Strong

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment denying compensation for personal injuries received while riding upon an automobile bus owned and operated by the defendants. The defendants pleaded that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, proximately causing his injury, and the questions raised upon the appeal relate to the sufficiency of the evidence to justify the jury in finding a verdict for the defendants and the propriety of a certain instruction which will be considered hereinafter.

There are some conflicts in the evidence, but most of the facts appear by uncontradicted testimony of several witnesses, and in our statement we shall emphasize, as we must, the testimony which supports the verdict. Plaintiff was a boy fifteen years of age and a student at the high school at Alhambra, California, which was about four miles from his home. He and other students were transported between their homes and the school by means of an automobile bus owned and operated by the defendants. On the day of the accident plaintiff boarded the bus at the school. He was inside of the bus at first, but, later took a position upon the running-board, either standing or lying over a…