Carroll v. Youngstown Municipal Ry Co.

18 Ohio Law. Abs. 9
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 19, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 18 Ohio Law. Abs. 9 (Carroll v. Youngstown Municipal Ry Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carroll v. Youngstown Municipal Ry Co., 18 Ohio Law. Abs. 9 (Ohio Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

[11]*11OPINION

By ROBERTS, J.

It is claimed that' the defendant was guilty- of negligence in stopping its bus at this particular place, and jointly with the negligence of Banfield produced the accident. ..'It is claimed that the plaintiff had become, under the conditions, a passenger of the defendant and was entitled to protection not accorded to him. It is claimed that the operator of the bus should have noticed the approach of the Banfield car, and ■ have caused it to stop or warn the plaintiff of his impending danger. Upon the proposition as to the alleged negligence of the defendant in making this bus stop, reference is now made to the case of Baker v Pendergast, 32 Oh St 494. On page 499 it is said:

• “He was acting on a known and not a supposed state-.of facts, which in the absence of any information to the contrary, the ordinance might have justified him in presuming. In view of this known state of facts, it was his duty to exercise reasonable care for his .own safety. And from this duty he was in no degree relieved by the ordinance in question.”

The plaintiff in this case was not relying upon a belief that this bus had no right to stop there. As a matter of fact, he was depending upon its stopping to take on passengers at that point. He is presumed to have.known the law and known the existence of the ordinance prohibiting stops on bridges. He knew that that ordinance was not being enforced, that as a matter of fact regular stops yjere being made at this place 'for his convenience and the convenience of his fellow employes' in the Republic Building. '

• In Hanna on Trial Evidence, §1385, it is said: .

“Where complainant knew that the ordinance was being violated, he could not rely on the fact that others would obey it, either to excuse his own conduct or to make them guilty of actionable negligence.”

The plaintiff, knowing of the stopping of the bus as a convenience to him, was seeking to avail himself of the opportunity thus afforded to become a passenger. In the opinion of this court he was not in a situation to complain of the violation of this ordinance. ,

In the case of Hrovat v Cleveland Railway Company, 125 Oh St, 67, at page 74 it is said:

“But assuming that the operation of the street cars of the Railway Company created the situation and conditions which, concurrently with the later intervening negligence of the Taxicab Company, caused plaintiff’s injuries, such acts of the Railway Company became the remote and not the proximate cause of the accident. The agents of the Railway Company could not have reasonably anticipated the extraordinary, if not illegal, conduct of the taxicab driver. Such being the case, it is a well settled rule of law that such intervening negligence of the taxicab driver became the proximate cause.”

We quote from 29 Ohio Jurisprudence, page 500, as follows:

“Wrongful acts of independent third persons not actually intended by the defendant, are not regarded by the law as natural consequences of his wrong, and he is not bound to anticipate the general probability of such acts, any more than a particular act by this! or that individual.”

At page 499 of the same volume it is said:

“Whenever a cause intervenes which is not a consequence of the first wrongful cause, which is not under the control of the wrongdoer, which could not have been foreseen by the exercise of reasonable diligence by the wrongdoer, and except for which the final injurious consequences would not have happened, the second cause is ordinarily regarded as the proximate cause, and the other as the remote cause.”

It is complained that the defendant was guilty of negligence in making .or causing to have made the openings in the railing and in the guard rail and splash board of the bridge for- the convenience of passengers at the point in question. We do not think that that could be regarded as a proximate cause of the accident.

[12]*12Again, it is claimed that the alleged negligence of the company in stopping the bus caused a blockade of vehicular traffic, which resulted in this accident. Without recognizing this claim as an indication of negligence in this accident, the evidence does not seem to indicate any particular blockade of traffic to which this accident might be attributable. The bus was standing still at the curb, which necessitated south bound traffic passing around it, which was being done. North bound traffic was coming in two lanes, evidently passing freely except for such effect as ' the crossing of the bridge by the intending passengers may have had upon the situation.

Banfield, whose car collided with the plaintiff, was not being held up by traffic, but evidently becoming impatient to pass other vehicles, pulled out of the left line of traffic, north bound, further to the left and ♦ran down the plaintiff. Concerning the complaint that the defendant was guilty of negligence in not warning the plaintiff of impending danger, that, as alleged, the defendant’s driver was in a position to see the Peerless automobile approaching in time to warn plaintiff of the danger, the allegations of the petition do not justify this contention. It is alleged that Banfield suddenly pulled out of his line of traffic, approached and passed the bus at a speed of forty-five miles an hour; that plaintiff was standing between the rails waiting for a south bound car to pass. There was the noise of the traffic and only a few seconds intervening. It is not to be assumed that the bus driver was under any duty to observe or warn some one on the street, who, as it is claimed, had not as yet become a passenger. In the case of Reining v Northern Ohio Traction Company, 107 Oh St, 528, the second paragraph of the syllabus reads as follows:

' “It is not the duty of a conductor or motorman to warn passengers upon leaving a street car car at a regular stop of the danger of automobile traffic in a city street, and failure to caution such passengers of approaching automobiles will not render the company liable for injuries caused by an automobile passing the car at an excessive rate of speed and striking, the passenger after he had alighted from the street car in safety.”

• ’On page 531, in the opinion; it is said: ' ' “Under the evidence, the decedent had taken at least one or two steps toward the curb from- the place-where he had safely alighted from the street car. The decedent was therefore no longer a passenger, for it is the generally accepted view that one who has alighted from a street car and is in safety upon the highway is no longer a passenger, but is thenceforth a traveler upon the highway, subject to all the duties and obligations imposed upon such travelers, and the railway company is not responsible to him as a carrier for the condition of the street, or for his safe passage from the car to the sidewalk.”

On page 533 the court with approval refers to Chesley v Waterloo C. F. and N. R. Co., 188 Iowa, 1004, as follows:

“The court held that a street railway company which permits a passenger to alight from a car at a place not ordinarily used in discharging passengers, and where many automobiles are accustomed to pass, is not bound to warn him of the danger' from passing cars, nor to protect him from such danger after he has left the car.”

Then the court quotes with approval from the case of Oddy v West End Street Ry. Co., 178 Mass., 341, as follows:

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Related

Jones v. Youngstown Muni Ry Co.
23 Ohio Law. Abs. 28 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
18 Ohio Law. Abs. 9, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carroll-v-youngstown-municipal-ry-co-ohioctapp-1934.