Rather v. City & County of San Francisco

184 P.2d 727, 81 Cal. App. 2d 625, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1107
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 30, 1947
DocketCiv. 13259
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 184 P.2d 727 (Rather v. City & County of San Francisco) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rather v. City & County of San Francisco, 184 P.2d 727, 81 Cal. App. 2d 625, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1107 (Cal. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinions

[627]*627GOODELL, J.

Appellant sued for damages for personal injuries. The verdict was in favor of the defendants, and from the judgment entered thereon this appeal was taken.

Appellant, a 10-year-old boy, was struck by a southbound interurban ear of respondent municipality on its San Mateo line at Baden crossing (a signal-stop station) on October 5, 1944, at about 1 p. m., and suffered a fracture of each leg, head injuries and an injury to his right hand.

A northbound car reached Baden crossing shortly before the accident, and its movements bear somewhat on the factors of time and distance in this case. Appellant rode on the rear end of the northbound car, and three older boys, who were his companions, rode on the front end. All four boys were en route to the golf course at Baden, to caddy, which they had done on several afternoons a week for several months.

The three boys on the front end of the northbound ear testified that as it approached the crossing they saw the other car on the southbound track at a distance of between 300 and 400 feet to the north, traveling at a speed of between 35 and 40 miles an hour. All three testified that just before they alighted at Baden crossing they again saw it, this time “just a few feet away,” traveling at about the same speed. This testimony puts the southbound car almost opposite the northbound car when the boys alighted. One of the boys on the front testified that he saw the southbound car for the second time “just as it was passing the northbound ear.” Two of the boys got off the front end while the car- was moving at from 3 to 5 miles an hour and ran alongside the car toward its rear end. The third boy alighted from the front end after it stopped, and followed them.

Appellant alighted from the rear end of the northbound car at Baden road while it was moving at from 3 to 5 miles an hour, ran around the rear end, stopped, and then started to cross the southbound track, whereupon he was hit by the southbound car. None of the other three boys saw appellant after he left the northbound car and before he was struck, but one of them saw him just as he was struck.

Appellant’s testimony will be summarized in some detail. He testified that when he got off the northbound car he ran around behind it but “stopped around the back of the car” and “looked up [north, to his right] to see if another ear was coming.” He saw a car “between 250 and 300 feet” away, but could not tell its speed, and “I thought I had time to go [628]*628across, so I ran—went across—walked across.” “Q. How far had you proceeded before you were hit ? A. About a step and a half inside the southbound tracks,” which is about where the southeasterly line of the Baden road crosses, diagonally, the southbound track.

He testified that he saw the ear the second time, just before he was hit, “when it was about 50 feet away” and estimated its speed then at 35 or 40 miles an hour, judged “by the distance it traveled in such a short time.” “Q. Did you make any attempt to jump out of the road? A. Yes, I did ... I started to turn around to jump out of the way” but was unable to “because the car was traveling too fast and it hit me before I had time to get out of the way.”

Appellant testified that on former occasions about one out of four or one out of three times he had seen southbound' cars approaching Baden station as he got off northbound ears and “they always slowed down” to between 3 and 5 miles an hour; that he had this in mind on the day he was struck; and on such other occasions they had always rung the bell.

On cross-examination he admitted running fast around the rear end of the northbound car, but denied that he continued running across the southbound track. He knew these cars had an overhang of about 2 feet beyond the rails and testified that when he stopped and looked to the right he was at about the point of the 2-foot overhang. He was asked why, after running' around the rear end of the car, he had stopped and walked across the rest of the track, and answered, “Because usually when I went that way the cars always slowed down, before, when they saw a car letting off passengers. Q. Didn’t you figure you could get over that track quicker if you kept on running ? A. No. Q. Did you think you could get over it quicker by wálking? You didn’t think that, surely, did you? A. No.”

