Griffin v. Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co.
Griffin v. Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co.
Opinion of the Court
Prior to the action commenced in the civil court the plaintiff had prosecuted an action against the defendant in the circuit court for Racine county to recover damages for injuries to a truck and for personal injuries. In such action the court directed a nonsuit and judgment was thereupon entered accordingly, and the plaintiff then appealed to this court, where such judgment was affirmed by a divided court. Griffin v. Milwaukee E. R. & L. Co. 176 Wis. 179, 185 N. W. 639.
It is first argued by the defendant that the decision of this court on the former appeal establishes the law of the case, and that the testimony in the civil court was substantially the same as that which appeared in the action prosecuted in -the circuit court for Racine county, and that therefore the circuit court for Milwaukee county properly reversed the judgment of the civil court and ordered judgment for the defendant.
Fourteenth street runs east and west in the city of Racine, and in the block bounded on the east by Grand avenue and on the west by Center street has located thereon north of its center line a single street-car; track, the north rail whereof is thirteen feet distant from the north curb of the street, and said track at the time of the collision herein referred to was, with the knowledge of the plaintiff, used by the defendant in the operation of its passenger cars both towards the east and the west.
On August 13, 1920, plaintiff was the owner of one three-and-one-half ton Packard truck, which truck was laden with .iron castings so that the entire weight of both truck and castings amounted to about ten tons. The day in
The case was tried in the civil court before a jury, and a special verdict was returned in which all of the questions submitted were answered favorably to the plaintiff, the jury acquitting the plaintiff of contributory negligence. The negligence of the defendant was amply supported by the evidence, the principal basis for such negligence being the excessive speed of defendant’s car, the rate of speed of street cars on the streets in the city of Racine having been limited by ordinance to fifteen miles per hour. Judgment being ordered and entered-in plaintiff’s favor in the civil court, the defendant appealed from the judgment to the circuit court, which reviewed the evidence certified up from the civil court, and upon such review reversed the judgment of the civil court upon the ground that the evidence adduced in the civil court was substantially the same as that which appeared in the action prosecuted in the circuit court for Racine county, where a judgment of nonsuit had been ordered and entered, and which judgment had, as above stated, been affirmed by this court on appeal.
We will first consider the issue involved upon which the circuit court for Milwaukee county reversed the judgment of the civil court. We have examined carefully the record of the evidence in the two courts in which the action had been tried, and we find that there is a striking similarity upon all material and substantial points between these two records. Plaintiff points out in his brief that the only difference between the evidence in the latter trial and the former one consists of the fact that in the latter it was made clear from actual measurements that at the, time he started to turn his truck towards the track he was unable to obtain a view down the track, owing to the obstruction created by the Ford, and that from such measurements it appeared that he was unable to look over the Ford. On the
The question is not now before us whether the action of the circuit court for Racine county in ordering a nonsuit was right or wrong. The judgment of such court having been affirmed by this court, such judgment becomes the law in the case. Strehlau v. John Schroeder L. Co. 152 Wis. 589, 142 N. W. 120; Thomas v. Lockwood Oil Co. 178 Wis. 599, 190 N. W. 559.
A motion for a nonsuit is equivalent to a demurrer to the evidence. When a general demurrer is sustained to a pleading, the court assumes that all of the allegations contained in the pleading to which the demurrer is interposed are true, but that such allegations in law are insufficient. Likewise, when a motion for a-nonsuit is granted, the court concludes that there is not sufficient evidence to sustain a judgment, and holds such evidence insufficient as a matter of law. The two positions with respect to a general demurrer and a motion for a nonsuit, therefore, are identical from a legal standpoint, The motion for a nonsuit having been granted in the former trial, based upon the ground that
Independent of the ground which actuated the circuit court for Milwaukee county, we cannot well escape the conclusion that as a matter of law the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence. When he first discovered the Ford he was driving his truck upon the highway at a place thereon which would have prevented a collision. Just before and at the time Osborne started to swerve his car diagonally towards the northwest, plaintiff had a clear view of the track towards the west for. a distance of five or six blocks. Assuming that in the interval consumed by the time that he first took his view towards the east Osborne then occupied a position which completely obscured plaintiff’s view down the track towards the west beyond the Ford, the Ford was then twenty feet distant from his truck. He could have proceeded onward in his same course for about one second longer., and in the meantime the Ford would have passed a sufficient distance to remove the obstruction to his vision, and he could then have definitely ascertained the approach of defendant’s car-. The very fact that the Ford was about to leave the street-car track should have suggested to him the possibility of a car approaching from the west. Unable to obtain a proper view, he assumed a great risk in driving this heavily laden truck onto the street-car track. Had the street car then been in close proximity to the Ford, there would have been great danger to the truck and its occupant, even if the car were running at a legal rate of speed. The danger created was not merely limited to the truck of the plaintiff but also to defendant’s car and the occupants thereof. A street car, unlike an automobile, cannot swerve to the right or left, but is confined in its operation to the track
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.
Reference
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- Griffin v. Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company
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