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Anna Brightman vs. Union Street Railway Company; Charles O. Brightman vs. Same

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court1913-11-25
216 Mass. 152

Summary

Holding. The verdicts for the defendant were rightly ordered because the plaintiff failed to present evidence establishing that the defendant's motorman was negligent. Judgment for the defendant on the verdicts is affirmed.

Anna Brightman sued a street railway company for injuries she sustained when struck by one of the company's electric cars at an intersection in New Bedford. Her husband brought a separate action for related damages. The plaintiff testified that she was crossing diagonally from the southwest corner toward the northeast corner of the intersection when she was struck, but she could not explain how the accident occurred or provide details about the collision itself. Her companion's account indicated the car was initially stationary, then moved around a curve, and the plaintiff was found lying beside the car approximately one-third of the distance from its front.

The court examined whether the motorman had been negligent. While operators are required to take reasonable precautions to protect pedestrians, they are not obligated to anticipate the movements of pedestrians who approach the rear or side of a car as it navigates a curve. The evidence presented was insufficient to establish that the motorman's conduct caused the injury. The plaintiff's own vague testimony about the accident and the lack of clear proof connecting any negligent act by the motorman to her injuries meant the jury properly found for the defendant.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a motorman operating a streetcar navigating a curve owes a duty to anticipate pedestrians approaching the rear or side of the car
  • Sufficiency of evidence to establish negligence when plaintiff cannot explain how the accident occurred
  • Causation between alleged negligence and plaintiff's injuries

Procedural posture

The trial court ordered verdicts for the defendant, and the plaintiffs appealed.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Braley, J.

In the first action the plaintiff sues in tort for-personal injuries, and her husband in the second action for consequential damages, alleged to have been caused by the negligence-of the defendant’s motorman. ,The report of the presiding judge recites all the material evidence, and we shall refer to Mrs. Bright-man as the plaintiff.

It was undisputed, that the main line of the defendant on Purchase Street in New Bedford ran north and south, from which cars could be switched over a curved track into an intersecting-street running east and west. The plaintiff accompanied by a. companion stood on the southwest corner of the junction intending to cross diagonally to the northeast corner, but before-starting she looked over and saw that the car with which she. came into collision was stationary on the main line in front of the waiting room at the southeast corner. When the car started it moved slowly and turned easterly over the curve to the intersecting street, and during its passage the plaintiff who had proceeded on her way was struck and thrown to the ground.

The plan used at the trial and conceded to be accurate shows that her line of travel should not have brought her near the front of the car, unless on approaching the track she turned somewhat sharply to her right. In Bryant v. Boston Elevated Railway, 212 Mass. 62, where the projecting rear end of a car in passing a curve swung over the highway, and coming into collision with a wagon attempting to move abreast forced the wagon over the sidewalk injuring the plaintiff, it was said, that if the motorman saw that the driver of the wagon was determined to go on, he should have stopped the car,- and his failure to do so was evidence of the defendant’s negligence. But in the cases at bar the motorman, although required to take every reasonable precaution to avoid injury to travellers, was not called upon to anticipate the approach of pedestrians toward the rear or side of the car, who if they came within sufficient proximity might be injured by the overhang as the car swept around the curve. Kiley v. Boston Elevated Railway, 207 Mass. 542.

The plaintiff was unable to state how the accident happened. After leaving the curb, “I continued walking right along at the same gait up to the time that something struck me,” is her testimony, while her companion testified that, “when I first saw the electric car it was standing directly in front of the waiting station ... it was not moving. The next time I saw it, it was just around the curve” and “when I saw Mrs. Brightman she was lying right beside the side of the car . . . about a third of the distance from the front of the car towards the rear.” The jury upon this evidence, which is substantially all the testimony introduced by the plaintiff, could find that a collision occurred, but proof that it was attributed to the negligence of the motorman was lacking. Widmer v. West End Street Railway, 158 Mass. 49. Nor is the plaintiff aided by the answer of one of the defendant’s witnesses on cross-examination that, “at no time did the front end of the car pass the ladies.” It is clear from his evidence in chief, with which this statement should be read, that he "thought they were following the car pretty close,” the rear end of which he said struck the plaintiff.

F. W. Fosdich, for the plaintiffs.

D. E. Hall, for the defendant.

The verdicts for the defendant having been rightly ordered because there was no evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant, it is unnecessary to consider the question of the plaintiff’s due care.

Judgment for the defendant on the verdicts.

Bell, J.