Agulino v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad

21 R.I. 263
CourtSupreme Court of Rhode Island
DecidedApril 7, 1899
StatusPublished

This text of 21 R.I. 263 (Agulino v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Agulino v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 21 R.I. 263 (R.I. 1899).

Opinion

Tillinghast, J.

(1) The plaintiff was seriously injured while alighting from a passenger train on the defendant’s railroad at Westerly, in this State, on the evening of December 6, 1898, and this action was brought to recover damages for the alleged negligence of the defendant, whereby it is claimed the injury was occasioned. At the trial of the case in the Common Pleas Division the jury found in favor of the defendant, and the case is now before us on the plaintiff’s petition for a new trial on the ground of certain alleged erroneous rulings of the court during said trial.

The first error alleged is the refusal of the court to allow George P. Wells, a witness called by the plaintiff, to answer the following question, viz.: ‘£ Whether or not the station at Westerly was well lighted evenings last fall, before and after this accident ? ” We think the ruling was correct. It was immaterial whether the station was well lighted at the indefinite times stated in the question, before and after the happening of the accident. The allegation in the declaration is that it was not properly lighted, at the time of the accident, and the evidence offered was too remote and indefinite to have any bearing upon that question. Moreover, the evidence fails to show that the condition of the station, with regard to its being well lighted or otherwise, had anything to do with the accident. The testimony of the plaintiff is that when ££ Westerly” was called she got up and went* to the door and opened it and went out upon the platform, when a sudden move of the train threw her off on the right side, [265]*265which was the side opposite to the station; that it was “between dark and light ” at the time, and that she did not look for or see the station at all. She also testified that the train was at a stand-still, or that she thought it was, when she went out upon the platform and attempted to alight, but the jury have found that the train was in motion at that time.

The second exception taken was to the refusal of the court to permit the witness George F. Wells to answer the following question, viz.: “Whether you have been on that train when, by the way the brakes were put on and taken off, you were deceived and went to the door, thinking the car was still ? ” This was clearly inadmissible, both as being wholly indefinite as to time, and also that it had relation to other occasions than the one in question.

In support of the admissibility of the testimony offered, the plaintiff’s counsel argues that he had a right, as bearing npon the question of the defendant’s negligence and also upon that of the contributory negligence of the plaintiff, “to show all the facts connected with and surrounding the accident,” namely, that it was dark, that the station was poorly lighted, and that it had been poorly lighted both before and after the accident. His general proposition is doubtless correct. He had the right to show all the facts and circumstances surrounding and connected with the accident. But he had no right to show facts and circumstances connected with other accidents or other occasions, as they were merely res inter alios, and would therefore tend to raise collateral issues, to the inevitable prolongation of the trial and the probable confusion of the jury. Robinson v. Railway Co., 7 Gray, 92; Collins v. Dorchester, 6 Cush. 396; Balto. & S. Ry. Co. v. Woodruff, 4 Md. 243; Anderson v. Taft, 20 R. I. 362; Sullivan v. Salt Lake City, 13 Utah, 122. That which happened at another time .and to another person cannot properly be said to be a fact connected with the happening of the accident in question. But the plaintiff’s counsel further argues that whether or not a car is in motion is determined by the eye of a passenger, by looking at external objects; and if these cannot be seen, motion cannot be determined by the [266]*266•eye. That it can only then be determined in the dark, or by a blind man, by the feeling—the jar communicated to the body by the motion. That sometimes the brakes are put on too soon, and when it is discovered that the train will stop short of the station they are taken off, and the result is a smooth glide of the car that is imperceptible by the feeling. He therefore claims that, in view of the allegation in the second count, that the plaintiff supposed the train had stopped, he should be permitted to show that even though the train was in fact in motion when the plaintiff' went out upon the platform and attempted to alight, that other passenger’s at other times had been deceived in the same way, and hence that the evidence offered tended to prove that the plaintiff might, while in the exercise of due care, yet believe the train to have stopped when it had not. But, as already intimated, what other passengers had done or experienced at other times, while traveling on the defendant’s railroad, had nothing to do with this case. The evidence must be confined to the time and place and circumstances of the particular injury, and the negligence then and there existing. Parker v. Publishing Co., 69 Me. 173.

In Maguire v. Railroad Co., 115 Mass. 239, which was tort for an injury sustained by plaintiff while a passenger in one of defendant’s horse-cars, by being thrown from it by the alleged carelessness of the driver, the court held that the admission by the court below of testimony that the driver had been seen on several previous occasions to stop the car suddenly was error, because such a fact could have no legitimate bearing upon the question as to the care or skill exercised at the time in controversy. To the same effect are Aldrich v. Pelham, 1 Gray, 510; Hinckley v. Barnstable, 109 Mass. 126; Whitney v. Gross, 140 Mass. 232; G. C. & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. Evansich, 61 Tex. 3; and numerous other cases which might be cited. And if acts of the defendant on other occasions cannot be shown as tending to prove negligence at a given time, it would seem to be very clear that acts and experiences of third parties at other tim.es cannot be shown as tending to prove that the plaintiff was [267]*267free from negligence at a given time by acting in a given way.

The third exception is to the ruling of the court in permitting the witness Mary H. Card, called by defendant, to state whether she called the attention of her husband to the plaintiff as she was leaving the car. The witness had testified that she was a passenger in the car with plaintiff; that while the train was moving quite fast the plaintiff got up and went out of the car and went off, or down, the steps at the right side, and that the reason witness took particular notice of her was the fact that the train was moving quite fast, and that “she got off so quick.” Witness’ husband had testified that he noticed that when the station was called plaintiff got right up and went to the door and opened it and went down the steps on the right side of the car, and that she seemed to be in a hurry to get out. It is to be observed that the witness was not asked for any conversation which took place with her husband, but simply as to the fact whether she called his attention to the plaintiff. So that it can hardly be said, we think, that plaintiff’s contention that it was hearsay testimony is correct. The truth or falsity of the statement or suggestion made by witness to her husband was not the point in question, but simply the fact that'it was made. 1 Greenl. Ev. 13 ed. § 123.

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Related

G., C. & Santa Fe R'y Co. v. Evansich
61 Tex. 3 (Texas Supreme Court, 1884)
Parker v. Portland Publishing Co.
69 Me. 173 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1879)
Hinckley v. Inhabitants of Barnstable
109 Mass. 126 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1872)
Maguire v. Middlesex Railroad
115 Mass. 239 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1874)
Whitney v. Gross
5 N.E. 619 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1885)
Central Railroad & Ranking Co. v. Miles
88 Ala. 256 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1889)
Sullivan v. Salt Lake City
44 P. 1039 (Utah Supreme Court, 1896)

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Bluebook (online)
21 R.I. 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/agulino-v-new-york-new-haven-hartford-railroad-ri-1899.