Gulfport & Mississippi Coast Traction Co. v. Raymond

128 So. 327, 157 Miss. 439, 1930 Miss. LEXIS 305
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 19, 1930
DocketNo. 28678.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 128 So. 327 (Gulfport & Mississippi Coast Traction Co. v. Raymond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gulfport & Mississippi Coast Traction Co. v. Raymond, 128 So. 327, 157 Miss. 439, 1930 Miss. LEXIS 305 (Mich. 1930).

Opinion

*442 Anderson, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

Appellee brought this action against appellant in the circuit court of Harrison county to recover damages for an injury received by her while a passenger on one of appellant’s street cars, which injury appellee alleg'ed was caused by the negligence of appellant’s motorman in operating the street car. There was a trial, resulting in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee in the sum of one thousand five hundred dollars, from which judgm’ent appellant prosecutes this appeal.

The errors assigned and argued are based on instructions refused appellant, and instructions granted appellee.

The following* is deemed a sufficient statement of the case to develop the questions to be decided: East Howard avenue, in the city of Biloxi, runs east and west, and Holly street runs north and south. Appellee’s home was near the northwest corner of the intersection of those streets. Appellee was injured about five-thirty in the afternoon. She was traveling east on Howard avenue on one of appellant’s street cars, going to her home. Automobile traffic on East Howard avenue is always heavy. The street car on which appellee was traveling was what is known as a one-man car; the motorman acts as both conductor and motorman. There were other passengers on the car besides appellee. Appellee and the motorman knew each other. As the car approached Holly street, appellee rang the bell in ample time to give the *443 motorman notice that she desired to get off at her home near the northwest corner of the intersection of East Howard avenue and Holly street.

Appellee testified that the car stopped at its usual stopping place for passengers alighting near the northwest corner of the intersection of those streets; that as soon as the car stopped she arose from her seat, and proceeded to the front for the purpose of alighting; that another passenger preceded her, and while this passenger was alighting, appellee was standing with her hand on the door, ready to get off, when the car started again; that she thereupon told the motorman she wanted to get off at Holly street; that the car had proceeded east about sixty to sixty-five feet when 'the motorman asked her if she desired to get off at that point, to which she answered that she did. The car was thereupon stopped, she alighted from the north side, and immediately thereafter she was struck down by an automobile, driven by a Mr. Band, going west. Appellee testified that she did not see the automobile until it struck her. She was rendered' unconscious by the blow, and her testimony showed that her injuries were serious.

The motorman testified, his evidence being corroborated to some extent by the testimony of others, that the street car stopped near the northwest corner of the intersection of East Howard avenue and Holly street, where appellee desired to disembark; that one passenger got off at that point, and he (the motorman) looked back to see if there were any other passengers to leave the car, and seeing none, proceeded east something like sixty to sixty-five feet, when he discovered that appellee was at the front of the car, desiring to disembark; that the witness asked appellee if she was willing to get off at that place, to which she replied that she was; thereupon he stopped the car, and appellee went down the steps on the north side, into the street; that as she was alighting, the witness saw an automobile approaching the car from the east, going west; that at the time appellee stepped into the street the automobile was about one hundred *444 fifty feet away; that the witness told' appellee to look out —there was an automobile coming. The automobile was passing the street car, as required by the traffic law, on the north side of East Howard avenue, which is a little less than forty feet wide. Appellee testified that she was dull of hearing, and if the motorman said anything to her about an approaching automobile she did not hear him; appellee was about seventy years of age at the time of her injury. East Howard avenue was paved at the time of the accident, but Holly street was not, the latter being surfaced with oyster shells.

The principal ground' urged by appellant for a reversal of the judgment was the action of the court in refusing appellant’s request for a directed verdict. That position means that, taking as established every material fact favorable to appellee’s case which the evidence either tended to prove directly or by reasonable inference, still, under the law there was no liability on the part of appellant for the injuries.

It will be observed from the above statement of the ease that there are certain material facts which are undisputed in the evidence. They are that appellee was lawfully on appellant’s street car; that she was traveling to her home, which is situated near the northwest corner of the intersection of East Howard avenue and Holly street; that appellee gave the motorman operating the car notice that she desired to disembark at that place; that appellee was carried from sixty to sixty-five feet east of that place, and permitted to disembark, and as soon as she stepped out of the car on the street she was struck by the automobile.

According to appellee’s testimony, she was carried past her destination through no fault of hers, but through the negligence of the motorman operating the car.

Appellant’s argument is that it was without fault proximately contributing to the injury, because appellee safely left the car, and at the time of her injury was standing on paved street, and therefore the relation of carrier and passenger had ceased.

*445 Persons traveling streets in automobiles and other vehicles, in approaching a street car while it is discharging and taking on passengers, are required to exercise a very-much higher degree of care than is required in passing a moving street car. As a rule, street cars stop to discharge and take on passengers at street corners, and not beyond, and along the lots and blocks abutting on the streets, with certain exceptions generally well known to the traveling public. Therefore, persons traveling in automobiles and other vehicles are not required to be on the lookout for street cars to stop elsewhere than at their usual stopping places to let off or take on passengers. Appellant’s motorman, operating the street car, was chargeable with knowledge of the additional danger of discharging and taking 'on passengers elsewhere than at street corners. The law imposed upon appellant the duty, not only to transport appellee safely to her destination, but also to furnish her a safe place to alight from the car in which she was being- carried. And in view of the added danger of stopping the car at an unusual place, it was appellant’s duty to warn her of dangers from passing vehicles in the street. Wood v. Public Service Corp., 174 N. C. 697, 94 S. E. 459, 1 A. L. R. 942; Mahoning & S. Ry. & Light Co. v. Leedy, 104 Ohio St. 487, 136 N. E. 198.

In the latter case the court held that where a street railway company, operating its cars upon public streets, has itself created a sudden situation of danger, it is the duty of the company, before discharging- its passengers into such dangerous situation, either to remove the dangerous situation, or to warn passengers of its existence.

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Bluebook (online)
128 So. 327, 157 Miss. 439, 1930 Miss. LEXIS 305, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gulfport-mississippi-coast-traction-co-v-raymond-miss-1930.