city of Kalamazoo was known as the Washington and West street car line. The car started at the Michigan Buggy Works on Reed street and ended at the top of the West street hill, and the running time from one end of the route to the other was about 25 minutes. The cars operated on this route are known as pay-as-you-enter, double-end, double-truck cars, with closed vestibules at both ends; the conductor and motorman changing ends when arriving at the end of the line. The passengers entered the rear platform on the right-hand side and would leave the car from the front platform on the same side. The car in question left the car barns at 6:05 a. m. on the 7th day of January, 1911, the day of the accident, and was starting on its second round trip when plaintiff boarded the car at 7 o'clock a. m. at the corner of James street and Washington avenue. There is no dispute that when the car reached Rose street Mrs. Dorrance attempted to leave the car at the front door and fell in the front vestibule; and the matters in controversy are how the accident happened and the extent of plaintiff's injuries. It is also undisputed that there was snow on the ground on the day of the accident.

The defendant, by assignments of error, raises the question that a verdict should have been directed for the defendant for the reason that before the plaintiff could recover it was incumbent upon her to show that there was ice in the vestibule which was apparently dangerous, that it must have remained there for an unreasonable length of time, and that defendant's employees must have had an opportunity to remove the accumulation, if there was any, before the time of the accident.

The plaintiff testified that as she was about to leave the body of the car and stepped into the vestibule she noticed a little lump of ice, but did not see it in time to avoid stepping on it; that she fell on her back; and

that her head struck upon the irons on which the doors slide. It was the theory of the defendant that the accident occurred because of the sudden application of the air brakes, which caused the plaintiff to fall, and it is claimed that the testimony of the plaintiff is not corroborated sufficiently to warrant the circuit judge in allowing the verdict to stand, because it is claimed that it is clearly against the weight of the evidence.

Henry Kremer, who was a passenger on the car, was a witness offered by the defendant, and testified as follows:

"I noticed a lady while the car was on its way from Burdick to Rose street. I noticed that she got up before the car stopped.

"Q. What did she do?

"A. She walked to the front door, or nearly to it, and stood there, and the car was coming to a stop; her feet seemed to go from under her, and she fell in the front vestibule.

"Q. Did you notice anything about the air going on?

"A. No more than usual. *

*

"Q. You didn't notice any jerking, jerking her off her feet?

"A. No, sir; I didn't see her step down into the vestibule. I can't tell how she fell. I saw her strike against the step. I couldn't say where she struck. She fell hard.

"Q. Did her feet slip out from under her when she fell?

"A. They seemed to, to my knowledge; yes, sir. "Q. She didn't sit down on her feet, then? "A. I don't think so; no, sir. I couldn't see her after she had fallen.

"Q. How flat was she on the vestibule floor when you first saw her down?

"A. Her feet seemed to be nearly to the motorman. The motorman took hold of her and helped her up by the arm.

"Q. Well, she didn't step down, stand there behind the motorman before she fell, did she?

"A. No, sir."

F. M. Meredith, another witness for the defendant, testified as follows:

"A. There was a lady on the car, and when it got about halfway between the two blocks she got up and walked into the front vestibule and stood right behind the motorman, and when they got up to Rose street they put on the air, and as the car stopped she fell down right back of him in the vestibule, went over backwards, down in kind of a heap right back of him." The motorman, Ernest Middleton, testified as follows:

"I stopped the car for Mrs. Dorrance to alight at Rose street. I didn't notice her until she got on the platform. I opened the vestibule exit door for her. I didn't open the door going out of the car where the seats are into the vestibule.

"Q. She is supposed to open that herself?

"A. That door is always open.

"Q. How far down did she have to step to get into the vestibule?

"A. It is about a nine-inch drop, I think; I am not positive. I opened the exit door.

"Q. Did you notice any trouble there that morning when she was going from the car where the seats are down into the vestibule?

