Grant v. Baton Rouge Bus Co.

• Decision Date: 06 October 1943
• Docket Number: 2565.
• Citation: Grant v. Baton Rouge Bus Co., 15 So.2d 123 (La. App. 1943)
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana
• Parties: GRANT v. BATON ROUGE BUS CO., Inc.

15 So.2d 123

GRANT v. BATON ROUGE BUS CO., Inc.

No. 2565.

Court of Appeals of Louisiana, First Circuit

October 6, 1943

Taylor Porter, Brooks & Fuller, of Baton Rouge, for appellant.

Brumfield & Major and Jos. A. Loret, all of Baton Rouge, for appellee.

DORE, Judge.

This is a suit based on an accident sustained by plaintiff while alighting from a bus owned and operated by defendant in which she had been a paid passenger. She alleges that the accident was caused by the negligence of defendant's bus operator and claims $2,500 for physical injuries, shock, mental pain and anguish, $45 for loss of wages, and $8 for medical expense, as the results of the accident.

The plaintiff, a colored woman, was a paid passenger on one of the motor buses belonging to and operated by the defendant and which bus was travelling east on North Boulevard. Before the bus reached the intersection of North Boulevard and St Joseph Street, the plaintiff gave the proper signal to the bus operator to stop at the corner of North Boulevard and St Joseph Street. In response to her signal, the bus operator pulled over to the curb for the purpose of permitting plaintiff to get off from the bus to the sidewalk.

Plaintiff alleges that as the bus approached the intersection she got up from her seat and started towards the door to get off, and as she approached the door, the bus operator, by mechanical means, caused the door to open so that she could get off.

Plaintiff further alleges that as she "descended the steps of the said bus, and was about to step from the bus steps to the curb, the driver or operator thereof did not keep the said bus at a complete stop, but permitted the said bus to move and at the same time caused the door to slam, thereby catching the end of petitioner's dress in the door", which caused her to be "thrown off her balance", and "to fall on the curb", resulting in causing her to be seriously injured, and which action constituted negligence.

The defendant, for answer to plaintiff's petition, denies all of the allegations relative to the manner in which the accident happened, and denies that it was guilty of any negligence whatever contributing to the accident and the alleged resulting injuries.

Upon these issues the case was tried, resulting in a judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $1,553. Defendant applied for and was granted a rehearing. On rehearing, the trial judge reduced the award by $500, and rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff for $1,053, as follows: $45 for loss of wages; $8 for expenses, and $1,000 for physical pain, mental anguish and suffering. Defendant has appealed. Plaintiff has answered the appeal and prays that the amount be increased to the original amount demanded.

The plaintiff contends that the proximate cause of the accident and the resulting injuries were the failure of the bus operator to keep the bus at a complete stop until she could alight therefrom, and the premature slamming of the bus door, which caused her dress to be caught in the door, all of which caused her to fall. The defendant contends that it had nothing to do with plaintiff's fall in that the bus operator brought the bus to a normal stop near the curb, opened the door of the bus, remained stationary while plaintiff got off, and did not close the door nor move the bus until after the accident or fall of the plaintiff; that plaintiff's fall was due to her own clumsiness, negligence, or inattention to what she was doing, and that she simply lost her balance and fell.

This case involves the application of certain rules of law relating to the duties and obligations of a common carrier to a passenger aboard one of its conveyances. Under the contract which arises out of the relationship between them, a carrier owes to the passenger the duty to safely transport him over its lines or routes from the place where he boards its conveyance to the place of his destination and there safely to discharge him, and it is liable for the slightest neglect or lack of care resulting in injury to the passenger. After a passenger establishes that he was a paying passenger and was injured while occupying such relationship, the burden of proof shifts to the defendant to show lack of negligence. These rules of law are not disputed by the defendant. The defendant contends that the accident did not happen while the relationship of carrier and passenger existed. However, if the accident did take place while the relationship of carrier and passenger existed, then it contends that it has discharged the burden of proof placed upon it.

There are therefore two questions involved: First, whether or not there was an accident and injury to the plaintiff while the relationship of carrier and passenger existed, and, second, if there was such an accident or injury, whether or not defendant has shown that it was free from negligence or fault causing same.

We have the testimony of seven witnesses as to the manner the accident and injury happened. These are the plaintiff herself; another colored woman by the name of Maggie Dunn, a fellow passenger on the bus; J.B. Worsham, a white man, also a fellow passenger on the bus; and Parker Flynn, a white man, a pedestrian on the sidewalk near the situs of the accident all of whom testified in plaintiff's favor. Testifying for the defendant we have G.W. Saltzman, the bus operator; Nelson Parr, a young white man, a fellow passenger on the bus; and Mayola Watkins, a young colored woman, also a fellow passenger on the bus. There were only six persons on the bus, including the operator and plaintiff.

The gist of plaintiff's testimony is that when she gave the signal for the bus to stop, the operator pulled to the curb and stopped his bus. She then got up from her seat and walked to the front and to the door, the door being open, and then got on the steps. While she was on the steps about to alight, the bus operator closed the door, which caught her dress, and he put the bus in motion, all of which caused her to fall. She states: "Before I could get my foot to the ground I was falling". She states that while she was falling the bus was moving. After she had completely fallen, the bus backed back to the place in the street where she had fallen and the operator opened the door and asked her if she wanted to...