Holroyd v. Gray Taxi Co.

BRITTAIN, J.

The appeal is from a judgment for the plaintiff in a suit for damages for personal injuries. It was against the Gray Taxi Company, a corporation, appellant, and Charles E. Eagleson, who was in the employ of the defendant at the time the plaintiff received her injuries. The case was tried by the court sitting without a jury. The award was for $1,131, interest and costs.

[694]

The plaintiff, a woman of sturdy health, but somewhat past middle age, on August 12, 1915, alighted from a south-bound municipal street-car on Van Ness Avenue when it stopped at Bush Street.

She crossed Van Ness Avenue toward the east to the northeast corner of the street intersection and then turned south on the east side of Van Ness Avenue, crossing Bush Street. Before reaching the south side of Bush Street she was struck by a taxicab belonging to the appellant and driven by the appellant’s codefendant. She sustained serious injuries. She was confined to the hospital for a considerable time, and a further time elapsed before she was able to return to the employment from which she earned her livelihood.

On behalf of the appellant it is urged that the evidence was insufficient to support the court’s finding that the defendant was guilty of negligence and, further, that it was insufficient to support the finding that the plaintiff herself was not guilty of contributory negligence. Numerous quotations are made in the appellant’s brief from evidence of witnesses, including the plaintiff herself, from which it is argued that the appellant’s contentions are well founded. In the brief of the respondents other excerpts are quoted from the evidence to support both of the questioned findings. Upon this subject, the case falls directly within the rule that Where there is a conflict of evidence, the judgment of the lower court will not be disturbed, nor will the appellate court undertake to weigh the conflicting evidence.

The appellant maintains that the lower court erred in sustaining an objection to a question addressed to the chauffeur defendant by his counsel, reading as follows: “Now, Mr. Eagleson, I understand you to say that you have been a chauffeur six years, during which time you had had an opportunity to observe the habits and customs of people in approaching an automobile. What has been your observation and experience of people when suddenly confronted with an automobile