Lech v. Escobar

• Decision Date: 27 November 1945
• Citation: 63 N.E.2d 891,318 Mass. 711
• Parties: HELEN LECH v. JOSEPH S. ESCOBAR (and a companion case [1]).
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

318 Mass. 711

63 N.E.2d 891

HELEN LECH v. JOSEPH S. ESCOBAR (and a companion case ^[1]).

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Bristol.

November 27, 1945

October 29, 1945.

Present: FIELD, C.

J., LUMMUS, QUA DOLAN, & WILKINS, JJ.

Negligence, Motor vehicle.

A finding of negligence on the part of the operator of a motor bus was warranted by evidence of the circumstances in which the bus with considerable force, ran into the rear of an automobile which had been stopped at an intersection "for about two or three minutes" and was visible to the bus operator.

TWO ACTIONS OF TORT. Writs in the Third District Court of Bristol dated December 19, 1941.

Upon removal to the Superior Court, the actions were tried before Walsh, J.

In this court the cases were submitted on briefs. F. E. Smith, for the defendant.

H. W. Radovsky & M.

A. Goldberg, for the plaintiffs.

WILKINS, J. These are two actions of tort, one by the female plaintiff for personal injuries, and another by her husband for medical expenses. The jury returned verdicts for the plaintiffs. The defendant's exceptions concern the denial of his motions for directed verdicts.

The only question is whether there was evidence of the defendant's negligence. The female plaintiff (hereinafter called the plaintiff) was riding on the front seat in an automobile operated by her sister, Sophie Guzwa, which on March 8, 1941 about 2 P.M. stopped on Pleasant Street at the corner of Mill Street, New Bedford, in the rear of two other automobiles which had stopped to permit the passage of traffic. There was a layer of snow on the street. After the plaintiff had remained seated in the standing automobile "for about two to three minutes," a bus, operated by the defendant collided with the rear of the automobile, "doing some damage to the trunk in the rear," and the "car went forward into the car ahead." Sophie Guzwa testified that she stopped about five feet from the nearer of the two automobiles; that her "footbrake was set"; that as she sat there, she saw in the mirror the bus about fifty feet away coming from behind; that there was "no other traffic in the road," which was level; that the bus collided with the trunk, pushing it in, and "happened" to push her automobile into the one directly ahead; that the impact lifted the plaintiff off the seat up in the air; that the plaintiff's head snapped back, and she felt a sharp pain at the base of her neck and the end of her spine, and became...