Graff v. Detroit Citizens' Street Railway Co.

67 N.W. 815, 109 Mich. 77, 1896 Mich. LEXIS 804
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 31, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 67 N.W. 815 (Graff v. Detroit Citizens' Street Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graff v. Detroit Citizens' Street Railway Co., 67 N.W. 815, 109 Mich. 77, 1896 Mich. LEXIS 804 (Mich. 1896).

Opinion

Moore, J.

The plaintiff sued defendant for injuries done to himself and his horse and other property in a collision with defendant’s cars, which occurred September 30, 1893, at the intersection of Holden and Palmer avenues with Woodward Avenue. After the plaintiff’s testimony was all in, defendant’s counsel moved to take the case from the jury. At the noon hour the trial judge visited the place of the accident. When the court convened in the afternoon, the judge directed a verdict in favor of the defendant. Plaintiff appealed the case to this court.

The record discloses that about 4 o’clock upon a rainy afternoon, September 30, 1893, the plaintiff drove east on Holden avenue, and áttempted to cross Woodward avenue, which runs north and south, to Palmer avenue. He was driving a horse that would weigh about 1,200 pounds. This horse was hitched to a wagon which had a wagon box about 10 feet long and 32 inches deep. Miss Hall was in the rear of the box. Graff was standing up, and one Wick was on his right-hand side, carrying an umbrella. As Graff approached Woodward avenue, he ■heard a gong sounded from an electric car coming south at great speed. When he got to the asphalt pavement, he saw an electric car about a block away, coming north. When the plaintiff came into Woodward avenue, his horse was on a trot. The plaintiff testified:

“I tried to check the horse, pull off to the right, and avoid the car going south. As I got, it might be, as far as the curb, I saw I could not turn around, and I held back on the lines, and pulled the horse back, and [79]*79I could not stop sufficient to avoid colliding with the car. The horse collided with the car. He put his head alongside, and his breast struck on the car. The motorman coming north saw my condition. When he saw my condition,—that I could not stop my horse, and was trying to avoid him,—he stopped his car almost instantly- * * * I was attempting to avoid this car by turning south on Woodward avenue. I was partly turning that way,-—■ going towards Palmer avenue,—but I was trying to avoid this car going south. As I got as far as the curb, or thereabouts, seeing I could not turn sharp enough, I pulled on my horse, but I could not stop my horse sufficiently to avoid colliding with the north-bound car. The horse ran against that car, and struck with his breast. * * * The motorman on the north-bound car, when he saw my condition,—when he saw I was trying to avoid his car,—took in the situation at a glance. He put on his brakes, and stopped his car almost instantly. And I pulled back after I had struck the side of the car. I might have pulled back two feet or- so. Anyway, I pulled back. Then I heard the horse’s feet striking on the asphalt pavement, and slipping somewhat, and that called my attention to it. I had the lines on the horse, and his front parts went down. I saw his hind parts going down, and the next moment I was tipping over. We all went off on the asphalt pavement. I could not jump out, my feet were so close to the end of the box. First I lay on the flat of my stomach, when I fell out. As I was getting up, I was just in about a position on my knees, and getting up again, when I got a crack on the back from the south-bound car that knocked me down again, and I saw the car was over me. I have a pain in my breast yet. Expected never to get out alive again. * * * When .the horse’s shoulders struck the northbound car, I could not say what she was doing. She was going at an ordinary gait,—ordinary speed; not overgoing speed. The car stopped just about the time I reached it. The shafts went up,—the shafts raised up,—but I could not say whether a window was broken or not. They said there was. My horse slipped on his knees after he had struck the north-bound car. I was thrown clear from the wagon. I was lying on the asphalt pavement, sliding along.
Q. After this had all happened, you say that the south-bound car came onto you ?
“A. I did not see the south-bound car at all until I got [80]*80struck by it,—not after I took my eyes off the car; but I saw it up yonder. * * * The north-bound car stopped my progress. The north-bound car was on the east track. I was going at an ordinary trot, as I approached Woodward avenue, and the horse’s head was from 80 to 100 feet from the westerly curb line, when I saw the south-bound car above. I had a good view from Woodward avenue to the north, but could not say how the view was to the south, and could not say how the building was situated at the south. There were some trees there. I saw the north-bound car coming up just as I got to the asphalt paving, or thereabout. I heard the gong on the south-bound'car. * * * I saw nothing of the north-bound car until just as I got to the pavement; that is, about the turn-off. I was trying to turn south, and could not do it, as I explained before. I heard one gong, and that was all. She was over a block away. That called my attention to the south-bound car. At the time I was looking straight ahead, until I got to the crossing, and was about to turn, and I saw the other car, apparently going north; and I tried to turn south, and some way or other I could not govern the horse,—could not turn short enough, as I explained before,—and I tried to stop the horse, and could not stop him sufficiently to avoid his colliding with the north-bound car. The horse ran into it, anyhow. The gong was not ringing on the north-bound car. I first saw the car when I got to the asphalt pavement. * * * Iwasjustabouton the asphalt pavement when I saw the north-bound car coming up. I could not say if there was anything to prevent my seeing it before reaching the asphalt pavement, unless there were some trees. If I had turned south, as I tried to do, I would have been all right, but I could not do it, on account of my horse slipping. At the time that I was just coming to the asphalt pavement, I was looking straight ahead; and just as I took my eyes from that car, and got just about to the asphalt paving, I was about to turn, and I saw the other, the north-bound car. I tried to turn south by that car. The north-bound car was not straight ahead of me. It was from 40 to 60 feet from me, going up. * * * I was sitting in the front part of the wagon box, or rather standing against the side. * * * Fred Wick was on my right, sitting on a stove further back from the front. The hearth of the stove was at the front, and he was sitting about the mid-[81]*81die, and I was up against the end of the box, facing south. It was an ordinary cook stove, and the legs were off. Miss Hall was sitting in the rear,—sitting on a box or something,—facing north, about 10 feet from me. The horse kept the same rate until I reached the asphalt, and, if any, it decreased somewhat as I was trying to stop it, but I could not do it. * * * It was raining a fine sort of rain,—not heavy.”

On the cross-examination he testified:

“I had driven across Woodward avenue, on Holden, before, 400 or 500 different times. I certainly knew electric cars were running on that street very rapidly and frequently, in both directions. I was 100 feet, perhaps less, from the asphalt when I first noticed the south-bound car. That is my estimate of it. I did not measure it. I had a perfectly clear view of the south-bound car. The asphalt' on Woodward avenue goes in on Holden about as far as the depth of the cross-walk,-—about to the inside line of the sidewalk. I heard the gong first, then looked and saw the south-bound car beyond Hendrie avenue, the next street north of Palmer, east of Woodward. Prom Palmer to Hendrie is about 350 feet.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
67 N.W. 815, 109 Mich. 77, 1896 Mich. LEXIS 804, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graff-v-detroit-citizens-street-railway-co-mich-1896.