Linton v. Virginia Electric & Power Co.

174 S.E. 667, 162 Va. 711, 1934 Va. LEXIS 282
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJune 14, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 174 S.E. 667 (Linton v. Virginia Electric & Power Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Linton v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., 174 S.E. 667, 162 Va. 711, 1934 Va. LEXIS 282 (Va. 1934).

Opinion

Epes, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action, instituted by notice of motion for judgment, brought by Thomas Jefferson Linton against the Virginia Electric and Power Company. The purpose of the action is to recover damages for personal injury and loss of personal property which the plaintiff claims to have sustained as a result of the collision between an automobile in which he was riding and a street car owned and operated by the defendant. The collision occurred on January 16, 1931, about 7 P. M., in the city of South Norfolk.

The defendant plead the general issue and the contributory negligence of the plaintiff and of the driver of the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $2,000.

The defendant moved the court to set aside the verdict and grant it a new trial on the following grounds: (1) Because the verdict is contrary to the law and evidence; [714]*714(2) because the court erred in giving improper instructions and in refusing to give proper instructions asked! for by the defendant; (3) because of improper remarks, made to the jury by counsel for the plaintiff in Ms argument. The contentions made by the defendant in support of its position that the verdict is contrary to the evidence are (1) that the evidence fails to show that the defendant was guilty of any negligence which was the proximate cause of or contributed to the accident, (2) the evidence shows that the plaintiff was himself guilty of negligence which contributed to the accident and which bars his recovery, (3) the evidence shows that the driver of the automobile was guilty of negligence which was the sole proximate cause of the accident.

The order of the court setting the verdict aside reads: “The court having fully heard and considered the motion of the defendant to set aside the verdict of the jury in this case and grant it a new trial, doth sustain the same. Thereupon the court being of the opinion that there is sufficient evidence before it on which to enter judgment, it is considered by the court that the plaintiff take nothing by his suit, * * * and that the defendant recover against the said plaintiff its costs in its behalf expended.”

The plaintiff below is the plaintiff in error here. He makes three assignments of error, but as the third is comprehended in the first it need not be noticed. The first and second assignments of error are as follows: (1) The court erred in sustaining defendant’s motion to set aside the verdict and in setting aside the verdict and entering final judgment for the defendant. (2) The court erred in holding that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, and that his negligence was not an issue to have been determined by the jury.

The position taken by the defendant in error is that there was no error in the court’s judgment; but that, even if this court should be of opinion that the court erred in entering judgment for the defendant, it was clearly right in setting aside the verdict because of errors made [715]*715in refusing and granting instructions, and because of the improper remarks of counsel for the plaintiff, and that the most that the plaintiff in error can be entitled to is to have the case sent back for a new trial.

The facts proven by the evidence introduced by the plaintiff and such of the evidence of the defendant as was not contradicted by or in conflict with that of the plaintiff are as follows:

This accident occurred at the intersection of Bainbridge boulevard and Holly avenue in the city of South Norfolk.

Bainbridge boulevard runs north and south. The hard surfaced portion of it is seventeen feet wide; and when we hereafter refer to Bainbridge boulevard we are to be understood as speaking of the hard surface or paved portion thereof.

Holly avenue runs east and west. East of its intersection with the boulevard it is paved for a width of twenty-seven and three-tenths feet. West of the intersection it is an unpaved road. From a point at least 200 feet north of its intersection with Holly avenue to a point about 750 feet south of its intersection with Holly avenue Bainbridge boulevard is perfectly straight. Though Bainbridge boulevard makes a slight curve some 750 feet south of Holly avenue, a person standing in the boulevard 200, or more, feet north of the intersection can see an automobile on the boulevard or a street car on the tracks along the side of it from the time it gets within a half mile of the intersection.

For a long distance south of Holly avenue a single track street car line of the Virginia Electric and Power Company runs along the west side of Bainbridge boulevard, the nearest rail being five and two-tenths feet from the western edge of the paving on the boulevard. The sides of the street car involved in this accident overhang the track from eighteen to twenty-two inches, so that as it paralleled the boulevard it came within from forty to forty-four inches of the western edge of the paving. At a point which (measuring along the line parallel to the [716]*716boulevard) is forty-seven and two-tenths feet from the center line of Holly avenue extended westward, the street car tracks begin to make a curve to cross the boulevard and turn into Holly avenue. From that point the inside rail of the tracks runs on the arc of a circle having a radius of fifty-two feet, to a point in Holly avenue twenty-eight feet east of the eastern edge of the paved portion of the boulevard; and from here the center line of the tracks runs east along the center line of Holly avenue.

Measured along the inside rail from a point at which the curve of the inside rail of the track begins it is thirty-six feel to the point at which the inside rail intersects the western line of the paving on the boulevard, and something over forty-five feet to the point at which the inside rail intersects the center line of the boulevard.

The street car tracks along the western side of the boulevard stand well above the surface of the ground until they get to a point a little over 100 feet south of the south line of Holly avenue. From that point to the point at which they intersect the western edge of the paved portion of the boulevard they are somewhat less pronouncedly above the surface of the ground. As they cross the paved portion of the boulevard and in Holly avenue they are laid flush with the paved surface of the highway.

There are no car tracks on or along either side of the boulevard north of Holly avenue. South of Holly avenue there is a pole line running along the western side of the car tracks which carries the trolley wires and electric wires. At Holly avenue the trolley wires turn and follow the car tracks; but the pole line carrying the other wires on it continues along the boulevard to the north of Holly avenue.

The photographs of this intersection show that there is a street light at the southwest corner of the intersection, but the evidence is silent as to whether it was burning at the time of the accident.

The street car involved in this accident was a double-truck car of the 2100 type. That is, it had a set of trucks [717]*717at the front and a set of trucks at the rear of the car. These trucks were so placed that the front of the car, including the fender, projects from eight to ten feet beyond the center of the front truck.

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Bluebook (online)
174 S.E. 667, 162 Va. 711, 1934 Va. LEXIS 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/linton-v-virginia-electric-power-co-va-1934.