Pérez v. Martínez
Pérez v. Martínez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The defendant in this case has taken the present appeal from a judgment ordering him to pay to the appellee a certain sum of money as damages for the death of his son.
The only ground urged in support of this appeal is that the lower court erred in weighing the evidence, and hence that the judgment is contrary to law — a ground which in a supplemental brief is subdivided into various assignments hut all related to the one originally made.
A hoy named Marcelino Pérez of 13 or 14 years of age, according to one witness, and of 17 or 18 years according to another witness, was sitting one morning with another hoy on a culvert (>alcantarilla) in the highway from Camuy to Quebradillas. An oxcart went hy and they asked and got permission from the owner thereof, Nicolás Franquis, to
The defendant’s theory and proof was that upon the bus overtaking the cart when going at a moderate rate of speed, the latter traveling on the right and the bus on the left near the middle of the road — although one of the witnesses stated that it was going behind the cart — Marcelino Pérez jumped off the cart and attempted to cross the road thus colliding with the bus receiving the injuries in consequence of which he died.
The lower court adjusted this conflict in the evidence in favor of plaintiff.
The argument under the error assigned is that it is physically impossible that the facts cquld have occurred, as stated by plaintiff’s witnesses, for if Marcelino Pérez was
Before the conclusion can be reached that it was physically impossible for the bus to collide with the rear part of the cart or with its left side after killing Marcelino Pérez and attempting to swerve to the left, certain exact measurements which do not appear from the record herein are necessary in order to establish that due to the short distance lying between the site of the accident and the place where the cart was at that time the bus necessarily had to run into the cart and that it was not possible for the former to swerve towards the left without coming in contact with the cart. The record shows the length and width of the bus, but not the measurements of the cart, nor the exact distance at which it was from the spot where the boy was killed, so that one might state with certainty that it had to collide with the cart and because this did not occur the facts are not as stated by the plaintiff; because although one witness testified that the cart stopped at a distance from two to three yards from the place where the boy was killed, that was an estimate of the witness and not an exact measurement, and' the proof shows that the distance must- have been somewhat greater since the bus did not collide with the rear of the cart and could have turned to the left without touching that side of the latter vehicle. For this reason we are not in a position to uphold the contention of the appellant.
Another point raised by the appellant is that, under the evidence offered by the appellee, the death of Marcelino Pérez was the result of his contributory negligence in that he abandoned a safe place which was in the cart (the other boy not having suffered any injury there) and moved to a dangerous place as turned out to be the one he occupied after he left the cart. One can not expect of a person who
For the reasons stated the judgment appealed from should be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.