Veale v. Virginia Railway & Power Co.

131 S.E. 200, 144 Va. 210, 1926 Va. LEXIS 242
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJanuary 14, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 131 S.E. 200 (Veale v. Virginia Railway & 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
Veale v. Virginia Railway & Power Co., 131 S.E. 200, 144 Va. 210, 1926 Va. LEXIS 242 (Va. 1926).

Opinion

Campbell, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action of trespass on the case by the plaintiff in error (hereinafter called plaintiff), against the defendant in error (hereinafter called defendant), to recover damages for an accident which befell her on October 1, 1925.

There was a trial by jury and a verdict was rendered in favor of the plaintiff. The trial court, upon motion, set aside the verdict of the jury, and pursuant to the provisions of section 6251, Code of* 1919, entered a judgment in favor of the defendant.

There is but one count in the declaration, which charges the defendant with negligence in starting its street car when it knew, or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known, that the plaintiff was about to board the same, and in striking her and knocking her down, breaking her hip, and giving her other serious injuries.

The undisputed facts are: Defendant operates a double track street railway in Norfolk, and occupies therewith Church and Eighteenth streets. Church street runs approximately north and south, while [213]*213Eighteenth street runs approximately east and west, and intercepts the western side of Church street, but does not cross the latter street. The double tracks turn from Church street westwardly into Eighteenth street. Just a short distance south of Eighteenth street, C avenue, which runs approximately east and west, intercepts the eastern side of Church street but does not cross Church street. The southeast corner of Church street and C avenue is a point at which the northbound ears of defendant receive and discharge passengers, but said cars are not permitted to receive and discharge passengers at the corner of Church and Eighteenth streets. Plaintiff had been in the territory east of Church street. She came back along C avenue to Church street (the place where the northbound ears receive and discharge passengers), but instead of waiting there for a ear crossed from the eastern to the western side of Church street and walked northwardly towards Eighteenth street, intending, she said, to board a car at the northwest corner of Church and Eighteenth streets. While on the western sidewalk of Church street opposite the drug store at the southwest corner of Church and Eighteenth streets and looking southwardly she saw coming north the defendant’s car. This was a double truck car, and its length is forty-five feet and a few inches. From the flange on the circumference of the wheel to the edge of the step is two feet and the step is fifty-four inches long, a total of six and a half feet from the flange of the wheel to the end of the step. The bumper extends beyond the step so that each end of the car extends probably in excess of seven feet beyond the wheels. Each truck of a double truck ear is equipped with four wheels, and the trucks work on a swivel arrangement so that they do not change the course of the body of the car until the [214]*214front trucks have curved sufficiently to move at an approximate right angle to the body of the car and the .rear of the Gar “don’t give much swing until the rear trucks come into the curve.”

The plaintiff knew that cars swing or overhang at curves, and she knew that the cars did not receive passengers at the scene of the accident; but thinking he might stop for her, upon seeing the car approaching, she states she signalled the motorman by waving her hand, and as she waved her hand she stepped out from the sidewalk. The plaintiff crossed in front of the car on the straight track just where the tracks commence to curve. At the time she crossed in front of the car it was ten to fifteen feet south of the point at which she crossed; it was at least ten feet to the south •at the time she crossed the track.

As the car proceeded into the curve, the plaintiff was out of the line of vision of the motorman and behind him. As the rear trucks entered the curve the rear step of the car struck the plaintiff and caused her to fall.

The conflict in the evidence is found in the testimony of the plaintiff, who is the only witness who testified in her behalf as to the accident, and in the testimony of the motorman, the conductor and a witness named Lee.

The' plaintiff states that when she crossed the track in front of the car, that the car was stationary and she believed that it had stopped to receive her as a passen.ger; that the car remained standing while she walked southward to the rear, or to a point within two or three steps of the rear entrance, so close thereto that she was able to see the conductor reach for the bell cord; that when she reached this point the car began to move and she turned to her right to get out of the [215]*215way and that the rear of the car swung out and struck her.

The motorman testified that he did not actually stop the car when the plaintiff was crossing in front of him, but merely slowed the ear down in order to permit her to cross the track and proceed, as he thought, to the opposite sidewalk. He also testified that when the front of the car passed her she was entirely clear thereof and in a position of safety.

The witness, A. C. Lee, stated that he was following the street car in an automobile about ten or fifteen feet behind the same; that the car did not stop after it left C avenue until after the accident; that as the trucks of the car were almost in Eighteenth street he saw the feet of the plaintiff and it looked like she was walking in the same direction as the car was going; that he could not see the body of the plaintiff as the turn of the car around the curve blocked his view.

The conductor testifies that he saw the plaintiff Just before she was struck by the center of the rear step and reached for the bell cord to give the emergency signal to stop the car, but did not have time to do so in time to prevent the accident; that she was struck by the rear step of the car about the time the bell rang; that the car stopped almost at once; that he immediately jumped off the back platform to assist the plaintiff and that Mr. Lee got there quickly and together they assisted her to get over to the sidewalk; that the plaintiff was mistaken in thinking he reached up to the bell cord to start the car; that the car was moving slowly around the curve into Eighteenth street; and that he rang the bell to stop the car;

The only assignment of error is the action of the trial court in setting aside the verdict of the jury and entering judgment for the defendant, on the ground that the verdict was without evidence to support it.

[216]*216The legal principles applicable to the instant case are well settled.

In Forbes v. Southern Cotton Oil Company, 130 Va. 245, 108 S. E. 15, Judge Burks quoted with approval the holding in Morien v. Norfolk & Atlantic Terminal Company: “In Morien v. Norfolk & Atlantic-Terminal Co., 102 Va. 622, 40 S. E. 907 (which is strikingly similar to the ease in judgment) the court said: ‘In such case the preponderance of evidence cannot influence the action of the court in considering’ a motion for a new trial. The jury may discard the preponderance of evidence as unworthy of credence, and accept the evidence of a single witness upon which to base their verdict, and upon well-settled principles the verdict cannot be disturbed if the evidence of that witness is sufficient, standing alone, to sustain it.

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Bluebook (online)
131 S.E. 200, 144 Va. 210, 1926 Va. LEXIS 242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/veale-v-virginia-railway-power-co-va-1926.