Murphy v. Shaffer

PREWETT, J.,

pro tem.

This is an appeal prosecuted from a judgment in favor of the respondents and against appellants in an action for damages for personal injuries sustained by said Cora A. Murphy, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendants. The action was tried by a jury, who rendered a verdict in favor of the respondents for the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars. The accident which resulted in the injury to Mrs. | Murphy occurred on the twelfth day of June, 1918. At the time in question the appellants were common carriers of persons for hire between Yosemite Valley and El Portal. Bur-ling the month of June, 1918, a certain insurance company I was entertaining its various representatives, numbering some three or four hundred persons, coming to California from i various parts of the United States. A part of the entertain'ment of this body of persons included a trip to the Yosemite ¡Valley. When the party was ready to leave the valley, the Appellants provided an automobile or bus in which Mrs. 'Murphy was a passenger. The road from Yosemite Valley down the canyon is very narrow and in some places rather steep. At a certain point in the canyon where the road is but little wider than the width of the vehicles that travel over it, the driver of the bus in question ran it off the grade, causing it to overturn and injure a number of the passengers, Mrs. Murphy among them.

It is alleged in the complaint that the appellants did not exercise due care in handling the autobus, and that it was equipped with defective steering apparatus. The evidence tends to show that the vehicle was an old truck changed into an autobus, having seats running transversely across its body from side to side. The bus carried about twenty-two passengers on the day in question.

It is, of course, conceded that the respondents made out a

prima facie

case when they showed the fact that Mrs. Murphy was carried as a passenger and that the injury resulted from the accident. The appellants seek to meet and

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overcome this showing by evidence tending to show that the bus was in good order and was properly handled and that, in fact, the accident occurred through a failure of the roadway to sustain the heavy weight of the bus. The evidence shows that from a foot to two and a half feet of the outer edge of the roadway caved away at the point at which the bus went down. The respondents insist that the car was driven off the grade. The appellants claim that the embankment gave way under the rear wheels of the bus, causing the vehicle to go backward off the grade.