Firth v. Southern Pacific Co.

HART, J.

Plaintiff sued for one thousand two hundred dollars damages received by his automobile in a collision with one of defendant’s ears. The case was tried before the court, sitting without a jury, findings and judgment were in favor of plaintiff for six hundred dollars and the appeal is by defendant from said judgment.

The accident occurred at a street crossing in the city of Redding, where four railroad tracks are maintained by defendant. From east to west the tracks are: The main line, the passing or switch-track, the house-track, and a spur-

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track. Plaintiff, who was at the time of the accident, fifty-five or fifty-six years of age, resided on the west side of the tracks, his place of business being east thereof. A short time before 8 o’clock in the evening of October 18, 1917, he started in an automobile from his home to his store, traveling on Shasta Street. He testified: “Before I left home I heard a train bell ringing, which we generally do; it was switching; and I came to the track, within forty or fifty feet, and I looked up the track, and the engine was standing on the house-track near the bridge. I could see a trainman with a light. He was turning the switch for the engine to go north, as I thought.” There were three box-cars on the passing-track north of Shasta Street, one of them projecting slightly into the street. On the switch-track there was a ear projecting nearly halfway into the street from the south. The engine was about a block north of Shasta Street, on the house-track, and its bell was ringing. The witness said it was twilight, that the lights on his automobile were lit, and there was a street light on the west side of the track; that he approached the track at a rate of between ten and fifteen miles an hour; that when he got to a point forty or fifty feet west of the main-line track he stopped “deadstill.” He then started up and was crossing the tracks at a rate of about five miles an hour. When he reached the passing-track he saw two or three cars standing north of Shasta Street; he also saw the car standing on the spur-track, and had to go a little to the north to get through. When he reached the house-track there was a freight-car coming from the north with no light and no person on it that he could see. The car struck his automobile, badly damaging it.

The deposition of W. I. Snook was read. He was night watchman for the Chico Construction Company, and witnessed the accident. He corroborated the testimony of the plaintiff as to the fact that he stopped before reaching the tracks, and said that he was traveling across the tracks at about six miles an hour. An automobile expert was called as a witness and fixed the damage to plaintiff’s car at about six hundred dollars, and plaintiff rested his case.