Lorry v. Englander Drayage & Warehouse Co.

DOOLING, J.,

pro

tem.

These two cases arise out of the same collision, were tried together in the superior court before the same jury and the record here is presented in a single typewritten transcript. At the close of the trial the court directed the jury to bring in verdicts against the plaintiff and in favor of both defendants.

At the time of the collision out of which the actions arose, appellants were passengers on a jitney bus operated in San Francisco by respondent Barnes. Appellants were both standing on the left running-board of the jitney bus facing toward the interior of the bus, with their heads and the upper parts of their bodies inside the bus. The jitney bus was proceeding in a southerly direction along the Embarcadero and when it reached a point opposite pier 7 a truck owned and operated by respondent Englander Drayage and Warehouse Company, was proceeding westerly across the Embarcadero toward Drumm Street. The front of the truck came in contact with the left side of the jitney bus and appellants were injured by the truck striking their bodies or the force of the impact throwing them to the pavement or both.

[118]

An ordinance of the city and county of- San Francisco made it unlawful for anyone to ride on the running-board of a jitney bus. The trial court directed the verdicts on the ground that in violating the ordinance appellants were guilty of negligence which under the evidence proximately contributed to their injuries.

In the absence of the ordinance the question of whether appellants were negligent in riding on the running-board would depend upon whether a person of ordinary prudence would have so ridden under the circumstances then existing and this would have been a question properly to be left to the jury

(Ivancich

v.

Davies,

186 Cal. 520 [199 Pac. 784];

Strong

v.

Olsen,