Rouse v. Detroit Elec. Ry.

Citation128 Mich. 149,87 N.W. 68
PartiesROUSE v. DETROIT ELECTRIC RY.
Decision Date19 July 1901
CourtMichigan Supreme Court

128 Mich. 149
87 N.W. 68

ROUSE
v.
DETROIT ELECTRIC RY.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

July 19, 1901.


Error to circuit court, Wayne county; George S. Hosmer, Judge.

Action by Sarah Rouse, administratrix of the estate of Henry Rouse, deceased, against the Detroit Electric Railway. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendant appeals Reversed.

[87 N.W. 68]

T. T. Leete, Jr., for appellant.

Howard D. Bloomer (Alfred Lucking, of counsel), for appellee.


LONG, J.

This action is brought to recover damages for the death of Henry Rouse, occasioned by the claimed negligence of the defendant. It appears that Rouse, plaintiff's intestate, a teamster, was riding with his son-in-law, one Garlick, also a teamster, in an orinary dirt wagon, along Oakland avenue, in the city of Detroit, on the night of September 26, 1898. The men had been some eight miles out in the county, and about 8 o'clock that night, in returning, they drove along Oakland avenue. The defendant operates a double street railway on this avenue. Its cars in going north pass over the east track, and in returning southward in the city pass over the west track. Rouse and Garlick entered upon Oakland avenue north of the north terminus of these car tracks, the tracks there forming a ‘Y,’ so that the cars may turn and proceed back to the city. After the men had driven over the ‘Y,’ going south, they saw the car pass them, going north on the east track. It appears that they knew that the car must turn and follow them south on the west track. They were going south between the west track and a ditch on the west side of the avenue, the street being an unpaved one. The distance between the car tracks and the ditch is in some dispute; the plaintiff's witnesses putting it between 9 and 10 feet, and the defendant's between 10 and 11.

[87 N.W. 69]

The parties could see that there was a ditch along the side of the wagon track, but Mr. Garlick claims they could not tell in the dark how deep or dangerous it was, or how close to their wheels; and there was some evidence tending to show that at places the roadway was so narrow that teams were driven into the ditch in the daytime when cars were passing. The ditch was from 18 inches to 2 feet deep. They had never passed over this road before, and the plaintiff's claim is that they were driving carefully and slowly, that the team was on a walk in the beath track made by the regular travel, and that Garlick, who was driving, kept the reins steadily in his hands, and let the horses go along the regular way. It appears that the footboard of the car lapped over the roadway outside the rail 2 feet, leaving only 8 feet or less between the car and the ditch; that the wagon, from hub to hub, lacked 1 inch from 6 feet in width. It is claimed by the plaintiff that the deceased and his companion expected that the car would go back, and so kept looking around; that Rouse looked around two or three times; that the last time he looked he discovered the car not far behind them, coming rapidly, that he called to Garlick to gee out, which Garlick says he did as soon as possible, but that the wagon was struck just north of the alley north of Westminster avenue and overturned, injuring Mr. Rouse, and from which injuries he shortly after died. It is also the claim of plaintiff that the car was running at a rate of speed of more...

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