Case Name: Joseph Weiss, Appellant, v. The Metropolitan Street Railway Co., Respondent
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1899-10
Citations: 29 Misc. 332
Docket Number: 
Parties: Joseph Weiss, Appellant, v. The Metropolitan Street Railway Co., Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Miscellaneous Reports
Volume: 29
Pages: 332–333

Head Matter:
Joseph Weiss, Appellant, v. The Metropolitan Street Railway Co., Respondent.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Term,
October, 1899.)
negligence — Passenger must be given time to alight from a street car — Verdict against evidence.
Where, in an action to recover of a street car corporation damages for injuries to person and property, two unimpeached witnesses testify that the accident happened because the plaintiff, a passenger who was carrying a picture, was not given time to step off his car before it started again, a verdict for the plaintiff for only ten dollars must be reversed as against the evidence.
Appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment of the Municipal Court, second district, borough of Manhattan, rendered in favor of the defendant.
Hymes, Woytisek & Schaap, for appellant.
Henry A. Robinson, for respondent.

Opinion:
MacLear, J.
In an action to recover damages for injuries to person and property, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant, the plaintiff testified that he was a passenger on an uptown Madison avenue car, belonging to the defendant, on April 29, 1899, about eight o'clock in the evening, and told the conductor to stop at Seventy-ninth street, that the car did not stop, and while he was in the act of stepping off, the ear' rushed forward and he was thrown to the ground and injured, and the picture he was carrying was destroyed. He was corroborated by one Hbenstein, who says that the car had stopped, that while plaintiff was in the act of alighting, the conductor pulled the bell, the car immediately started off, and the plaintiff was 'thrown to the ground. The defendant did not put a witness on the stand, counsel saying "We have no proof to offer, as we know nothing whatever about this accident." Two weeks later the trial justice rendered judgment in favor of the defendant for ten dollars costs. This was against the evidence. The defendant was bound to allow the plaintiff reasonable time to alight (Poulin v. Broadway & Seventh Avenue R. R. Co., 61 N. Y. 621), and where, as in this case, two witnesses are unimpeached, the facts sworn to by them, uncontradicted, either directly or indirectly, by other witnesses, and there is no intrinsic improbability in the relation given by them, neither a court nor jury can, in the exercise of a sound discretion, disregard their testimony. Newton v. Pope, 1 Cow. 109; Kavanagh v. Wilson, 70 N. Y. 177. The judgment should be reversed, and a new trial ordered.
Ebbed max, P. J., concurs; Lbventbitt, J., taking no part.
Judgment reversed and new trial ordered, with costs to appellant to abide event.