Stupka v. Peoples Cab Co.
| Decision Date | 22 May 1970 |
| Citation | 437 Pa. 509,264 A.2d 373 |
| Parties | STUPKA, Appellant, v. PEOPLES CAB COMPANY. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Gerald N. Ziskind, Pittsburgh, for appellant.
Robert A. Cohen, Pittsburgh, for appellee.
It is clear that plaintiff, appellant, is not asserting that appellee caused her physical injuries but rather that appellee caused her financial harm by not obtaining the name or license number of the driver whose car struck the cab from the rear. As there are no prior cases on this particular subject appellant would have this Court create and impose on cab companies the duty to obtain sufficient information about individuals involved in traffic accidents with cabs to enable cab passengers at least to know against whom to bring suit.
Common law courts have been reluctant to impose affirmative duties on individuals even in situations in which most people would feel under a moral obligation to act. The Restatement (Second), Torts § 314 (1965) states that as long as the actor's conduct has not placed another in peril '(t)he fact that the actor realizes or should realize that action on his part is necessary for another's aid or protection does not of itself impose upon him a duty to take such action.' This Court, in Yania v. Bigan, 397 Pa. 316, 321--322, 155 A.2d 343, 346 (1959), stated Behind this is the 'rugged individualism' approach of the common law and 'the feeling that it is a more serious restraint on personal freedom to require a person to act than it is to place limits on his liberty to act.' McNiece and Thornton, Affirmative Duties in Tort. 58 Yale L.J. 1272, 1288 (1949).
In recent years, however, there have been attempts to mitigate the harshness of this rule. Usually the basis for the departure from the general rule has been the existence of a special relationship between the parties which, it is felt, is sufficient to transform the moral duty into a legal one. 2 Harper and James, The Law of Torts, § 18.6 at 1048 (1956); Note, Good Samaritans and Liability for Medical Malpractice, 64 Col.L.Rev. 1301, 1316 (1964). Thus, as to common carriers, the Restatement (Sectond), Torts § 314A (1965) states 'A common carrier is under a duty to its passengers to take reasonable action (a) to protect them against unreasonable risk of physical harm, and (b) to give them first aid after it knows or has reason to know that they are ill or injured, and to care for them until they can be cared for by others.' Case law gives support to that position. Yazoo & M.V.R.R. v. Byrd, 89 Miss. 308, 42 So. 286 (1906); Korn v. Tamiami Trail Tours, Inc., 108 Ga.App. 510, 133 S.E.2d 616 (1963).
It must be noted, however, that this imposition of legal duty only applies to the physical well-being of the passenger. Appellant does not contend that appellee refused to offer assistance after she suffered her injuries. Rather, she states that appellee did not act to protect her financial interests. This is a step towards making a common carrier the guardian of all its passengers' interests that no court has yet taken. 'The courts seem to have been somewhat more willing to impose liability on this basis when there has been physical injury to persons or property than where the injury is to the interest in financial advantage.' 2 Harper and James, supra, § 18.6, n. 7 at 1046. [1] The interest in the pasenger's physical well-being is sufficiently important to require the carrier to act to protect it even when the injury is no fault of the carrier's. The interest in the passenger's financial well-being, however, seems of a much lesser magnitude and not of sufficient weight to overcome the traditional judicial reluctance to impose affirmative duties. [2] This is true at least where the carrier is not responsible for placing the passenger in the original position of peril. An individual's financial interests can be so complex and varied that we should not require the carrier to be cognizant of them and responsible for furthering and protecting them.
Order affirmed.
On March 21, 1967, the plaintiff, Myrtle J. Stupka, was a passenger in a taxicab operated by Peoples Cab Company (Peoples) when it was struck in the rear by another vehicle. The taxicab was stopped at the time of the accident and there is no claim that the accident was in any way caused by the actions of the cab driver. Plaintiff averred in her complaint that, immediately after the accident, the taxicab driver got out of his cab and spoke with the driver of the other vehicle, but did not secure that driver's name or license number before the unknown driver left the scene of the accident. On these facts, plaintiff sought recovery from Peoples (Peoples). Her theory was that the taxicab driver owed her a duty to secure the hit-and-run driver's name and license number, and that his failure to perform that duty constituted such negligence so as to permit her to recover from Peoples for her injuries.
The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, in passing upon People's preliminary objections to the complaint of plaintiff, held that the carrier owed no duty to the passenger to investigate the facts of the accident so as to aid the passenger in possible future litigation and, therefore, sustained People's preliminary objections. Plaintiff then appealed to this Court.
Initially, it should be mentioned that this appears to be a totally unique claim by the plaintiff. Our research fails to locate any case in any jurisdiction even vaguely apposite to the case at bar. However, whether this taxicab driver's failure to question the operator of the other vehicle constituted negligence need not be decided.
The plaintiff's recovery is barred unless she can establish that this failure somehow caused her injuries. Cuthbert v. Philadelphia, 417 Pa. 610, 209 A.2d 261 (1965). The facts pleaded by the plaintiff clearly establish that her injuries were caused by the apparently negligent driving of an unknown third party. Even if this were to create a duty on the part of the taxicab driver to secure the other driver's name and license number, the breach of that duty in the case at bar was still not the proximate cause of the appellant's injuries. Such a breach, at most, prevented plaintiff from suing the unknown driver. However, we have no basis to conclude that the suit would have been successful. It would, therefore, be impossible to assess damages against the appellee in any case. If the measure of damages were taken to be the amount of plaintiff's injuries, this Court would effectively be making either one of two unjustified findings: (1) the Court would be declaring that plaintiff would have won her action against the unknown driver, and we have no power to so declare; (2) the Court would be stating that appellee's breach Caused the injuries of the plaintiff, which it did not.
The reason for such an unsatisfactory dilemma is that there is no causal relationship between the appellee's failure to act and the plaintiff's injuries. Even in jurisdictions which permit recovery where a carrier has failed to assist a passenger who has been injured en route, any recovery is limited to the aggravation of injury which is directly attributable to the carrier's delay or failure to render assistance. Annot., 92 A.L.R.2d 656, 658 (1963). Recovery must be limited to compensation for the physical injuries directly caused by the carrier's action or inaction. In the case at bar, plaintiff's injuries were not caused by any act or omission to act on the part of the appellee and consequently, plaintiff has not pleaded sufficient grounds upon which to base a cause of action against...
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