Niland v. Boston Elevated Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 29 January 1913
• Parties: NILAND v. BOSTON ELEVATED RY. CO. et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

213 Mass. 522

100 N.E. 554

NILAND

v.BOSTON ELEVATED RY. CO. et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

Jan. 29, 1913.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Suffolk County; Joseph F. Quinn, Judge.

Action by John Niland against the Boston Elevated Railway Company and others. Verdict for defendants, and plaintiff excepts. Exceptions overruled.

Jos. L. Keogh, of Boston, for plaintiff.

Russell A. Sears and Chas. S. French, both of Boston, for defendant.

RUGG, C. J.

When this case was here before (208 Mass. 476, 94 N. E. 703), it was held that it should have been submitted to the jury, because there was evidence that a motorman of the defendant permitted one of its cars, in which the plaintiff was a passenger, to run into an ice wagon standing still upon the track, whereby the plaintiff was injured. There is no such evidence in the present record. The evidence shows now, taken in its aspect most favorable to the plaintiff, that the accident occurred either by reason of the sudden stopping of the car by the motorman in order to avoid collision with an ice wagon which had come without warning in front of the car, or a sudden stopping coupled with an unexplained collision. This alone was not evidence of negligence. The only explanation afforded by other evidence was that while the driver had left the ice wagon temporarily the horses attached to it veered toward or upon the track, and the motorman brought the car to a quick stop. The case is covered by the first part of the opinion in 208 Mass. 476, 94 N. E. 703.Timms v. Old Colony St. Ry. Co., 183 Mass. 193, 66 N. E. 797;Byron v. Lynn & Boston R. R., 177 Mass. 303, 58 N. E. 1015. A verdict for the defendant was ordered rightly.

Exceptions overruled.