Busch v. Los Angeles Ry. Co.

SHAW, J.

The defendant is operating two double track street railways in the city of Los Angeles, one along Pasadena Avenue and the other on Avenue 20, which crosses Pasadena Avenue. Reinhardt J. Busch and his wife, Mary E. Busch, were traveling easterly along the south side of Pasadena Avenue in an automobile driven by the said Mary E. Busch, and owned by her. A street-ear operated by the defendant was going westerly on the south track of the Pasadena Avenue line between Avenue 21 and Avenue 20, and at a point near Avenue 20 the automobile and the ear collided, whereby Reinhardt J. Busch sustained personal injuries and the automobile was materially damaged. To recover these damages the two parties respectively began actions against

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the defendant. The two causes were consolidated and tried together and resulted in a verdict and judgment for the defendant. From this judgment and from an order denying their respective motions for a new trial the two plaintiffs have taken separate appeals to this court.

Plaintiff’s first point is that the railroad company was negligent in its methods of operating its cars and laying its tracks in this: That usually street-cars travel on the right-hand track in the direction in which they are going, and that this car was going west on the left-hand track. No law or. ordinance is pointed out by appellants which required the defendants to operate its cars in either mode. It was, therefore, lawful to run them in either direction. Running a car west on the south-side track cannot be said to be negligence in law.

It is claimed that the evidence showed that the defendant was negligent in the manner of operating the car in this: That inasmuch as the car was going in the opposite direction from that usually taken by cars upon that railroad, it was the defendant’s duty to use more than usual care to warn persons of the fact, so as to avoid danger of collision, and that the defendant failed to sound any gong or otherwise give signals of warning. There was evidence that the defendant. did sound the gong and also that the injury occurred about dusk; that the inside car lights were lighted; that a headlight was burning brightly, and that the car was not going more than about four miles per hour at the time of the collision. The verdict of the jury having been for the .defendant, this evidence must be taken as true. The fact that the plaintiffs’ evidence contradicted it is not available for reversal in such a case. It was a question for the jury to determine and its verdict on that subject is conclusive here.