Costerisan v. Los Angeles Railway Corp.

MOORE, P. J. J. — This action arose out of a collision between the automobile of plaintiff and the street car of defendant corporation at the intersection of 11th and Hill Streets in the city of Los Angeles. From a judgment, after verdict in the sum of $4,500, defendants appeal upon the grounds of (1) insufficiency of the evidence, and (2) prejudicial error in giving an instruction upon the doctrine of last clear chance.

[144]On July 20, 1939, between 8:30 and 9 p. m., plaintiff while proceeding in her Ford sedan on West 11th Street in a westerly direction approached Hill Street. The traffic signals were not in operation. On arriving at the extended easterly curb line of Hill Street, plaintiff stopped, looked both to the north and to the south, saw no traffic near the intersection and proceeded across Hill Street at ten miles per hour. While she was still 32 feet east of the east curb line of Hill Street, she observed the street car operated by defendant Stall in a position about 30 feet west of the west curb line of Hill Street, moving slowly. She again saw the street car at the time she stopped and observed that it had moved forward. At that intersection some of the street cars traveling on the 11th Street line continue easterly across Hill while others make a left turn and proceed northerly on Hill Street. The route of the. street car in question, although not yet indicated, was to turn at Hill Street.

As plaintiff started across the intersection she shifted into second gear on or near the first set of tracks on Hill Street. At that point she again looked to her right for any traffic approaching from the north, which was her only source of immediate danger. But as she looked up and to her left, the street car which had been moving eastward was at this time bearing down upon her. Her automobile was past the center of the street, still headed directly westward when the collision occurred. The rear wheels of her automobile were on the westerly rail of the south-bound tracks. Although she saw the car approaching slowly “she did not take that car into consideration at all,” indicating her knowledge that this intersection is a mandatory stop and that of course the car would come to a stand-still before proceeding across the intersection and that therefore she did not consider it a source of peril. Plaintiff and a number of her witnesses testified that the street car did not stop and that no warning was given by the ringing of the bell or otherwise. The conflicts in the testimony as to whether the street car stopped before it began the turn and whether or not the motorman sounded his bell were resolved in favor of plaintiff. Moreover the photograph taken at the scene of the accident shows the rear wheels of the automobile were almost in the center of the path of the street car.