Baldarachi

The plaintiff in this action, who is respondent on this appeal, is, so her counsel inform us by the opening paragraph of their brief, “a thrifty and industrious woman who hired out at washing and ironing and cleaning house, helping to support an invalid husband.” It is not improbable that this circumstance was instrumental in securing her a verdict for damages from being run into by defendant’s automobile. A dispassionate reading of the evidence, at any rate, leaves it doubtful if a preponderance of proof of negligence in behalf of plaintiff entitled her to the verdict. All of defendant’s witnesses, and two of the witnesses for plaintiff, testify to a state of facts which strongly indicate that the plaintiff, in crossing the street, had safely passed in front of defendant’s automobile, driven as a jitney bus, and that the accident resulted from her suddenly and unexpectedly stepping back to avoid another machine.

Defendant’s appeal in this ease is not, however, presented on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict; and if it were, it could not be maintained on that ground, as there was direct conflict in the testimony, and a sufficient showing of an…