Opinion
Decided February 10, 1911.
CASE, for personal injuries. Trial by jury and verdict for the plaintiff. The plaintiff was injured by the unexpected starting of the defendants' train from which she was alighting. She supposed that the train had stopped at the West Rindge station, where she desired to leave it, but it had in fact stopped just beyond the station. It was dark and the station was unlighted. After the train left the station next before West Rindge, the brakeman announced "the next station will be West Rindge."
The defendants moved for a nonsuit on the ground that it was negligence for the plaintiff to attempt to leave the car before the station was announced. The motion was denied and they excepted. Transferred from the January term, 1910, of the superior court by Pike, J.
Doyle Lucier (Mr. Lucier orally), for the plaintiff.
Hamblett Spring (Mr. Spring orally), for the defendants.
There was no evidence of the usual practice in the matter in controversy, and the case must be decided upon the common knowledge of mankind upon the subject. So considering it, the defendants' contention cannot be sustained. There is no statute requiring passengers to remain in a car until the station is announced, and it is not common knowledge that this is what the ordinary man would do.
Exception overruled.