Wright v. Cincinnati Street Railway Co.

6 Ohio Cir. Dec. 159
CourtHamilton Circuit Court
DecidedApril 15, 1895
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Ohio Cir. Dec. 159 (Wright v. Cincinnati Street Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hamilton Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wright v. Cincinnati Street Railway Co., 6 Ohio Cir. Dec. 159 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1895).

Opinion

Smith, J.

The errors assigned and presented in this case are, that the trial court erred, in failing to charge the jury as to certain questions of law — in the charge as given to the jury — in refusing to give certain charges asked by the plaintiff, and in the-, giving of certain charges asked by the defendant below.

The action was one brought by the plaintiff, as administrator, to recover damages for the negligent killing by the defendant company of the plaintiff’s intestate, a boy about fourteen years of age. At the trial a verdict was rendered for the defendant. A motion for a new trial was filed and overruled, and a bill of exceptions allowed by the trial court, which shows the charge as given to the-jury, by the court — the special charges given at the request of the parties — the-charges asked to be given on behalf of the plaintiff, as given and refused, with the exceptions taken thereto. The whole of the evidence is not brought into the [160]*160bill of exceptions, but there is a statement of what it tended to prove on behalf •of plaintiff and defendant, as was necessary that a reviewing court might see whether the charges given, or those asked and refused, were, if good law, relevant to this case, and whether they should have been given.

A statement, therefore, of what the evidence tended to show is proper. , In brief, it was this: That plaintiff’s intestate, Joseph Wright, was at the time of bis death a boy of about fourteen years of age, a resident of this city, who worked at the type foundry and earned several dollars per week, and was accustomed to go to and from the foundry unattended, and that at the time of his death there were dependent upon him a father and mother and six brothers and sisters; that ■defendant company owned and operated a line of electric street cars up and down Elm street in said city, (double track), and that Fifteenth street of said city crossed Flm street; that on the evening in question, Kees, the owner of a double dray or truck wagon, was passing west on Fifteenth street, and several boys, among them plaintiff’s intestate, had, without the knowledge of Kees, seated themselves upon the truck, and rode thereon to Elm street; that as Kees approached the crossing of Elm street, at about six o’clock in the evening, when it was getting dark, he looked up and down the street and could see or hear no car approaching, and at & slow trot attempted to cross Elm street and the tracks of defendant’s road; that he could see' no light or hear any bell of any car; that he looked down the street again and saw the car coming fast when his horses were on the track, and tried to get out of the way, but the car struck the hind wheel of his truck and threw Wright under the wheel of the car and he was killed; that until this was done he did not know that the boys were on his truck. Two of the boys (and the evidence tends to show that Wright was one of them) were sitting at the time on the rear end of the truck with their legs hanging down, there being no tail-gate to the truck, and no load thereon. There was also evidence tending to prove that there was great negligence in the running of the car which struck the wagon; that it was going at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, and that no gong was sounded, and that the car ran 100 feet beyond the point of collision up a slight grade before it could be stopped. On the other hand, the evidence for the defendant tended to show that the company was entirely free from fault, and that the accident was caused by the negligence of the driver of the wagon in attempting to cross the track in front of the approaching car.

We proceed to consider briefly the errors which have been assigned. The petition in error avers that the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury that the burden of proving the contributory negligence of plaintiff’s intestate was on the defendant company, and in refusing to charge that only such intellect and care were to be expected of the intestate as are usually found in boys of his age, to wit, fourteen years.

An examination of the bill of exceptions allowed in the case will show that no request was made by the plaintiff in error that either of said propositions should be given to the jury. All that is shown on the points is, that after the .general charge was given, the counsel for the plaintiff excepted to the failure of the court to give such charges. If it had been desired that the trial judge should -do so, he should have been asked to do it, and if counsel did no£ see proper to do this, he has no right to complain of the omission. And it may further be said that no exception whatever was taken by the plaintiff to any part of the general charge as given to the jury. And if there should appear in the charge, as so given to the jury, any errors, as it is claimed that there are, under the well settled rule in our state, they cannot be considered by us, for the reason that no exception was taken thereto at the time, and the whole evidence is not before us, •so that we can determine whether, in our judgment, the result reached was unjust, and the error, ii any was committed, was prejudicial to the plaintiff.

The only questions, then, properly presented by the record, for our determination are these, viz.: Whether the court erred, to the prejudice of the plaintiff [161]*161in refusing to give the special charges asked by him, or either of them, or in giving the special charges, or either of them, asked by the defendant.

The second special charge asked for, and which the court declined to give, was this: “If the jury believe, from the evidence in this case, that the plaintiff’s intestate, Joseph Wright, was, at the time he lost his life, riding in the rear part of •a wagon or dray driven by one Albert Kees, and that the said intestate, Joseph Wright, had nothing to do, in any way, with the driving, control or management ■of said wagon or dray by said Kees; that then the negligence of said Kees, if any has been proved, in driving said vehicle across Kim street, at the said intersection ■of Fifteenth street, can mot be imputed to the said intestate, so as to charge him with contributing to his own injury.”

We are of the opinion that this charge, so asked, stated the law correctly and should have been given to the jury. There can be no doubt, we think, but that, as a matter of fact and of law, a boy of the age of fourteen years, with the intellect, intelligence and knowledge ordinarily possessed by boys of that age, may so act and deport himself, and without the exercise of that care and caution which persons of his years ordinarily show under like circumstances, as.to prevent him recovering damages for an injury to his person or property caused by the negligence of another, but to which injury his own negligence and want of ordinary care and caution directly contributed. But it is his own negligence and want of care which has this effect, and we do not understand that he is to be prejudiced by the negligence of another person over whom he has no control whatever, and for which he is in no way responsible. As we understand it, the ■doctrine of imputed negligence does not exist in this state. It has been expressly repudiated in several cases by our supreme court. As stated by Judge Welch, in deciding the case of B. & I. R. R. Co. v. Snyder, 18 O. S., 400: “The weight of authority, in our judgment, as well as the reasoning, is against the doctrine (of imputed negligence), in any form or under any circumstances.”

Special charge No. 3, as asked by the plaintiff to be given to the jury, was as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
6 Ohio Cir. Dec. 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-cincinnati-street-railway-co-ohcircthamilton-1895.