Massotto v. Public Service Coordinated Transport
Decision Date | 15 December 1959 |
Docket Number | No. A--664,A--664 |
Citation | 156 A.2d 483,58 N.J.Super. 436 |
Parties | Mary MASSOTTO et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PUBLIC SERVICE COORDINATED TRANSPORT, etc., Defendant-Respondent. |
Court | New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division |
Samuel A. Larner, Newark, for plaintiffs-appellants (Hymen B. Mintz, Newark, attorney).
Henry T. L. Gleason, Newark, for defendant-respondent (Louis F. Stein, Jr., Newark, attorney).
Before Judges PRICE, GAULKIN and SULLIVAN.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
PRICE, S.J.A.D.
Plaintiffs seek the reversal of a judgment in the Superior Court, Law Division, entered on a jury verdict of no cause for action. Plaintiff Mary Massotto sought damages for personal injuries allegedly caused by the negligent operation of a public bus in which she was a paying passenger. Her husband Dominick Massotto sued Per quod.
In support of their appeal plaintiffs contend that the trial court committed prejudicial error in its charge to the jury. The justification for the contention must be tested against the following factual background.
Mrs. Massotto, on boarding the bus, initially selected a seat near the front of the vehicle. Shortly thereafter she arose and, while walking from the front of the moving bus to secure another seat in the rear, was injured when thrown by reason of the bus operator's sudden and abrupt halting of the vehicle. There was no substantial challenge of plaintiffs' contention that the stoppage of the vehicle was sudden and precipitate. The bus operator testified that his hasty action was necessary because without warning another vehicle was driven in front of the bus so rapidly that quick and forceful application of his brake was required to avoid a collision. Plaintiffs contend that the court erred in submitting to the jury the issue of contributory negligence. Their contention is based on the asserted absence of any evidence of negligence on the part of Mrs. Massotto.
An examination fo the record reveals the following testimony by plaintiff:
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Plaintiff further testified that at that instant the sudden stop of the bus caused her to be thrown.
No other evidence bearing on her alleged negligence appears in the record. Thus the basic question posed is whether or not the mere act of plaintiff, in walking in the manner described from one part to another part of the moving vehicle, justified the court's charge that a jury question as to her contributory negligence thereby was projected. The jury was charged that if it found such negligence present, plaintiffs should be denied recovery. Timely objection was made by plaintiffs' counsel to the portions of the court's charge relating to contributory negligence on the ground that 'there are no facts in the case to support such a charge * * *.'
In Garton v. Public Service Elec. & Gas Co., 117 N.J.L. 520, at page 522, 189 A. 403, at page 404 (E. & A.1937), the court stated that:
See also Guzzi v. Jersey Central Power & Light Co., 12 N.J. 251, 260, 96 A.2d 387 (1953).
In Thomas v. Baltimore Transit Company, 211 Md. 262, 127 A.2d 128 (1956), the Court of Appeals considered a case where a trolley car passenger...
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Lesniak v. County of Bergen
...the jury. Guzzi v. Jersey Central Power & Light Co., 12 N.J. 251, 260, 96 A.2d 387 (1953); Massotto v. Public Serv. Coordinated Transp., 58 N.J.Super. 436, 438-39, 156 A.2d 483 (App.Div.1959). Moreover, there is no recovery allowed for the mere possible consequences of an injury inflicted b......
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Massotto v. Public Service Coordinated Transport
...thereby was projected. Other points raised by the plaintiffs on that appeal were not considered. Massotto v. Public Service Coord. Transport, 58 N.J.Super. 436, 156 A.2d 483, 484 (App.Div.1959). In removing the issue of contributory negligence from the jury's consideration in the second tri......
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...and the plaintiff could not have supposed that the act was inconsistent with safety. Finally, in Massotto v. Public Service Coordinated Transport, 58 N.J.Super. 436, 156 A.2d 483, 485 (1959), the New Jersey court held that "[t]he fact that plaintiff was injured when she was in the act of ch......
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...the issue of contributory negligence should not have been submitted to the jury. So, too, in Massotto v. Public Service Coord. Transport, 58 N.J.Super. 436, 156 A.2d 483 (App.Div.1959), certification denied 31 N.J. 550, 158 A.2d 451 (1960), it was held that plaintiff's walking through a mov......