Blair v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.

Citations

• 36 Pa. Super. 319
• 1908 Pa. Super. LEXIS 163

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Street railways — Passenger—Getting on car — Contributory negligence.</p> <p>The relation between carrier and passenger can only be created by contract, express or implied. The general rule is that any person whom a common carrier has contracted, expressly or impliedly, to convey from one place to another, in consideration of the payment of fare, or its equivalent, and who, in the course of the performance of such contract, has been received by the carrier under its care, either upon the means of conveyance, or at the point of departure of that conveyance, is a passenger.</p> <p>When a person enters a public conveyance, for example a street car at a place where such car regularly stops to receive and discharge passengers, he does so upon the invitation of the owner or operator of the car. If he desires to board such car at an unusual place and indicates his desire by an appropriate signal, and the signal be recognized and the car stopped or checked up to permit him to enter, the assent of the operator is again manifest and in either case the relation of carrier and passenger is created by the mutual acts of the parties; but where a car stops or slows down at an unusual place by reason of the exigencies of city traffic, and a person attempts to enter the car without the motorman or conductor knowing it, and in his effort to do so obtains an insecure foothold, and is thrown by the sudden start of the car, the railway company is not liable for his injuries, inasmuch as the person injured had not acquired the rights of a passenger.</p>