Finnegan v. Checker Taxi Co‪.‬

DONAHUE, Justice. The plaintiff, as administrator of the estate of Mary Geraghty, brought this action to recover damages for the conscious suffering and the death of his intestate. At the trial in the Superior Court the Judge directed a verdict for the defendant which alleged counts in the declaration which alleged liability of the defendant for the death of the plaintiff's intestate. The case was submitted to the jury on two counts alleging liability of the defendant for conscious suffering. There was a verdict for the plaintiff. The Judge reported for the determination of this court his direction of a verdict for the defendant on the death counts and other questions raised at the trial by exceptions of the parties. The decedent entered a taxicab of the defendant at the South Station. While proceeding toward her destination it came into collision with an automobile. It was agreed by counsel at the trial that the collision took place on a public highway, that the decedent was a passenger for hire and that the operator of the taxicab was an agent of the defendant acting within the scope of his employment. There was evidence warranting the finding of the following facts with respect to the collision. The taxicab was proceeding along the street in heavy traffic. Just before the collision there were, ahead of the taxicab, a bus, stopped at the right hand curb, and an automobile headed in the same direction as the taxicab, at the left of, and opposite, the bus, the space between those two vehicles being about six feet. The width of the taxicab was a little more than six feet. The operator of the taxicab attempted to drive his vehicle through this space at the left of the bus and at the right of the automobile. There was not room for passage and the taxicab collided with the automobile, the left front wheel of the taxicab becoming locked with the right front wheel of the automobile. As a result of the collision the decedent was thrown from her seat, striking the back of the front seat and injuring her chest. After the vehicles were, with some difficulty, separated, the taxicab proceeded with the decedent to her destination. She suffered from the injury to her chest during the night and in the morning died of a heart attack. There was testimony from a physician called as an expert witness that her experience in the accident tended to accentuate and aggravate a condition present in her body and led to her death more rapidly than it would otherwise have occurred.