Hathaway

The plaintiff brought an action against the defendants for damages for personal injuries suffered while she was riding in a taxicab operated by an agent of the defendant. The case was tried before a jury, and it resulted in a verdict for the defendant; but upon a motion for a new trial, made upon all of the statutory grounds, the court made a general order granting a new trial j and the appeal is taken from that order.

The accident out of which the case arose occurred in the following manner: The plaintiff, who desired to go to a certain hospital known as St. Joseph’s Hospital, from some point in the busy section of San Francisco, engaged the taxicab and its driver and directed him to take her to the St. Joseph’s Hospital. It appeared that the driver of the taxicab did not know just where the hospital was, although he was otherwise a trained, skillful, and experienced driver of taxicabs, having driven such vehicles in the city mentioned for several years, and being, as the evidence shows, familiar with the streets of that city. He asked the plaintiff where St. Joseph’s Hospital was, and she informed him it was out Haight Street, on Buena Vista Avenue. The driver proceeded out…