Northrup v. Pacific Electric Railway Co.

CRAIL, J. The plaintiff recovered damages for personal injuries against both defendants in the trial court although the injury to him was from the collision of his body with an automobile driven by the defendant Braun, who had no relation with the Railway Company. The defendant Braun did not appeal. The Pacific Electric Railway Company appeals, raising as its principal ground for a reversal the total failure of the plaintiff to prove that said company was guilty of negligence or that its negligence, if any, was a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries. The accident occurred on the triangular intersection of South Lake Avenue and Arden Road in Pasadena. Both streets are paved with asphalt and the company’s rails are laid flush with the pavement. The tracks of the defendant company enter the intersection from a private right of way, cross Arden Road at practically a right angle and gradually curve the few but necessary degrees until they run along the center of South Lake Avenue. At a place in said triangle hereafter more clearly described, the company had designated a place for its cars to stop to take on passengers going in either direction by suspending a metal disk above the center of the pairs of tracks. This disk bore the legend, “Street Car Stop”.

An inspection of plaintiff’s exhibit 6, which is a map in detail and made to a scale, shows that the lines of the curb and property lines on the north side of Arden Road as they enter said intersection curve around at what would ordinarily be the corners of the intersection, so that it is somewhat difficult to determine just where the projection of these lines would go to form the “unmarked crosswalk” for pedestrians. Nevertheless it is apparent that the company’s “car stop disk” had been hung at a point so that the most convenient place for intending passengers to cross from the sidewalks to get on board its cars would be in this “unmarked crosswalk”. It will be remembered that under section 131% of the California Vehicle Act, the driver of any vehicle is bound to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any unmarked crosswalk at the end of a block.

[191]Under the established operating conditions the company’s cars stopped at this point to take on passengers only on signal from the intending passengers. The disk was so located that an automobile traveling south on South Lake Avenue between the west curb and the westerly pair of tracks, if it continued to travel in a straight line to Arden Road through said large triangle would cross almost at the point which would be, and in this case was, occupied by persons intending to enter a northbound car when such a car should arrive at the car stop.