Hoff v. Ward Baking Co.

<p>Appeal, No. 184, April T., 1918, by plaintiffs, from judgment of C. P. Allegheny Co., Jan. T., 1917, No. 2194, for defendant n. o. v. in case of Nicholas Hoff and Anna Hoff, his wife, v. Ward Baking Company.</p> <p>Trespass to recover damages for death of plaintiff’s son.</p> <p>At the trial the jury returned a verdict for plaintiffs for $590. On a rule for judgment for defendant n. o. v. Shafer, J., stated the facts to be as follows:</p> <p>The action is by the parents of a boy'about seven years old, who was killed while coasting across a street in the City of Pittsburgh by coming in contact with a wagon of the defendant. It appears from the evidence that Broad street in the City of Pittsburgh is a much traveled street and that it is intersected at right angles by Millvale avenue which descends towards Broad street for two or more squares at a grade of about fifteen per cent., and that when there was snow on the ground, Millvale avenue and an open lot alongside of it were used by boys of the neighborhood to coast upon, some of the coasters going down into Broad street and others not going so far, and that this place has been used in this way for a considerable time. It further appears that shortly after noon on March 18,1916, the employees of the defendant returning home with an empty bread wagon after having made their deliveries, drove along Broad street past the intersection of Millvale avenue, and that while they were doing so two boys, one of them being the plaintiffs’ son and the other an older boy, came down Millvale avenue very rapidly on a sled guided by the older boy, and came in contact with the rear wheel of the wagon, and that in that way the plaintiffs’ boy was killed. The negligence laid in the affidavit of claim is that the wagon was driven along Broad street at a dangerous and unsafe speed and on the wrong side of the street, and that the driver did not hesitate or check the speed of his wagon when he came to Millvale avenue, though he knew it was used, as a sled track. The evidence on the part of the plaintiff was that the wagon was driven at a gallop, or at least at a very fast pace, past the mouth of Millvale avenue, and that the lines were not in the driver’s hands but hung up on a hook, and that the driver and somebody with him were looking at a book and paying no attention to where they were going. The older boy who was guiding the sled, having the other boy behind him, testified that he saw the wagon when the sled was at the alley parallel to Broad street, and that he tried to turn into the curb but could not turn his sled, and that he could have gone behind the rear wheel if he had been able to turn the sled, which he was guiding with his hands, but that it was too heavy with two on it and he could not guide it.</p> <p>The court entered judgment for defendant n. o. v.</p> <p>Error assigned was in entering judgment for defendant n.' o. v.</p>