alighted from a street car which had been travelling eastwardly on East Carson Street in Pittsburgh and had stopped near a T-intersection known as Terminal Way. She and her parents brought an action in trespass against the Pittsburgh Railways Company and the operator of the involved automobile, Charles Baier. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs and against both defendants. The defendant railways company has
The railways company argues that the plaintiffs failed to show that the motorman of the street car committed any act of negligence and, if he did, it was not established that the negligence was the proximate cause of Aileen Coyne’s injuries. Beading the record in the light most favorable to the verdict-winners, as we are required to do in considering a motion for judgment n.o.v., the following recital of events emerges.
On the evening of October 20, 1951, at about 8 o’clock, Aileen Coyne boarded a No. 50 street car on Carson Street with the intention of getting off at Terminal Way where she was to meet other girls with whom she was going to the movies. She took a seat in the middle of the car and then, when it got to Third Street, which was the regular car stop immediately prior to the Terminal Way stop, she advanced to the front of the car and handed the motorman her transfer ticket. She turned and faced the doors, awaiting the car’s arrival at her destination. There was nothing to visually apprise her of the Terminal Way stop since Carson Street at this stretch of the thoroughfare on its southern side (which she was facing) is shadowed by a massive 20-foot-high retaining stone wall which offers no marking or architectural feature to designate the Terminal Way stop. The car ground to a halt, the motorman threw open the doors, the girl descended to the street and took two or three steps on the pavement when she was violently struck in the rear by an automobile which had been following the street car for some distance but which, as the car passed Terminal Way, moved abreast and alongside the car. The plaintiffs presented evidence to show that the street car ignored the Terminal Way stop and proceeded to a point 90 feet beyond it, where the motorman discharged
The’'defendant company denied that its street car had not stopped at Terminal Way and called witnesses who testified that it was precisely at Terminal Way that the collision between Baier’s automobile and Miss Coyne occurred. Of course, these diametrically opposing stories as to whether the car did or did not stop at Terminal Way passed through the crucible of the jury’s deliberations and fused in the verdict which now proclaims on the imperishable tablets of a factual finding that the street ear disregarded the Terminal Way stop. Thus, we have no question on this appeal where the car stopped. We are concerned only with, whether, in taking Miss Coyne 90 feet beyond the regular stopping place, the motorman precipitated his passenger into a dangerous situation which he, with cautionary foresight, could have avoided.
The defendant company asserts that we should state, as a matter of law, that there was no danger associated with the motorman’s discharging Miss Coyne at. the point where she eventually alighted. This, we cannot do. In the way stands established principles of law as unsurmountable as the Chinese Wall which confronted Miss Coyne as she left the car. In the case of O’Malley v. Laurel Line Bus Co., 311 Pa. 251, 254, we said “It is clear that the defendant was guilty of negligence. ‘A common carrier for hire owes to its
In Lyons v. Pittsburgh Rys. Co., 301 Pa. 499, we also said: “It was defendant’s duty not only to carry plaintiffs safely but to afford them an opportunity to alight and pass out of danger.” (Emphasis supplied).
In view of what the record in this case discloses it would be visionary to assume that we could declare as an indisputable legal proposition that the motorman used the “highest degree of care” in what he did. There is evidence to show that the Terminal Way stop oh thé southern side .of Carson Street is at its best a hazardous spot at which to wait for or alight from a street car; . The towering stone wall is only eleven feet distant from the car track, thus allowing but a restrictive space for the passage of' automobiles. . A pedestrian caught at this point, with both a street car and automobile occupying their respective lanes of travel could only find safety against the base of the wall on a ledge about 12 inches wide, which' allowed Standing room for only the thinnest of travelers..
Passengers intending to board the street car at Terminal Way on the. southern side of Carson Street
Despite the assumed frigidity of the law, it cannot be denied that text books, court decisions and commentaries demonstrate that the main purpose of the law is to protect life, limb, and property and all rights appertaining thereto, from unnecessary invasion. Humanity is included within that blanket protection. There is nothing in all the law books which can possibly give support to the proposition of the appellant
The motorman testified as follows: “Q. Did you say anything to Miss Coyne as she alighted from the street car or before she alighted? A. No, sir. Q. Did you yourself look to see whether there was any traffic coming alongside the streetcar at the time? A. No, I didn’t see any. Q. Did you look to see if there was any? A. You mean by getting up and looking out? A. No. Q. Would you have been able to see traffic moving along the right-hand side of the streetcar, that would be the side from which she alighted? Would you have been able to see traffic even from the position in which you were if you had looked? A. My mirror from inside will show perhaps the top of an automobile. Q. If you had turned your head or turned your body slightly without getting up, could you have seen traffic in that lane? A. Perhaps, yes.” (Italics added).
