Ristuccia v. Boston Elevated Railway Co.

186 N.E. 592, 283 Mass. 529, 1933 Mass. LEXIS 1014
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedJune 30, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 186 N.E. 592 (Ristuccia v. Boston Elevated Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ristuccia v. Boston Elevated Railway Co., 186 N.E. 592, 283 Mass. 529, 1933 Mass. LEXIS 1014 (Mass. 1933).

Opinion

Field, J.

This is an action of tort brought by the administrator of the estate of Rosaría Ristuccia to recover compensation for her death and conscious suffering as a result of her being struck and knocked down, while crossing a street, by an electric car of the defendant. The defendant’s motion for a directed verdict was denied, but the jury returned a verdict for the defendant. The case comes before us on the plaintiff’s exceptions to parts of the charge and on a report by the trial judge containing the following: "I report this case for a determination by the Supreme Judicial Court under the stipulation that if I was in error in submitting the case to the jury, and in refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant, judgment is to be entered for the defendant, but that if I was right in submitting the case to the jury, the verdict of the jury is to stand, subject to the plaintiff’s bill of exceptions.”

The plaintiff’s intestate when crossing Somerville Avenue in Somerville was struck and knocked down by an electric car of the defendant, travelling west on Somerville Avenue, and sustained bodily injuries, as a result of which she died after conscious suffering. The accident happened January 9, 1928, at about 5:42 p.m. There was evidence that the deceased, who was walking on the sidewalk on the north side of the street, had to cross the street to the sidewalk on the south side in order to reach her destination, and that after waiting for an opportunity to get across the street through the traffic which was coming along she saw an opening in the traffic, started to walk across and, while doing so, was struck by the defendant’s electric car. There was testimony "that at the locus of the accident there was no cross walk.” But it does not appear in the plaintiff’s bill of exceptions, which, however, does not purport to state all the evidence material to the questions raised thereby, [531]*531that there was no cross walk reasonably available for the use of the deceased in the course of her journey.

The parts of the charge to which the plaintiff excepted were as follows: “It is true, as stated by both counsel, that there is no obligation in this Commonwealth for a plaintiff to cross a highway only on a cross walk. Nevertheless, that she did not cross on a cross walk is important evidence on the question of the defendant’s lack of due care and on the question of the plaintiff’s failure to exercise due care, because it is obvious that there is less likelihood of an operator, a motorman, being negligent with reference to people who are not on the cross walk than there would be towards people who were on a cross walk. And, conversely, the test of the plaintiff’s lack of due care requires that you consider as an important circumstance whether or not the plaintiff crossed at a cross walk, even though there is no affirmative obligation by the law of this Commonwealth for a pedestrian to use a cross walk. . . . What you are trying to do once you come to the question of responsibility is to impose a fine on the defendant according to the degree of culpability; and on that question it is only fair to say that you ought to consider all the circumstances, — the condition of traffic, the nature of the evening, the weather conditions, and the likelihood of a person appearing on the track in Somerville Avenue at that particular time, because that bears on, has great importance on this issue of culpability.”

The charge was not erroneous. There properly is no dispute as to the correctness of the statements “that there is no obligation in this Commonwealth for a plaintiff to cross a highway only on the cross walk,” and that “there is no affirmative obligation by the law of this Commonwealth for a pedestrian to use a cross walk.” The deceased had a legal right to cross elsewhere. Crossing elsewhere was not in itself negligence on her part and did not relieve the defendant of the duty to exercise care to avoid injuring her. Boni v. Goldstein, 276 Mass. 372, 376, and cases cited. Compare Booth v. Meagher, 224 Mass. 472, 473; Hicks v. H. B. Church Truck Service Co. 259 Mass. 272, 277. These [532]*532principles were stated clearly in the charge and other statements therein are to be considered in connection with the statement of these principles.

Though the deceased had a legal right to cross the street elsewhere than at a cross walk, the care required of her and of the defendant’s motorman was reasonable care in the existing circumstances. Nelson v. Old Colony Street Railway, 208 Mass. 159, 162. Joughin v. Federal Motor Transportation Co. 279 Mass. 408, 411. As was said in Kerr v. Boston Elevated Railway, 188 Mass. 434, 436, of a bicyclist who was struck by an electric car, “The plaintiff had the right to travel upon any part of the highway, and could choose the path he took if he pleased. But the care required of him varied with the danger. If that path subjected him to a liability to be hit by a passing car he was bound to use reasonable care to avert such a collision. But he had the right to expect corresponding care on the part of the motorman.”

The fact, if found, that the deceased was crossing the street elsewhere than at a cross walk was a material circumstance for the consideration of the jury in determining whether the requisite care was exercised by the deceased and by the defendant. Though reasonable care on the part, of the motorman was required, what constituted reasonable care on his part depended to some extent on the likelihood that persons would be on the car tracks at any particular place. On this point it was said in Nelson v. Old Colony Street Railway, 208 Mass. 159, 161-162, of the care required of a motorman, that the “diligence to be exercised where little travel is to be anticipated, does not call for the precautions as to speed and readiness of control, or the diligence and attention usually demanded, where from experience or observation the motorman knows that . . . travel has been, or is likely to be transferred to the portion occupied by the track.” See also Anger v. Worcester Consolidated Street Railway, 231 Mass. 163, 164. On the other hand, a pedestrian crossing electric car tracks, to the extent that “he was entitled to rely ... on the expectation that the motorman would not fail to take . . . precautions to [533]*533prevent injuries to pedestrians crossing the track,” could rely only on the motorman taking "such precautions . . . as. traffic conditions required.” McBride v. Middlesex & Boston Street Railway, 276 Mass. 29, 34. In Shea v. Boston Elevated Railway, 217 Mass. 163, 165, there was evidence that the plaintiff, a pedestrian, crossed the street at a cross walk, and it was said that "It is settled that . . . the plaintiff had the right to assume that the motorman would give the usual warning and so would slacken the speed as to protect travellers whose presence at the crossing in the operation of the railway might be expected.” See also McDermott v. Boston Elevated Railway, 184 Mass. 126, 129. And in the leading case in our reports dealing with the rights of foot passengers crossing streets (Raymond v. Lowell, 6 Cush. 524) the court said that there "is no law or principle of law, or of reason, which confines foot-passengers to particular crossings,” cited two English cases to that effect, quoted the remark of Chief Justice Denman in one of them (Boss v. Litton, 5 Car. & P. 407), that “A man has a right to walk in the road if he pleases.

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Bluebook (online)
186 N.E. 592, 283 Mass. 529, 1933 Mass. LEXIS 1014, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ristuccia-v-boston-elevated-railway-co-mass-1933.