Wood v. Phila. Rapid Transit Co.

Citations

• 260 Pa. 481
• 104 A. 69
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 553

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Street railway companies — Passengers—Rudeness— Injury to passenger by fellow passenger — Presumptions—Bes ipsa loquitui — Worlcmen carrying tools■ — Negligence of carrier.</p> <p>1. In the absence of a- fixed duty, negligence cannot be inferred from the failure to do an act in some other way, not shown to be safer.</p> <p>2. Where the facts are simple and not controverted, their legal value is for the court to determine,</p> <p>3. Although a carrier, having impliedly invited a passenger to enter its car, is required to exercise the highest degree of care and diligence in protecting him while in the act of ascending the steps and going into the body of the car, yet where the passenger is not hurt by any instrumentality connected with the means of transportation, the accident creates no presumption against the carrier; and in an action for injuries inflicted upon a passenger by a fellow passenger, the burden to prove negligence by the defendant rests upon the plaintiff.</p> <p>4. Street cars are for the use of the people, with as well as without their luggage, and negligence can not be inferred because a workman is permitted to enter thereon carrying the tools and implements of his trade. And the right so to enter implies the right so to depart.</p> <p>5. A carrier is required -only to interfere with the voluntary acts of passengers when they constitute a breach of peace or are such as to suggest a reasonable probability that injury will thereby result to others; and a carrier is not liable for injuries sustained by one passenger from the rudeness, crowding, or jostling of another, or for injury from the negligent or wilful act of another, unless given an opportunity to present it.</p> <p>6. Where in an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by a passenger on a trolley car while entering the car, it appeared that plaintiff was not injured by any of the means of transportation, but was struck by an iron pipe which a workman who was l