Atherley v. Market Street Railway Co.

108 P.2d 927, 42 Cal. App. 2d 354, 1941 Cal. App. LEXIS 1262
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 9, 1941
DocketCiv. No. 11366
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 108 P.2d 927 (Atherley v. Market Street Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atherley v. Market Street Railway Co., 108 P.2d 927, 42 Cal. App. 2d 354, 1941 Cal. App. LEXIS 1262 (Cal. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

PETERS, P. J.

From a judgment for $3,422.38 in favor of plaintiff, defendants Market Street Railway Company, Chester Yon Boden and John Berry prosecute this appeal. The injuries forming the basis of the action were received [356]*356some time after 8:00 P. M. on August 7, 1936, while plaintiff was attempting to board a southbound Fillmore Street streetcar at the northwest corner of Fillmore and Ellis Streets in San Francisco. The streetcar was operated by defendant company, and in charge of the two individual defendants. The ease was tried before the court without a jury.

On this appeal defendants contend that the only possible interpretation of the evidence is that the plaintiff was injured while attempting to board a moving streetcar in violation of a city ordinance, and, hence, was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, and that the trial court erred in denying defendants’ motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence. Neither of these contentions is sound. So far as the defendant company, and the defendant Von Boden, the conductor of the streetcar, are concerned, the evidence amply supports the finding that plaintiff was injured when the streetcar negligently was started while plaintiff was attempting to board it. It is true that there is a conflict, but that conflict was resolved by the trial court.

Plaintiff was seventy-seven years of age in August of 1936, and was then employed by a steamship company as a special policeman at its docks. Some years before this accident his leg had been broken in two places causing him to move slowly, and preventing him from running. The accident occurred on his day off. On that day he had attended an afternoon movie, and then had dinner at the home of his son, Walter Atherley, husband of Gertrude Atherley. After dinner, plaintiff, his son, and his daughter-in-law took a streetcar to Fillmore Street where the plaintiff desired to do some shopping. They first visited a beer parlor where they all had one glass of beer. This was the only liquor the plaintiff or his daughter-in-law had that day. This was about 7:00 o ’clock in the evening. Thereafter, the son went home, leaving the plaintiff and Gertrude Atherley to continue their shopping expedition. They shopped until about, or after, 8 -.00 o 'clock, when plaintiff decided to take a streetcar home. He and his daughter-in-law stood on the northwest corner of Fillmore and Ellis Streets awaiting the arrival of a southbound car. On that corner is a drugstore with an entrance on Fillmore Street. The drugstore extends along Fillmore Street about thirty feet from the corner, and the entrance thereto is in the middle. The actual doors to the • drugstore, [357]*357according to a diagram inserted in appellants’ brief, are seven feet; ten inches, wide. However, the diagram also shows that the entrance is a widely tapering one, fanning out so that where it meets the sidewalk it is fifteen or sixteen feet wide. The plaintiff testified that he and his daughter-in-law stood, waiting for the car, 1 ‘ just about the entrance to the drugstore.” Both he and Gertrude Atherley testified that, when the southbound streetcar arrived, the plaintiff proceeded straight out in the street to board it; that Gertrude Atherley stood at the curb to watch him board the car; that there were two or three passengers preceding the plaintiff; that after these other passengers boarded the car, and while the car was still at a standstill, the plaintiff placed his foot on the lower step and was reaching for the stanchion when the car started with a sudden jerk, throwing the plaintiff to the street. Plaintiff suffered a skull fracture, which almost completely encircled his head at the level of his eyes, concussion, head abrasion and nervous shock. The injury caused permanent deafness in one ear, and recurring dizziness. No contention is made that the amount of the judgment is excessive.

According to the testimony of defendant Chester Von Boden all passengers were on the streetcar when he gave the signal to the motorman to proceed. He testified that he first observed the plaintiff between two automobiles parked on the west curb of Fillmore Street; that plaintiff stepped out into the street and attempted to grab the car as it went by; that plaintiff did not get his foot on the step or his hand on the stanchion; that the streetcar hit him on the left shoulder, and, as a result, he was thrown against one of the parked automobiles. There was no evidence that plaintiff had a bruised shoulder after the accident.

Fred Harr, a newsboy with a stand on the southwest corner of the intersection (the accident happened at the northwest corner) testified that he saw plaintiff lunge for the streetcar after it was in motion; that at the moment of the accident he was in the street, having just sold a paper to a customer in an automobile, and that he was looking northerly to see if his boss was coming with more papers for him.

Faced with this direct conflict in the evidence, the trial court resolved the conflict in favor of plaintiff, and made its findings accordingly. That was its function. It is no part of the function of this court to weigh that evidence. [358]*358Appellants, however, argue that the physical circumstances of the accident as testified to by respondent and his daughter-in-law demonstrate, as a matter of law, that he attempted to board the streetcar while it was in motion. Appellants arrive at this conclusion, which is directly contrary to the evidence of respondent above recited, by taking a few isolated statements from respondent’s and Gertrude Atherley's testimony, by completely disregarding other portions of their testimony which tend to explain the portions relied upon by appellants, by then applying a yardstick to the isolated portions of the testimony chosen by them, and then demonstrating, as they contend, to a mathematical certainty, that respondent must have attempted to board the streetcar after it started up. Thus, they refer to the testimony of the respondent that the streetcar stopped with its -front end at the north property line of Ellis Street; that he was standing in front of the entrance to the drugstore; that after the car had stopped he walked straight out into Fillmore Street to board the car at the rear platform; that no one was standing between him and the conductor as he attempted to get on the car. His daughter-in-law also testified that he did not walk at an angle. It is also contended that respondent testified that he did not proceed out into the street until after the car had stopped. Using this testimony as their major premise, and, assuming that from that testimony the only inference is that respondent attempted to board the car opposite the entrance to the drugstore, appellants contend that when the rear platform of the streetcar was opposite the drugstore entrance it had to be moving—ergo, say they, the respondent attempted to board a moving streetcar. In support of this argument appellants have included in their opening brief diagrams based on undisputed measurements with the purpose of showing that, with the ear stopped with its front end along the north property line of Ellis Street, the rear of the car would be some feet north of the drugstore, and that respondent could not possibly reach the rear entrance by walking straight out into the street from his position at the entrance of the drugstore.

This argument is not only unfair to respondent, in that it attempts to reduce the testimony of respondent and Mrs.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kircher v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co.
195 P.2d 427 (California Supreme Court, 1948)
Bliss v. Security-First National Bank
183 P.2d 312 (California Court of Appeal, 1947)
Taylor v. Wright
159 P.2d 980 (California Court of Appeal, 1945)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 P.2d 927, 42 Cal. App. 2d 354, 1941 Cal. App. LEXIS 1262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atherley-v-market-street-railway-co-calctapp-1941.