"A. In what way do you mean? I noticed she fell on that platform. Why, as she stepped down on the platform, she fell, fell down on the platform. I was not watching her. I was turned around to open the door like this, and my head was turned, I should say, when she started to fall.

"Q. Did she fall with any force?

* * *

"A. She fell about as heavy as any one could fall that distance; I don't know what you call force. She struck on the platform, her bottom I should judge. I do not think her back and shoulders and head and neck struck any part. I am not positive. The first thing that attracted my attention was that she fell on the platform. At that time I was facing west, the front of the car. As the motorman reaches over to open the exit door he has to turn slightly. When I reached to open the door, I naturally looked over my shoulder, so I knew that some one was there. When

we stop the car I naturally would look around to see if any one is going to get out or not. As I reached over to open the door I saw her step on the platform of the vestibule, and I saw her start to fall; of course, when she started to fall I stepped around naturally to help her. I had opened the door before. When I stepped around to help her, she was facing directly west, the front end of the car. Her legs were straight out on the platform. I assisted her to rise. I asked her if she was hurt, and she said she didn't think she was. I asked her for her name; she didn't give me any name. She started away."

We think there is sufficient in this testimony to corroborate the theory of the plaintiff that her fall was caused by her feet slipping out from under her. Several witnesses testified that she fell backwards and that her limbs projected out into the vestibule. The jury were warranted in accepting this theory of the case rather than the one that the fall was caused by the sudden stopping of the car, which, under ordinary circumstances, and it could reasonably be claimed, would have resulted in her being thrown forward.

The question of the weight of the evidence is clearly one for the jury. Curry v. Traver-Bird Co., 167 Mich. 17 (132 N. W. 463); Johnson v. Railway Co., 162 Mich. 301 (127 N. W. 271); Tietz v. Railway Co., 166 Mich. 205 (131 N. W. 710). As was said by this court in the case of Galloway v. Railway, 168 Mich. 343, 346 (134 N. W. 10, 11):

"To entitle the defendant to a directed verdict, there must have been no evidence tending to show its culpability in the premises."

As the evidence in this case was clearly conflicting, we think that the trial court properly denied the motion for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. See Grimme v. Fraternal Aid Ass'n, 167 Mich. 240 (132 N. W. 497).

The trial judge charged the jury upon the liability of the defendant as follows:

"If you find from the evidence in this case that in operating this car snow had been tracked into its vestibule and become hard and packed and two or three inches high in the vestibule just in front of this door, as claimed by plaintiff, and that such snow had been tracked in there and formed, as claimed by her, and that it was the duty of the defendant, in operating this car in which this plaintiff claims she took passage, to sand or chip off the hard snow which had been tracked into the vestibule, if it had been, when en route the other way, and that on this morning before the plaintiff entered this car other persons had tracked into this vestibule, when said car was going the other way, snow which had fallen the night previous, or at some other time, and that it had been packed and was hard and formed a rise at the foot of the step from the car proper so that it was not reasonably safe for passengers in leaving this car to pass over, and that the defendant carelessly, recklessly, and negligently failed to observe its duties in that behalf and allowed this snow to remain in this vestibule in this condition, if it were so tracked in there, and that these employees had at the Washington avenue end of its run, just before plaintiff took passage, a reasonable opportunity and time in which to chip off or sand the same, and that it was not snowing that morning and had not been since said car first commenced to run, as plaintiff claims, and upon leaving this car that morning while using due care and diligence she stepped down upon this ice, and that she did not see it until she was stepping down and could not refrain, and in stepping upon it she slipped and fell from which she received injuries to her person, then I charge you she would be entitled to recover from the defendant whatever lawful damages she has proven, if any, were sustained by her."

It is contended that, even if ice had accumulated in the front vestibule of the car, no reasonable opportunity had been afforded the defendant to remove it before the time of the accident. On the first round trip this front vestibule was used as a rear vestibule, and, under the theory of the plaintiff, the snow and ice was carried into the front vestibule while the car