McKnight v. Red Cab Co.

• Decision Date: 08 January 1946
• Parties: KAREN M. MCKNIGHT v. RED CAB COMPANY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

319 Mass. 64

64 N.E.2d 433

KAREN M. MCKNIGHT v. RED CAB COMPANY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

January 8, 1946

December 3, 1945.

Present: FIELD, C.

J., LUMMUS, RONAN WILKINS, & SPALDING, JJ.

Negligence Taxicab.

Evidence that, when a motor taxicab, not shown to have been negligently driven made a sharp turn to its right into an intersecting street, a young child, seated at the left end of the rear seat, was thrown forward and lost his balance, the door at his left due to the strain upon it caused by the sharp turn, swung open without anyone's coming in contact with it and the child fell out, warranted a finding either that the catch on the door was defective or that the door had been insecurely closed, and warranted a conclusion of negligence on the part of the proprietor of the cab.

TORT. Writ in the Superior Court dated October 4, 1943. The case was tried before Forte, J.

J. W. Lobdell, for the defendant. M. Palais, for the plaintiff.

RONAN, J. The plaintiff, three and one half years old, her sister, two years old, her mother and her grandmother entered the defendant's taxicab through the right hand rear door and sat on the rear seat. The plaintiff was seated on the extreme left and her sister sat next to her. The taxicab proceeded only a short distance when it made a very sharp turn to its right into an intersecting street, and this movement of the taxicab caused the plaintiff, her mother and her grandmother to be thrown forward and to lose their balance. The left hand door swung open, and the plaintiff went through the door and landed upon the street. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant excepted to a denial of its motion for a directed verdict and to portions of the charge.

The defendant raises no question concerning the due care of the plaintiff or of her mother, her custodian, but contends that the evidence is insufficient to prove negligence upon its part. In the absence of anything appearing in the record, the turning of the taxicab to the right might have been entirely due to traffic conditions existing at the time and did not constitute any evidence of negligence in the operation of the taxicab, and this is true even if the turn was so sudden or sharp as to disturb the positions of the passengers on the rear seat. Reardon v. Boston Elevated Railway, 247 Mass. 124 . Bartlett v. Town Taxi, Inc. 263 Mass. 215 . Conley v. Town Taxi Inc. 298 Mass. 130 .

The plaintiff contends that it was negligence for the defendant to permit the rear left door of the taxicab to remain in such a condition that it would swing open when the vehicle turned to the right. The evidence was ample to warrant a finding that none of the passengers had touched this door or that it was forced open by the plaintiff's body coming in contact with it. The jury could find that the strain upon the door due to the right hand turn of the taxicab caused the door to fly open. They could find that if the door was securely fastened when the trip began, then the catch designed to keep it closed was defective and permitted the door to be released. If the jury came to that conclusion, as they properly could, they could find that the defendant was negligent. Silva v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 204 Mass. 63 . Kellogg v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 210 Mass. 324 . Scott v. Boston Elevated Railway, 276 Mass. 21 .

The jury could have adopted another aspect of the evidence and could have found that the door was shut but that it was not securely fastened at the time the trip began, and that this was the cause of the door opening as the taxicab was making the curve. There was no evidence as to who left the door in that condition or how long such a condition existed before the plaintiff became a passenger. Hunt v. Boston Elevated Railway, 201 Mass. 182. Casey v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 207 Mass. 443 . But the operator could have easily and quickly ascertained whether the door was properly closed. It is known that the...