To the question “After you saw that ear coming 250 or 300 feet away did you keep your eyes on it as you walked across the remaining distance ? ’ ’ appellant answered ‘ No. ” “Q. You turned away from it? A. Yes. Q. Where did you look then? A. I looked straight ahead. ’ ’'

" Appellant had testified that between the time when he stopped (and looked to the right and saw the car coming) to the time he was hit he had walked about 15 feet. He was then confronted with the admitted fact that the distance between the northbound and southbound tracks was 8 feet and that [629]*629if he had stood at the point of the 2-foot overhang when he looked to the right, the distance between him and the nearest rail ahead would be 6 feet, making a total of a little over 8 feet (as against 15) to the center of the southbound track. He replied that he “was walking diagonally across the road, from the edge, southerly edge of the road.” “Q. And when you were in the middle [of the southbound track] and you looked the second time, the car was fifty feet away, is that right? A. Yes. Q. When you saw that car did you jump out of the way ? A. No. Q. Did you walk out of the way ? A. I started to get out of the way, but I never had time to get out of the way. Q. You started . . . jumping or running ? A. I started to turn around. . . . Q. . . . when you saw it fifty feet away did you start to jump? A. No. Q. Did you start to run? A. No. Q. Did you start to walk ? A. I just turned around. ” . . . “Q. Jackie, you say that you were walking diagonally across from the time you saw the car 250 or 300 feet away the first time, up to the time you got into the middle of the southbound tracks, is that right ? A. Yes. Q. When you were walking diagonally you were walking away from the car, weren’t you? A. Yes. Q. In other words, your back was toward the car, is that correct? A. Yes. Q. Your back was toward the car from all the time that you first saw it, 250 or 300 feet away, up until the time you looked the second time, is that correct? A. Yes.”

Appellant’s deposition was read to him as follows: ;“Q. When you got behind the car on which you had been riding you saw a southbound car about 250 feet away—is that right ? A. Yes. Q. Was it going fast? A. I don’t know. I-couldn’t judge the speed from there.” He admitted so testifying.

There is, of course, much more evidence in the case than that just narrated, but for the purpose of the discussion of appellant’s first and principal point we confine ourselves to the testimony of the appellant himself and that of his three companions, who were his witnesses.

The crossing at Baden was a place where ears stopped on signal. On the westerly side of the tracks there is a platform and on the easterly side a bench. The Baden road intersects the tracks at an angle of a little less than 45 degrees. That the southbound ear came into the crossing at a high speed is not seriously, disputed. When the motorjnan was asked how fast the car was “going on this particular day as you approached the Baden crossing?” he answered, “Well, after leaving South City junction, going up there, we [630]*630go between twenty-five and thirty miles an hour.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Henderson v. Harnischfeger Corp.
527 P.2d 353 (California Supreme Court, 1974)
Rawlings v. Harris
265 Cal. App. 2d 452 (California Court of Appeal, 1968)
Clark v. Gibbons
426 P.2d 525 (California Supreme Court, 1967)
Christensen v. Malkin
236 Cal. App. 2d 114 (California Court of Appeal, 1965)
Hoyt v. Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority
210 Cal. App. 2d 534 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)
Posz v. Burchell
209 Cal. App. 2d 324 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)
Goodmaker v. Kelley
316 P.2d 746 (California Court of Appeal, 1957)
Mumford Ex Rel. Mumford v. United States
150 F. Supp. 63 (D. Maryland, 1957)
Pauly v. King
284 P.2d 487 (California Supreme Court, 1955)
Mehling v. Zigman
254 P.2d 141 (California Court of Appeal, 1953)
Holland v. Kerr
253 P.2d 88 (California Court of Appeal, 1953)
Sanguinetti v. Moore Dry Dock Co.
228 P.2d 557 (California Supreme Court, 1951)
Huggans v. Southern Pacific Co.
207 P.2d 864 (California Court of Appeal, 1949)
Haerdter v. Johnson
207 P.2d 855 (California Court of Appeal, 1949)
McCune v. Pacific Electric Railway Co.
196 P.2d 634 (California Court of Appeal, 1948)
Ralston v. Hewitson
185 P.2d 644 (California Court of Appeal, 1947)
Rather v. City & County of San Francisco
184 P.2d 727 (California Court of Appeal, 1947)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 P.2d 727, 81 Cal. App. 2d 625, 1947 Cal. App. LEXIS 1107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rather-v-city-county-of-san-francisco-calctapp-1947.