Driscoll

The plaintiff commenced an action against the defendant to recover damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained by a collision with the cars of the defendant corporation. A trial was had in the trial court before the court sitting with a jury. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $15,000 and the defendant has appealed, bringing up the judgment-roll and a bill of exceptions.

For many years the defendant corporation has maintained and operated a cable street railroad on California Street in San Francisco. It has a double set of tracks. On the north side of the street the ears are operated from the east toward the west and on the southerly track the cars are operated from the west toward the east. On the twenty-sixth day of March, 1923, the plaintiff and others, as the employees of the municipal authorities, were engaged in excavating between the two sets of tracks for the purpose of removing an old sewer and installing a new one. On that day the excavation was being made in that portion of the street bounded on the east by Octavia and on the west by Laguna. The work had so far proceeded that the trench was 2y2 feet wide and from the edge of the…