Keller v. City Railway Co.

84 N.E.2d 69, 53 Ohio Law. Abs. 417, 1948 Ohio App. LEXIS 845
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 18, 1948
DocketNo. 1983
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 84 N.E.2d 69 (Keller v. City Railway 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
Keller v. City Railway Co., 84 N.E.2d 69, 53 Ohio Law. Abs. 417, 1948 Ohio App. LEXIS 845 (Ohio Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

[418]*418OPINION

By HORNBECK, J.

The appeal is from a money judgment in favor of plaintiff for damages for personal injuries suffered by her.

Plaintiff’s cause of action was predicated upon the alleged negligence of the operator of defendant’s trolley bus in failing to yield the right of way to her as she walked from the south to the north in the west crosswalk at an intersection of Third and Jefferson Streets in the City of Dayton; in failing to sound a warning and-failing to see the plaintiff in time to bring the bus to a stop before striking her.

Defendant’s trolley coach, prior to the impact, had been headed north on Jefferson Street where it stopped to take on passengers. When it got the green light, following its regular route, it then turned left to move into and travel west on Third Street. There is some variation in the testimony whether or not the trolley bus stopped on Jefferson Street to let south bound traffic move through before completing its turn into Third Street and whether or not a horn was sounded as or after it made the stop preparatory to its turn. Likewise, there is difference in the evidence as to the places where and the time when, if at all, plaintiff looked to right or toward the oncoming trolley bus as she crossed the street. There is no dispute in the testimony to the effect that plaintiff had a green light in her favor from the time that she left the curb and at the time of the impact. The operator of the bus admits that he saw the plaintiff as she was moving across the intersection, states that he sounded the horn for her to stop and that he expected her to do so and that he did not stop his bus until the time when he realized that the plaintiff would not stop to let him pass as he expected her to do. The bus came to rest a very short distance after the impact. There is some variation in the testimony as to what part of the bus came into contact with the body of the plaintiff.

It is the theory of the defendant that, without looking, plaintiff moved across the intersection and walked into the left front side of the bus. The plaintiff contends that as the bus was turning it was not at a right angle with Jefferson Street and that the forepart thereof struck her. Although the trial judge submitted the question of the negligence of defendant to the jury, the principal issue upon the trial arose on the issue of the contributory negligence of the plaintiff.

At the conclusion of plaintiff’s case in chief and at the end of the whole case, defendant moved for a* directed verdict [419]*419which motions were overruled. Defendant tendered thirteen special charges which it requested to be given to the jury before argument. The trial judge gave seven and refused to give six of these charges. Defendant also requested, if a general verdict was rendered, that the jury be required to answer seven special interrogatories.

Appellant assigns as error the refusal of the trial judge to direct a verdict for the defendant, the refusal to give the six special instructions before argument and refusal to submit the seven special interrogatories to the jury, and also claims that the judgment is contrary to law and the weight of the evidence.

We hold that the court did not err in refusing to direct a verdict for defendant for the reasons assigned by the trial judge, that upon some of the testimony the jury could properly find that the defendant was negligent and that the plaintiff was not contributorily negligent. Defendant’s driver admitted that he made no effort to stop his bus, relying entirely upon his signal causing the plaintiff to stop and let him pass, until he realized that she would not stop. Plaintiff testified that, although she did not see the oncoming bus nor hear any signal, she did look to the right and the left as she left the curb and also looked to the right as she crossed the street. It was her contention that to see the oncoming bus she would have been required to look back of her as it made its turn. The position of the bus as it was completing its turn did not compel the conclusion that plaintiff walked into-it. Whether or not she exercised the care required of her in the situation.presented at and prior to the time that she was injured was one of fact.

Special instructions designated as (a) in the assignments of error, is:

(a) “In determining whether the operator of the trolley coach and the plaintiff were or were not guilty of negligence you are entitled to consider that the trolley coach cannot be stopped so quickly as the plaintiff could stop walking.”

This charge makes an assumption of fact which may not nave been correct.

(b) “You are instructed that the law placed upon the plaintiff, Mrs. Keller, the duty at all times to exercise ordinary care for her safety, and this required her to exercise ordinary care in the ¡use of her faculties of sight and hearing in looking and listening fox trolley coaches as she crossed Third Street.”

[420]*420This charge was properly refused because it unduly specified the obligation of ordinary care by the plaintiff to require her to look for a particular type of oncoming traffic, namely, “trolley coaches.” The same be said of special charge (c).

(d) “The court charges you that both the plaintiff, Mrs. Keller, and the driver of defendant’s trolley coach had a right to use the streets at the intersection at Third and Jefferson Street. It was the duty of each of them to observe the traffic regulations and laws regarding traffic, and also the duty of each of them to exercise ordinary care for their own safety and to make use of their faculties of sight and hearing for their own protection.”

The trial judge assigned as a reason for a refusal to give this charge that “it leaves out of the account the plaintiff’s preferential right-of-way.” We support this conclusion. Juergens v. Bell Dist., Inc., 135 Oh St 335.

(e) “I charge you that even though you find that the plaintiff, Mrs. Keller, looked to her right and to her rear as she crossed Third Street, yet in the event that you further find that the only conclusion that can be reasonably reached upon consideration of the whole evidence is that if Mrs. Keller had in fact looked to the east or her right and the rear at such time and place and in such manner as would make the looking effective, she must and would have seen the trolley coach in time to have avoided the injury, then in such event I say to you that the plaintiff, Mrs. Keller, cannot recover in this action and your verdict must be for the defendant.”

The charge among other requirements makes it the specific obligation of the plaintiff to look to her rear to discern that defendant’s bus was approaching her.

(f) “It was the duty of the plaintiff, Mrs. Keller, as she was crossing Third Street, to use ordinary care in the use of her faculties for seeing and hearing to ascertain whether there was a trolley coach approaching. If you find that she failed in the performance of that duty and that such failure directly contributed in even the slightest degree, to cause the accident and her injuries, she cannot recover in this action and your verdict must be for the defendant, The City Railway Company, regardless of what it did or failed to do.”

The trial judge refused this request because he had given another charge substantially covering the same subject matter. [421]*421We support this view. The charge given was,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 N.E.2d 69, 53 Ohio Law. Abs. 417, 1948 Ohio App. LEXIS 845, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keller-v-city-railway-co-ohioctapp-1948.