Barrington v. Pacific Electric Railway Co.

CAMPBELL, J.,

pro

tem.

This appeal is from a judgment on the verdict of the jury in favor of respondents in an action for personal injuries suffered by appellant in a collision between an automobile driven by appellant and an interurban car of respondent corporation.

Appellant specifies six assignments of error which he urges as grounds for a reversal of the judgment. The first four have to do with the giving and refusing of certain instructions. The fifth assignment of error is that the court erred in not requiring the defendant Sharpe, when upon the witness-stand, to produce his written report of the accident

[102]

made at the time to the Railway Company, and the sixth assignment of error is that the court erred in not requiring the defendant Sharpe to answer the question whether all of the persons whose names he took at the time were subpoenaed and did appear, as witnesses at the trial.

The accident occurred in the city of Los Angeles at the point where Manchester Avenue crosses the tracks of the respondent’s railway line running between Los Angeles and Long Beach, the west track being used for local cars between Los Angeles and Watts going southerly, and the east track for such cars going northerly. The two tracks between the east and west tracks are used by the company’s fast interurban cars between Los Angeles and Long Beach. The accident happened on the south-bound interurban track at about 10:40 o’clock on the morning of February 28, 1922. The appellant was going east at the time and the interurban car was going south. There is an automatic flagman or wigwag at the southwest corner of Manchester Avenue and the right of way of respondent Railway Company. Appellant could not get a view of the track from the direction the interurban car approached until he was within a few feet of the west track on account of the building located on the northwest comer of the intersection. The automatic flagman or wigwag was working and giving warning of the ear’s approach before and at the time appellant attempted to cross. At the time of the collision the interurban car was traveling eighteen to twenty miles an hour. Appellant drove his automobile upon the car tracks, and when on the track of the interurban his motor stopped and his automobile was stalled on the car track. Up to this point there is no dispute as to the facts.