Hill v. Wilson

SHINN, P. J.

In this action against Los Angeles Transit Lines and Rowland W. Wilson plaintiff appeals from a judgment of nonsuit in a nonjury trial. The question is whether there was legally sufficient evidence to support findings that either defendant was negligent and that plaintiff was not guilty of contributory negligence. We are satisfied that findings of liability of either defendant would have had no support in the evidence.

Plaintiff boarded a bus of Los Angeles Transit Lines at 41st and Central in Los Angeles. The bus travelled south and came to a stop headed west on 58th Street about 100 feet east of Central. 58th Street is 40 feet wide. Also, stopped in front of plaintiff’s bus, were two or more busses which were some distance from the north curb and two or more which were at the curb. Cars were parked at the curb. The bus plaintiff rode was 6 or 8 feet from the curb. Plaintiff, unaccustomed to travel on busses, told the driver his destination and was told that he should go west to Central Avenue, then one block south to Slauson, where he would transfer to a bus at the southwest corner. There were numerous people alighting from the bus and plaintiff testified that the driver told him to follow them. According to plaintiff some of these people started across 58th Street to the south curb,

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and he left the bus on the right or north side, as the other people had done. He passed some 2 feet in front of the bus, walking about 2 feet to the south of the bus, where he observed the ear of defendant Wilson approaching from the east, and about the length of the bus away. (The bus is 38 feet long.) Plaintiff and the car came together at the point where plaintiff first saw the car. According to plaintiff the car was coming at a speed of 30 or 35 miles per hour. Plaintiff testified he was “swiped” by the car and knocked down. He was not struck by the front of the car. He did not look to the east before he reached the point where he collided with the car. Wilson applied his brakes and stopped his car within its own length. According to plaintiff it stopped “right there.” The foregoing recital is from plaintiff’s testimony.

Although the question of negligence of defendants is argued fully in the briefs we shall consider first the question of contributory negligence. Plaintiff’s testimony developed a clear case of contributory negligence. There was no marked or unmarked crosswalk at the point where plaintiff started to cross 58th Street. He had to go west to Central, then south to Slauson. He alighted from the north side of the bus. There was nothing to prevent him from walking to Central Avenue on the north side of 58th Street and crossing at the intersection. Passengers who were transferring to a bus to be taken at Central and Slauson would naturally have taken that course. The bus driver told plaintiff to follow the other passengers. Although plaintiff testified that some of them crossed 58th Street at the point where the bus was stopped, there was no evidence that the bus driver told plaintiff to follow anyone across the street. However, plaintiff stepped out 2 feet in front of the bus and 2 feet beyond it and walked into the side of an automobile. Since there was no crosswalk there it was plaintiff’s duty to yield the right of way to passing automobiles. (Veh. Code, § 562;