Shipley v. San Diego Electric Railway Co.

289 P. 662, 106 Cal. App. 659, 1930 Cal. App. LEXIS 679
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 24, 1930
DocketDocket No. 254.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 289 P. 662 (Shipley v. San Diego Electric Railway Co.) 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
Shipley v. San Diego Electric Railway Co., 289 P. 662, 106 Cal. App. 659, 1930 Cal. App. LEXIS 679 (Cal. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

MARKS, J.

From the record before us it appears that James F. Shipley, the husband of Mattie E. Shipley and father of Dorothy Louise Shipley, a minor, was killed at about 6 o’clock on the morning of February 8, 1927, in a head-on collision with a street-car belonging to appellant. The deceased was driving his automobile east on University Avenue in the city of San Diego, county of San Diego, state of California, with its wheels astride of or near the south rail of the track of the appellant. On this street at the point of collision there was but a single track, both fails of which were on the south half of University Avenue. Appellant’s street-car was being operated in a westerly direction by a motorman in the employ of appellant. There was also a conductor on the car.

Respondents sought to recover damages in this action, but after an extended trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of appellant. Respondents made a motion, for new trial, which was granted upon the particular grounds of *661 errors in four instructions to the jury, requested by appellant and given by the court. The correctness of this order is the question to be considered on this appeal.

The first of these instructions was as follows:

“If you find from the evidence that said James P. Shipley by reason of carelessness on his part placed or was placing himself and his automobile in a position of danger from which he was unable to escape and the motorman of the street car of the defendant, when he became aware of the danger of said James E. Shipley, used every effort on his part to avoid the collision, but was unable to do so, then the motorman of said street car was not negligent and the defendant is not responsible for the collision between the automobile driven by James P. Shipley and said street car and injury, damage or loss which plaintiffs may have sustained, and the plaintiffs are not entitled to any compensation whatever from the defendant and your verdict in that event must be in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiffs.”

In determining the question of whether or not this instruction correctly states the law in this state, we must consider the duty of one operating a street-car upon a city street. It has been held by a long line of well-considered decisions that the public streets of a city are constructed for the use of all travelers, and that a public service corporation operating street-cars has no greater or superior right to use these streets than any other person or persons, with the exceptions, that, as the street-car travels upon its tracks from which it cannot turn, other traffic must recognize this fact and govern itself accordingly, and the driver of a motor vehicle must obey the provisions of the California Vehicle Act. The rights and duties of those in charge of a street-car are reciprocal with the' other users of the public streets. It is, therefore, the duty of one operating a street-car to exercise ordinary care to avoid a collision with another user of the public street of a city. (Simmons v. Pacific Elec. Ry. Co., 60 Cal. App. 140 [212 Pac. 641]; Langford v. San Diego Elec. Ry. Co., 174 Cal. 729 [164 Pac. 398].) The operator of an electric car upon a city street is charged with the duty of using ordinary care in the management and operation of his car (Henderson v. Los Angeles Traction Co., 150 Cal. *662 689 [89 Pac. 976]), and to nse ordinary care in maintaining a vigilant lookout for other users of the street. (Charves v. Terminal Rys., 44 Cal. App. 221 [186 Pac. 154].) It is the duty of an operator of a street-car to use ordinary care and give to others on the street some warning of its approach (O’Connor v. United Railroads, 168 Cal. 43 [141 Pac. 809]), and to operate street-ears “in the manner and run them at the speed which is customary at the particular place, and they will give the usual warnings and signals, and take the usual precautions to avoid injury to others.’’ (Scott v. San Bernardino Valley etc. Co., 152 Cal. 604 [93 Pac. 677, 679].) The rights and duties of the users of the public streets are reciprocal, subject to the duty of free vehicles to yield a clear right of way to the operation of the street-car over its tracks when necessary (O’Connor v. United Railroads, supra; Lawyer v. Los Angeles Pac. Co., 161 Cal. 53 [118 Pac. 237]) and of motor vehicles to obey the provisions of the California Vehicle Act (Sartori v. Granucci, 204 Cal. 28 [266 Pac. 280]). Ordinary care requires the operator of a street-car, as well as the driver of a motor vehicle, to be watchful for others in his path. (Havens v. Loebel, 103 Cal. App. 209 [284 Pac. 676]; Hatzakorzian v. Rucker-Fuller Desk Co., 197 Cal. 82 [41 A. L. R. 1027, 239 Pac. 709].)

The instruction which we have quoted omits to take into consideration the duty which the operator of appellant’s street-car owed to the public to use ordinary care in the operation of the car so that it might not injure other users of the highway. To this extent it was erroneous and took away from the jury the right to pass on the evidence before it and to determine whether or not the employees of appellant in charge of the car had taken ordinary care to perform their duties to the traveling public. It also omits to take into consideration and submit to the jury the questions of proximate cause and contributory negligence. Negligence alone will not bar a recovery unless it was either the proximate cause of the accident or contributed to it. The question of negligence of the employees of appellant in the operation of the street-car at the time and place of the accident should have been submitted to the jury in this instruction.

*663 Bespondents complained of this instruction because of the fact that there was a conductor on that street-car, and as stated by them in their brief, the conductor was in charge of the car, and that therefore any negligence on his part would be attributable to appellant and should have been submitted to the jury. No quotation from the testimony, or reference to any part of the transcript, which is typewritten, is contained in respondents’ brief in support of this argu■ment. Appellant’s brief contains no quotation from the transcript. There is a statement in appellant’s opening brief as follows:

“The street car was run to the end of the line at University and Euclid, and while the motorman changed the trolley the conductor switched the headlight from the east to the west end of the car in preparation for the return trip. However, before starting back it was the motorman’s duty to make sure the headlight was properly lighted, assuming the visibility was such as to require this. These facts were testified to by both the motorman and the conductor (Rep. Trans., p. 535, line 18, to p. 539, line 24, p. 590, lines 7-22), and were not contradicted by plaintiffs. ’ ’

This is the only reference to the reporter’s transcript contained in any of the briefs before us. Thirty-three witnesses testified in the court below.

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Bluebook (online)
289 P. 662, 106 Cal. App. 659, 1930 Cal. App. LEXIS 679, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shipley-v-san-diego-electric-railway-co-calctapp-1930.