Pitman & Brown Co. v. Eastern Mas. Sachusetts St. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 30 March 1926
• Citation: 151 N.E. 315,255 Mass. 292
• Parties: PITMAN & BROWN CO. v. EASTERN MAS. SACHUSETTS ST. RY. CO. McGUIRE v. SAME.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

255 Mass. 292

151 N.E. 315

PITMAN & BROWN CO.

v.EASTERN MAS. SACHUSETTS ST. RY. CO.

McGUIRE

v.SAME.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Essex.

March 30, 1926.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Essex County; Nelson P. Brown, Judge.

Two actions, one by the Pitman & Brown Company and the other by Arthur McGuire, against the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company. On defendant's exceptions after a verdict for plaintiff in each action. Exceptions overruled.

H. E. Jackson, of Salem, for plaintiff Pitman & Brown Co.

E. S. Underwood, of Lynn, for plaintiff McGuire.

J. J. Ronan, of Salem, for defendant.

SANDERSON, J.

The first action was brought to recover damages for injuries to the truck of the plaintiff, Pitman & Brown Company (hereinafter called the corporation), arising from a collision with a street car of the defendant while the truck was being driven by the corporation's chauffeur at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon of November 14, 1921, on Chelsea street, in Charlestown, near its intersection with Medford street. The second action is for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff McGuire, who was riding in the cab of the truck at the time of the accident. A verdict was rendered for the plaintiff in each action, and the only questions argued relate to the due care of the plaintiff's chauffeur in one case, and of the individual plaintiff in the other.

Chelsea street is a main highway running north and south and leading from Boston to Lynn, and is intersected on its westerly side at about right angles by Medford street. Chelsea street is about 49 feet wide from curb to curb and 60 feet between property lines, and in the middle of the street are located double tracks of the defendant. The truck had come from Medford street and at the time of the accident was moving across Chelsea street in a somewhat diagonal direction toward Lynn for the purpose of getting upon the driver's right-hand side of Chelsea street. There was evidence that the collision occurred on the Lynn side of Medford street. A heavy mist was falling and the night was dark. The road surface over which the truck was moving was constructed of cobble stones and was slippery and rough. A street light was near the corner of Medford and Chelsea streets and there were lights on the front and back of the truck as well as upon the street car. The truck was a 2 1/2-ton truck, 25 feet long, carrying a load of five tons of lumber and glass covered with a white canvas. The driver and McGuire were in a steel cab painted white, with leather sides and isinglass windows, which, according to the testimony of the chauffeur, at the time of the accident were in the pockets of the lower half of the doors. The motorman testified that the cab was closed on the right side. The windshield in front of the cab was of glass. The truck stopped on the crosswalk for foot passage across Medford street until a Boston-bound car, which had stopped at Medford street, and an automobile following it, had passed. The jury could have found that the car which hit the truck was going as fast as 20 or 25 miles per hour and did not lessen its speed before the accident; and that the truck was going as slow as 1 1/2 miles per hour, or just barely moving.

There was evidence that the chauffeur at McGuire's request was giving him a ride to Lynn. McGuire sat on the right of the driver, and, when the truck started from the crosswalk, looked to his left toward Lynn and saw nothing coming, then toward Boston and saw the car that had passed which, according to his testimony, was about 300 feet distant, and he then saw no other car; that the truck traveled from the place where he first looked to the place of collision, about 28 feet. He testified to trusting the chauffeur and putting himself in his charge, but that he was looking to the right for his own safety; that at the corner of Medford street he could see between the building and the Boston-bound...