Sooserian v. Town Taxi Inc.

• Decision Date: 26 June 1934
• Citation: 287 Mass. 65,191 N.E. 763
• Parties: SOOSERIAN v. TOWN TAXI, Inc. SAME v. CLARK.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

287 Mass. 65

191 N.E. 763

SOOSERIAN

v.TOWN TAXI, Inc.

SAME

v.CLARK.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

June 26, 1934.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Suffolk County; Thayer, Judge.

Actions of tort by Alfred Sooserian against Town Taxi, Incorporated, and against Frank C. Clark, which were tried together. Verdict for plaintiff in each action in the sum of $2,700, and defendant Town Taxi, Incorporated, brings exceptions.

Exceptions overruled.

R. J. Walsh, of Boston, for plaintiff.

R. S. Teeling and F. R. Murphy, both of Boston, for defendants.

FIELD, Justice.

These are two actions of tort, tried together, to recover compensation for personal injuries received by the plaintiff when he was struck by a taxicab owned by the defendant Town Taxi, Inc., and operated by the defendant Clark. It was admitted that at the time of the accident the individual defendant, as agent of the corporate defendant, was operating the taxicab on its business. Motions for directed verdicts on the grounds that there was no evidence of negligence of the defendants and that upon all the evidence the plaintiff was not in the exercise of due care and his negligence contributed to the accident were denied, and the defendants excepted. There were verdicts for the plaintiff against both defendants. The defendants waived their exceptions to the denial of directed verdicts on the ground that there was no evidence of the defendants' negligence.

The motions for directed verdicts were denied rightly. It could not have been ruled as matter of law that on the testimony of the plaintiff, by which he is bound except as he is entitled to the benefit of any more favorable explanation of the accident presented by the evidence, the burden resting on the defendants of proving contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff had been sustained. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231, § 85. Joughin v. Federal Motor Transportation Co., 279 Mass. 408, 409, 181 N. E. 754.

The accident occurred on October 22, 1928, at about 10:30 a. m., when the plaintiff was attempting to cross from west to east and the taxicab was travelling north on Tremont street, in Boston, between Park street on the north and Boylston street on the south. The plaintiff's automobile was parked in a line of automobiles headed south on the west or common side of the street, and another line of automobiles headed south had stopped parallel to the first line with the rear end of the last automobile in that line about opposite the front wheels of the plaintiff's automobile. The plaintiff testified that he knew that ‘there were automobiles coming and going in great numbers there.’ He testified that he alighted from his automobile and stepped on the sidewalk. ‘He walked to the outer side of his car at its rear, looking towards his left; then he looked to his right and saw the back of the car parked in the second line. He got up to a line with the back of that car and was still looking to his right towards Boylston Street and on an angle, and he could see down about 25 ft., and then he noticed that there were two lines of cars coming up toward Park Street on the other side of the street. They were moving along at a moderate rate of speed, fifteen to eighteen miles an hour. Just about that time he saw another car flash right out and make a third line and he was struck at that instant. The car...