Case ID: mass_222/html/0438-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Michael Moran, administrator, vs. Boston Elevated Railway Company.
    Suffolk.
    January 12, 1916.
    January 13, 1916.
    Present: Rugg, C. J., Braley, Be Cotjrcy, Crosby, & Pierce, JJ.
    Negligence, Street railway, In use of highway.
    A woman, who goes behind one of a long line of street railway cars that are stalled on one track on a street of a city on which there are parallel tracks, and, holding an umbrella in front of her in the face of a “little snowstorm,” hesitates “just a moment” and then goes forward and is knocked down and killed by a car moving slowly on the other track, cannot be found to have been in the exercise of due care.
    Tort by the administrator of the estate of Bessie Moran to recover for the conscious suffering and death of the plaintiff’s intestate caused by her being struck and knocked down by a street railway car alleged to have been operated1 negligently by the servants of the defendant on St. James Avenue near Arlington Street in Boston on October 14, 1913. Writ dated December 19, 1913.
    In the Superior Court the case was tried before Lawton, J., who at the close of the evidence, which is described in substance in the opinion, ordered a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff alleged exceptions.
    
      W. A. Murray, (D. J. Daley with him,) for the plaintiff.
    
      F. Ranney, (D. P. Ranney with him,) for the defendant.
   By the Court.

The plaintiff’s intestate received mortal injuries during daylight on St. James Avenue in Boston. It was at this point a straight street and on it were double tracks of the defendant. There was a blockade with a long line of stalled cars on the inbound track. The evidence was that she came from behind one of these cars, holding “her umbrella tipped to the right and in front of her” in the face of a “little snowstorm” and, hesitating “just a moment, ” went forward and was struck by a slowly moving car on the outbound track, which was in plain sight.

There was no evidence to show that she was in the exercise of due care. The case is governed by numerous decisions. Black well v. Old Colony Street Railway, 193 Mass. 222. Madden v. Boston Elevated Railway, 194 Mass. 491. Haynes v. Boston Elevated Railway, 204 Mass. 249. Kennedy v. Worcester Consolidated Street Railway, 210 Mass. 132. O’Brien v. Boston Elevated Railway, 217 Mass. 130. Adams v. Boston Elevated Railway, 219 Mass. 515.

Exceptions overruled.