Court Opinion

ID: 9718321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:21:05.571047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:58.460807
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Mr. Justice Jones:
On March 21, 1967, the plaintiff, Myrtle J. Stupka, was a passenger in a taxicab operated by Peoples Oab Company [Peoples] when it was struck in the rear by another vehicle. The taxicab was stopped at the time of the accident and there is no claim that the accident was in any way caused by the actions of the cab driver. *514Plaintiff averred, in her complaint that, immediately after the accident, the taxicab driver got out of his cab and spoke with the driver of the other vehicle, but did not secure that driver’s name or license number before the unknown driver left the scene of the accident. On these facts, plaintiff sought recovery from Peoples [Peoples]. Her theory was that the taxicab driver owed her a duty to secure the hit-and-run driver’s name and license number, and that his failure to perform that duty constituted such negligence so as to permit her to recover from Peoples for her injuries.
The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, in passing upon People’s preliminary objections to the complaint of plaintiff, held that the carrier owed no duty to the passenger to investigate the facts of the accident so as to aid the passenger in possible future litigation and, therefore, sustained People’s preliminary objections. Plaintiff then appealed to this Court.
Initially, it should be mentioned that this appears to be a totally unique claim by the plaintiff. Our research fails to locate any case in any jurisdiction even vaguely apposite to the case at bar. However, whether this taxicab driver’s failure to question the operator of the other vehicle constituted negligence need not be decided.
The plaintiff’s recovery is barred unless she can establish that this failure somehow caused her injuries. Cuthbert v. Philadelphia, 417 Pa. 610, 209 A. 2d 261 (1965). The facts pleaded by the plaintiff clearly establish that her injuries were caused by the apparently negligent driving of an unknown third party. Even if this were to create a duty on the part of the taxicab driver to secure the other driver’s name and license number, the breach of that duty in the case at bar was still not the proximate cause of the appellant’s injuries. Such a breach, at most, prevented plaintiff from suing the unknown driver. However, we have no *515basis to conclude that the suit would have been successful. It would, therefore, be impossible to assess damages against the appellee in any case. If the measure of damages were taken to be the amount of plaintiff’s injuries, this Court would effectively be making either one of two unjustified findings: (1) the Court would be declaring that plaintiff would have won her action against the unknown driver, and we have no power to so declare; (2) the Court would be stating that appellee’s breach caused the injuries of the plaintiff, which it' did not.
' The reason for such an unsatisfactory dilemma is that there is no causal relationship between the appellee’s failure to act and the plaintiff’s injuries. Even in jurisdictions which permit recovery where a carrier has failed to assist a passenger who has been injured en route, any recovery is limited to the aggravation of injury which is directly attributable to the carrier’s delay or failure to render assistance. Annot., 92 A.L.R. 2d 656, 658 (1963). Recovery must be limited to compensation for the physical injuries directly caused by the carrier’s action or inaction. In the case at bar, plaintiff’s injuries were not caused by any act or omission to act on the part of the appellee and consequently, plaintiff has not pleaded sufficient grounds upon which to base a cause of action against the appellee.
The court below properly sustained the People’s preliminary objections.