Garrett v. Beaver Valley Traction Co.

Citations

• 222 Pa. 586
• 71 A. 1083
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 913

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Street railways — Contributory negligence — Case for jury— Collision between engine and street car at a public crossing.</p> <p>In an action against an electric railway company to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by a collision between a street car of the defendant and a locomotive engine, it appeared that the plaintiff landed from the street car after it had stopped at a waiting room 200 feet from the crossing. He saw the engine backing a train of freight cars slowly over the crossing from east to west. He ran on the east side of the public road and reached the railroad track as the engine was passing. He placed his right foot on the step, caught the hand hold, and as he placed his left foot to the floor, he was struck by the defendant’s car from which he had alighted. He at no time stepped on the track of the defendant company. There was ample evidence of the negligence of the motorman in allowing his car to collide with the engine. Held, that as the plaintiff did not step on defendant’s track, but was carried there while on the engine, and as he had safely passed the pueril of getting on a moving engine, there was no causal connection between his negligence in getting on the moving engine and his injury, and the case was for the jury.</p> <p>Negligence — Damages—Length of life — Charge of court.</p> <p>Where in a negligence case the jury is distinctly told that they could allow only the present worth of plaintiff’s earning power “from the time he reached twenty-one years for and during the remainder of his probable natural life,” a judgment for the plaintiff will not be reversed because the court referred in a cautionary way, in view of argument advaneed by plaintiff’s counsel, to the jury taking “into consideration the probability of the young man living to the allotted time of three score years and ten.”</p>