Reinhardt v. Saginaw-Bay City Railway Co.

152 N.W. 1081, 186 Mich. 413, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 700
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJune 7, 1915
DocketDocket No. 55
StatusPublished

This text of 152 N.W. 1081 (Reinhardt v. Saginaw-Bay City 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
Reinhardt v. Saginaw-Bay City Railway Co., 152 N.W. 1081, 186 Mich. 413, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 700 (Mich. 1915).

Opinions

Stone, J.

Action on the case to recover damages for the alleged negligent killing of plaintiff’s horse, [414]*414and injuring his vehicle, occasioned by collision with one of defendant’s cars which plaintiff claimed was being run at an unlawful rate of speed. Washington avenue, one of the principal streets of Bay City, runs north and south. The defendant has double tracks in this street from Center street on the north and beyond, to Columbus street on the south; the distance between the east rail of defendant’s east track and the east curb being 21 feet.

Along the east rail of the east track and south of Seventh street, at the time of the accident in question, the Bay City Gas Company had made certain excavations for repairs to gas mains. Due permission had been granted to said gas company to make such excavations. The bricks from the excavations had been placed alongside thereof in piles, 7 in number, all three feet from the east rail of the east track, and they ranged irom between 16 and 17 feet from the east curb of the street. The piles were all from 12 inches to 14 inches high. McKinley avenue (or Eighth street as it is sometimes called in the record) is the next intersecting street south of Seventh street, and the length of the block between said streets is 300 feet.

Between two and three o’clock of the afternoon of February 28, 1913, the plaintiff and his 19-year old son were driving north on Washington avenue on the traveled portion of the street in said block, east of the east car track, the son driving and seated in the front seat, the plaintiff sitting in the back seat. They had a team of horses, and the vehicle was a covered surrey, with the side curtains down. After they had passed the intersection of McKinley avenue the boy stopped the team and waited for a city street car to pass them (going in the same direction as they were). After the street car had passed, it is the plaintiff’s claim that the boy then turned the team to the left [415]*415which placed one horse west of the east rail of the east street car track, and the other horse east of the rail; that before turning back into the traveled portion of the street, the horse that was west of the east rail was struck by one of defendant’s interurban cars running north, and following the said city street car; that the turning to the left was on account of the said piles of brick along the side of said east rail, and the vehicles and teams at the east curb. The day was clear, and from the point where the horse was struck, Washington avenue could be viewed several blocks t-o the south. Upon 'the trial plaintiff’s son testified that he looked before turning the horses onto the track and saw nothing.

It was uncontradicted that the motorman of the interurban car had made a stop at Ninth street, the next street south of McKinley avenue, and had let off a passenger there, and that as he was passing from McKinley avenue to Seventh street, he had received a signal to stop the car for Seventh street; the motorman testified that in response to such signal he threw off the power about 50' feet north of McKinley avenue, and that from this point to the time the horse was struck, the current on the car had not been applied, except to reverse the car after the plaintiff’s son had turned the horses in ahead of the car, at a distance of about 15 feet from the car. There was a conflict in the evidence as to the speed of the car; the evidence on the part of defendant being that as it passed the intersection of McKinley avenue the speed was about 7 miles per hour, while there was evidence on the part of the plaintiff that the rate of speed at that point was 16 to 20 miles an hour, and that the speed was not slackened until the collision. The motorman also testified that he first observed the team about the middle of the block between Seventh street and McKinley avenue; that it [416]*416was on the right-hand side of the street, about six feet from the east rail of the track;, that as he approached the team he sounded the gong heavily, and that the gong had been sounded as he came along on Washington avenue, and right up until he saw the team start to turn in, about 15 feet ahead of him, when he blew the whistle and did all in his power to prevent the collision. The car went about the length of itself after hitting the horse, when it was stopped. The length of the car was 52 feet 5 inches.

The degree of care exercised by the plaintiff and his son in driving the team onto the track, as testified to by them, was as follows: The son, who was driving the team, testified on direct examination:

“Q. When you got down somewhere near where the accident happened, state whether or not there was a street car passed you?
“A. Why, we heard one and I slackened up and stopped the horses for about a second, I guess, or so, and waited until it was passed, and then I turned over, and I kind of looked on the side as far as I thought there would not be any danger, and I didn’t see anything in sight.
“Q. Which way would you say you turned?
“A. To the left.
“Q. When you turned to the left state whether or not that took you out on the car tracks?
“A. Why just the 'one horse was on the track and the other on the other side.
“Q. Why did you turn to the left?
“A. Why there were rigs tied in there crossways, and I couldn’t get through there.
“Q. What prevented you going through, if anything?
“A. Well, the piles of bricks, and the rigs tied there. * * *
“Q. What is the first thing you can tell us about the collision?
“A. All I know is it hit the horse, and that is all I - know, and pushed the horse down on its knees, and then the tongue broke, and then that ran into the horse, and then it broke off. * * *
[417]*417“Q. What do you say as to the way you were driving the team that day?
“A. Oh, they was going slow like.
“Q. Were you paying any attention to your business and watching the team?
“A. Sure I was paying attention, so there would not be' any danger,, always.”

On cross-examination he testified:

“Q. The first thing you knew the horse had been struck?
“A. That is the first thing I knew. * * *
“Q. And you were sitting in the front seat and nobody with you?
“A. Sure, just us two. My father sat alone in the back seat.
“Q. The rig was covered, wasn’t it?
“A. Yes. * * *
“Q. It had a curtain in the back end, a drop curtain?
“A. Yes.
“Q. And curtains in the side?
“A. Yes. * * *
“Q. How far up to the front did they come?

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Bluebook (online)
152 N.W. 1081, 186 Mich. 413, 1915 Mich. LEXIS 700, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reinhardt-v-saginaw-bay-city-railway-co-mich-1915.