The appellant argues that the motorman had no duty to look for approaching automobiles because The Vehicle Code (Act of May 1, 1929, P. Lt 905, 75 P.S. 592b) provides: “No operator of a vehicle who meets or overtakes a street passenger car, that has stopped for the purpose of taking on or discharging passengers, shall pass said car on the side on which the passengers get on or off, until the car has started, and until any passengers who may have alighted have reached the side of the highway.” The Vehicle Code also prohibits motorists from travelling without lighted headlamps at night, but if a motorman saw such an unlighted vehicle approaching, after discharging a passenger at
A motorman who is about to discharge passengers at a point not a regular car stop is required to exercise care commensurate with the surroundings so as to avoid introducing the passengers into any danger of which he is aware or which, by the normal functioning of his senses and a normal desire not to see harm come to others, he should be aware.
In the case of Earl W. Baker & Co. v. Lagaly, (C.C.A. 10th Cir.) 144 F. 2d 344, cited with approval in our case of Vogel et al. v. Stupi et al., 357 Pa. 253, 259, a child was hit by a truck which came from the rear of the school bus on which the child was riding. In holding the owners of the bus liable the Federal Court said: “The driver knew that the paved highway was traveled generally; knew or should have known that the Lagaly children would immediately start across it in order to reach their home; and knew or should have known that the truck was following the bus. Yet, without exerting any effort to ascertain the condition of traffic approaching from the rear, without making any effort to ascertain the proximity of the truck, and without giving the children any warning in respect of the approaching truck, he opened the door and permitted them to alight. Considering all the facts and circumstances in their totality, the jury was warranted in finding that the driver was negligent in the operation of the bus, and that the negligence was a proximate cause of the accident.”
In the case of O’Malley v. Laurel Line Bus Co., supra, the principle of law under discussion was pretty well epitomized with the declaration that: “If the
Although the defendant company had first contended that the street car did stop at Terminal Way, it now argues on appeal that the passenger was better off in having been discharged at a point 90 feet beyond Terminal Way because lighting conditions were better at that point. If nothing else, this is an excellent exhibition of highly mobile logic. But it overlooks the fundamental fact that street car stops are established not only to notify intending passengers where they may catch cars but to warn motorists where they must exercise extraordinary care. That is the very object of the provision of The Vehicle Code cited by the appellant and quoted above.
We conclude that the jury was justified in finding, in all the circumstances of the case, that the appellant company was negligent.
The appellant then argues that even if it be assumed that it was negligent in the manner in which it transported and discharged its passenger, Aileen Coyne, this negligence was not the proximate cause of the accident. Proximate cause is peculiarly a jury question. It is usually defined as “That which, in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, produces the injury, and without which the result would not have occurred.”
The principle of law announced in Hughes v. Pittsburgh T. Co., 300 Pa. 55, 60, can well dispose of the question here as to whether the motorman’s negligence constituted proximate cause. We there said: “. .. Where there would have been no injury whatever but for the continuing negligence of the defendant who first put the plaintiff in peril, and which existed when the negligence of the other turned the peril into actual injury,
Equally and relevant is this Court’s pronouncement in the case of Burrell Twp. v. Uncapher, 117 Pa. 353, 363, where we said: “ ‘If the defendant’s negligence concurred with some other event (other than the plaintiff’s fault) to produce the plaintiff’s injury, so that it clearly appears that but for such negligence the injury would not have happened, and both circumstances are closely connected with the injury in the order of events, the defendant is responsible, even though his negligent act was not the nearest cause in the order of time.’ ” (Emphasis in original).
Nor do we find in the record any reason for granting a new trial. The appellant complains that the Trial Judge refused to submit to the jury its requests for findings of fact. We do not see that any purpose would have been served by doing so, especially, since, as we have already said, the Trial Judge covered the factual and legal questions involved in a comprehensive manner.
The appellant advances three other reasons for a new trial: (1,) that the Trial Judge erred in allowing testimony as to how passengers boarded the street car at Terminal Way; (2) that the Court erred in allowing cross-examination as to how the motorman operated his street car; and (3) that the verdict of the jury was against the weight of the evidence. We have considered all these reasons and find that none of them individually or all of them combined, in the light of the record, justify another trial.
Judgment affirmed.
Black’s Law Dictionary, p. 1391.
Brown v. Ambridge Yellow Cab Co., 374 Pa. 208.
Dissenting Opinion
Plaintiffs evidence
If defendant’s evidence were considered, there could not possibly be any recovery.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Coyne v. Pittsburgh Railways Company, Appellant
- Cited By
- 38 cases
- Status
- Published