Kline

On July 26, 1903, the defendant, a street-railway corporation engaged in operating electric cars in the city of Santa Barbara, received the plaintiff, a woman sixty-five years of age, as a passenger in one of its cars at the terminus of the line, immediately in front of the old Franciscan Mission in said city. When the plaintiff boarded the car she seated herself on one of the rear outside seats, which was long enough to seat three persons comfortably, and' which ran parallel with the axis of the car. Immediately in front of her was a standard carrying a hand-rail, and extending from the side steps of the car to the roof.

After the car had been under way a few yards it gained speed despite the fact that the motorman and conductor applied the brakes, which were of the hand-lever pattern, and when the car—the speed having become greatly accelerated—reached a curve nine hundred and seventy-four feet from the mission, the lurch of the car in rounding the curve threw the plaintiff from her seat to the ground, causing the injuries for which this action was brought. The action was defended upon two grounds: 1. That the loss of control of the car was due to the fact that the county of…