Case Name: Benamy, Appellant, v. Reading Transit & Light Co.
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1921-02-14
Citations: 269 Pa. 372
Docket Number: Appeal, No. 214
Parties: Benamy, Appellant, v. Reading Transit & Light Co.
Judges: Before Frazer, Walling, Simpson, Kephart, Sadler and Schaefer, JJ.
Reporter: Pennsylvania State Reports
Volume: 269
Pages: 372–373

Head Matter:
Benamy, Appellant, v. Reading Transit & Light Co.
Negligence — Street railways — Automobile — Collision — “Stop, looh and listen” — Contributory negligence.
In an action against a street railway company for damages for personal injuries resulting from a collision between a street car and an automobile, plaintiff cannot recover because of contributory negligence, where the testimony fails to show that he either looked, listened, or made any effort to discover whether the road was clear immediately before entering upon the trolley track.
Argued January 18, 1921.
Appeal, No. 214, Jan. T., 1921, by plaintiff, from order of C. P. No. 4, Phila. Co., Dec. T., 1919, No. 795, refusing to take off nonsuit, in case of Max J. Benamy v. Reading Transit & Light Company.
Before Frazer, Walling, Simpson, Kephart, Sadler and Schaefer, JJ.
Affirmed.
Trespass for personal injuries. Before Finletter, J.
The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.
At the trial the court entered a compulsory nonsuit which it subsequently refused to take off. Plaintiff appealed.
Error assigned was refusal to take off nonsuit.
Lincoln L. Eyre, with him George Cascaden and Allen Spangler, for appellant.
February 14, 1921:
Harold B. Beitler, for appellee, was not heard.

Opinion:
Per Curiam,
Plaintiff sued to recover compensation for injuries received in a collision between an automobile he was driving at the time and one of defendant's trolley cars. The court below granted a nonsuit, which it subsequently refused to take off. The testimony shows plaintiff came west on the Butler Road and turned north on the Germantown Road on which defendant operates a single track trolley line. A large danger signboard on the Butler Road, one hundred feet east of the Germantown Road, gave notice of the railway on the latter road: Plaintiff turned into the Germantown Road and drove north, straddling the track, with a trolley car coming toward him, according to his own testimony, "forty or fifty feet away." Before clearing the track his auto was struck on the radiator by the on-coming car. As the testimony fails to show that he either looked, listened or made any effort to discover whether the road was clear immediately before entering on the trolley track he was clearly guilty of contributory negligence and the court below properly entered a compulsory nonsuit.
Judgment affirmed.