Schweitzer v. Quaker City Cab Co.

• Decision Date: 14 February 1921
• Docket Number: 105
• Citation: 269 Pa. 291,112 A. 442
• Parties: Schweitzer v. Quaker City Cab Co., Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

112 A. 442

269 Pa. 291

Schweitzer v. Quaker City Cab Co., Appellant

No. 105

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

February 14, 1921

Argued January 12, 1921

Appeal, No. 105, Jan. T., 1921, by defendant, from judgment of C.P. No. 3, Phila. Co., Sept. T., 1919, No. 3917, on verdict for plaintiff, in case of Charles Schweitzer v Quaker City Cab Co. Affirmed.

Trespass for personal injuries. Before FERGUSON, J.

The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.

Verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $2,000. Defendant appealed.

Error assigned, among others, was refusal of defendant's motion for judgment n.o.v.

The assignments of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.

George Ross, with him C. William Freed, for appellant.

William A. Gray, for appellee.

Before MOSCHZISKER, C.J., FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, KEPHART, SADLER and SCHAFFER, JJ.

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

At about 4:40 a.m., on October 22, 1919, Charles Schweitzer plaintiff, left the footway on the southwest side of Lancaster avenue, a double-tracked street, in the City of Philadelphia, and walked over Lancaster avenue to a point beyond the far rail of the westbound trolley line. He stood about two feet from the rail, and a few feet east of Sloan street, which crosses Lancaster avenue between 39th and 40th streets, and is not a regular car-stop. It had been raining. It was misty, wet, and still dark; but there was an arc light in the centre of the avenue, just over where plaintiff was standing, and another, at the side of the street, not far away. Plaintiff, after looking in both directions, stood for a minute, facing the trolley track, with his head turned east, watching an approaching westbound street car, which usually stopped at this point each morning, to take him to his place of employment with the trolley company. He could see the approaching car, some 280 feet away, and said he saw no other vehicle coming from that direction. Something attracted plaintiff's attention, and he turned his head in the opposite direction; at that moment he was struck on the left side by a taxicab belonging to defendant, which was traveling in the same direction as the street car, and was seen, by a passenger on the car, approaching the latter, when it was more than 280 feet from the point of the accident; the cab "picked up speed" and passed the car.

The motorman testified that he stopped his car at Spring Garden street and Lancaster avenue,...