Mahoney v. Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.

Citations

• 214 Pa. 180
• 63 A. 429
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 622

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Street railways — Passengers—Open summer cars — Protection 0f passengers — Running chains.</p> <p>In an action by a passenger against a street railway company to recover damages for personal injuries sustained while alighting from a car, it appeared that the defendant operated open summer cars on a double-track railway. These cars were equipped on both sides with short chains running from post to post inclosing the ends of the passageway between the seats. The chains were ordinarily left hanging down, and were only put up and into use when the tracks approached each other in the center of the highway, and it was necessary to protect passengers from descending on the left-hand side of the car, and being run over by cars on the other track. It was not shown that the chains were used for any other purpose, or that they were ever put up on the right hand-side to protect passengers from danger on the highway. At the time of the accident the car in which plaintiff was riding was' stopped in such a position that a portion of the car extended along a ditch or gutter on the right-hand side of the roadway. Plaintiff attempted to alight immediately opposite the place where she had been sitting, and fell into the ditch. If she had moved a step or two along the running board she could have alighted safely. The negligence alleged in the statement of claim was the improper stopping of the cars at the point in question. The trial judge eliminated this ground as a question in the case, and of his own initiative left it to the jury to determine whether it was or was not negligence to fail to use the chain on the right-hand side of the car at the point in question. Held, that a judgment for plaintiff should be reversed.</p> <p>Mesteezat, J., dissents.</p>