Leitert v. Pickwick Stages, Northern Division, Inc.

LANGDON, P. J.

This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment in favor of plaintiff for fifteen hundred

[505]

dollars for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by him as a result of the alleged negligence of defendant in operating one of its busses upon which plaintiff was a passenger.

The complaint alleged that at all times mentioned therein, the defendant Pickwick Stages, Northern Division, Inc., was the owner and operator of certain bus lines in the state of California for the transportation of passengers upon the public highways between the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles; that on July 20, 1922, the plaintiff was a passenger upon one of said busses, so operated by said defendant; that on said date, while plaintiff was a passenger, as aforesaid, “the defendants while said bus was proceeding in a northerly direction on said highway and at or about eight miles south of the town of San Ardo, in the county of Monterey, state of California, so carelessly and negligently operated said bus, thereby causing said bus to leave the highway and run into a ditch with great force and violence, then and there inflicting upon plaintiff very severe 'and serious personal injuries” enumerated in the complaint.

Appellant contends that the complaint fails to state a cause of action because the foregoing allegations do not sufficiently allege negligence of the defendants, and that the demurrer should have been sustained. It is urged that the allegation that the bus was negligently operated upon the highway and thereby was caused to leave the highway and run into a ditch with great force and violence raises no inference that the act of running into the ditch in and of itself was negligent. A pleading in almost the identical language as the complaint in this ease was considered by us in the companion case growing out of the same accident

(Lawrence

v.

Pickwick Stages etc., ante,

p. 494 [229 Pac. 885]). What was said in the opinion filed in that case with reference to this objection is applicable here and the objection is without merit.