Bennett v. Central California Traction Co.

PLUMMER, J.

The jury in this action awarded the plaintiff the sum of $47,000 as damages for injuries sustained by her when a street-car belonging to the defendant collided with an automobile in which the plaintiff was riding as a guest. The verdict was reduced to the sum of $25,000 by the trial court and judgment entered for that sum. From this judgment the defendant appeals.

The record shows that the collision between a street-ear belonging to the defendant and the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding occurred at the intersection of Fifteenth and X Streets in the city of Sacramento, at approximately 9 o’clock P. M. The evening was clear and the intersection was well lighted. Fifteenth Street runs northerly and southerly, and X Street easterly and westerly. The automobile in which the plaintiff was riding was traveling, in a southerly direction, and the street-car with which it came into collision was traveling eastward. On the evening in question the plaintiff and four other young people left the T. W. C. A. building in Sacramento, where the plaintiff resided, in a five-passenger “Pontiac” sedan auto

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mobile, to attend a dance at the William Land Park clubhouse—a club-house situated a short distance south of the city of Sacramento. The plaintiff seated herself on the right-hand side and in the rear seat of the automobile. To the left of the plaintiff was a Miss Elizabeth Bivens. The automobile was driven by a young man by the name of Walter Thorr. At his right was a Miss Schilling and at her right a Mr. Aungst. The automobile proceeded west on M Street to Fifteenth Street, turned south on Fifteenth Street and traveled southerly on that street until it reached the intersection of Fifteenth and X Streets. The defendant maintains a double track on X Street, on which it propels street-cars carrying passengers, and also during certain hours, cars carrying freight. The car belonging to the defendant which came in collision with the automobile in which the plaintiff was riding was being propelled easterly on the southerly line of tracks maintained by the defendant. The collision occurred at or near the center of the intersection. The momentum of the street-car carried the automobile a distance of 97.5 feet and practically demolished it. Both Fifteenth and X Streets are 48 feet in width. The exhibits and the testimony show that a street-car traveling easterly on X Street can be seen from a point on Fifteenth Street approximately 150 feet north of the intersection of Fifteenth Street with X Street, and likewise, that a motorman propelling a street-car easterly on X Street can see an automobile approaching from the north on Fifteenth Street from a point approximately the same distance west of the Intersection of X and Fifteenth Streets. There is no building on the lot at the northwest corner of the intersection of the two streets.