Kuehne v. Brown

Citations

• 257 Pa. 37
• 101 A. 77
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 680

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Automobiles—Child—Accident between crossings— Time to avert collision — Failure to sound horn — Negative and positive evidence — Speed—Case for jury — Contributory negligence of parent — Nonsuit as to parent.</p> <p>1. In an action to recover for the negligent operation of an automobile, the weight of negative evidence to the effect that no horn was blown is for the jury where there is no positive evidence’ that the driver sounded his horn.</p> <p>2. In an action against the operator of an automobile to recover for personal injuries sustained by a child of tender years as the result of being struck at a point in the highway between crossings, the test of defendant’s liability is whether, in the exercise of due care, he should have seen the child in time to have avoided the accident.</p> <p>3. In an action by a five-year-old child to recover for personal injuries sustained as the result of the alleged negligent operation of defendant’s automobile, the question whether defendant should have seen the child in time to avoid the collision is for the 'jury and a compulsory nonsuit was improperly entered where it appeared that plaintiff was standing with his father on a trolley platform between street crossings, at a point where the street was sixty feet wide with tracks on each side and a driveway in the middle wide enough for three vehicles abreast, that an automobile was standing on the far side of the street' and one of the occupants thereof called to the plaintiff to cross, that when plaintiff had crossed from twelve to- twenty feet from the platform he was struck by defendant’s car, which sounded no warning, approached at a speed variously estimated at from ten to forty miles per hour, and that the brakes were not applied until the car was within five feet of the child, although he started to cross in full view of the defendant when the latter was from 75 to 100 feet away.</p> <p>4. In such case a nonsuit was properly entered as to the father of the c