Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. v. Hostetter

84 N.E. 534, 171 Ind. 465, 1908 Ind. LEXIS 143
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 1, 1908
DocketNo. 21,183
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 84 N.E. 534 (Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. v. Hostetter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. v. Hostetter, 84 N.E. 534, 171 Ind. 465, 1908 Ind. LEXIS 143 (Ind. 1908).

Opinion

Jordan, J.

Appellee sued to recover for personal injuries attributed to the negligence of appellant’s servants. The complaint consists of two paragraphs, to each of which appellant unsuccessfully demurred for want of sufficient facts to constitute a cause of action. An answer in five paragraphs was filed, the first of which was the general denial. A demurrer by appellee was sustained to the second and fifth paragraphs of this answer. Reply, the general denial; trial by jury; verdict in favor of appellee for $7,000. Along with this general verdict answers were returned by the jury to a number of interrogatories. Appellant unsuccessfully moved for judgment in its favor upon these findings. It also moved for a new trial, which motion was denied, and judgment was rendered upon the verdict.

The errors of the Montgomery Circuit Court assigned in the appeal to the Appellate Court are: (1) Overruling the demurrer to each paragraph of the complaint; (2) overruling the motion for judgment on the interrogatories; (8) overruling the motion for a new trial. Proper errors are assigned in the appeal taken from the Appellate to the Supreme Court.

We state so much of the first paragraph of the complaint as, appellee asserts, establishes that, at the time he sustained the injuries of which he complains, the relation of carrier and passenger existed between him and appellant. The paragraph alleges that “the defendant is now, and for several years last past has been, a railway company incorporated under the laws of the State of Indiana, and during such time has owned and operated a railway as a common carrier of passengers and freight for hire between Chicago, Illinois, and Louisville, Kentucky, through Montgomery and other counties in Indiana; that for six years prior to and. throughout the month of January, 1902, plaintiff was in the employ of Havens Brothers, a firm of poultry dealers, who resided and had their principal place of business in the town of Ladoga, Montgomery county, Indiana, and he had [468]*468the care of and charge of the shipment of live poultry which said firm shipped in car-load lots from various stations on defendant’s railway to New York and eastern markets; that during all said time it was and continued to be the usage and custom of said Havens Brothers and of the defendant, and it was and continued to be necessary, in the shipment of said live poultry over defendant’s' said road, to have a man accompany each car-load of poultry, in charge, thereof, to feed, water, watch, protect and care for the same en route, and it was necessary and proper for the care of said poultry to take along therewith and in the same car a large supply of food and water for said poultry, and constantly to guard, watch, feed and water the same, and to protect it from theft and injury, and said poultry cars were so arranged as to afford room for feed and water, and for the attendant in charge thereof; that it was, during all of said time, the usage and custom of said Havens Brothers and of said defendant, and it was necessary and proper, to have said man in charge occupy the car with said poultry, and during all said time this plaintiff was and continued to be the man so employed by said Havens Brothers and carried by the defendant as the man in charge of said shipments of live poultry, and according to said usage and custom this plaintiff did, during all of said time, accompany said shipments and ride in the car with said poultry, which he did with the knowledge and consent of the defendant; that during all of said time the plaintiff accompanied more than 240 car-loads of poultry, one car-load at a time, more than half of the same being over defendant’s said railroad, and rode in the car therewith each time, with the knowledge and consent of the defendant;. that at no time during all said years did the defendant give to the plaintiff any notice whatever that he should not ride in the poultry car with the poultry so shipped and in his charge, but at all times consented thereto; that during all said time it was the usage and custom of said defendant and of said Havens Brothers, in making [469]*469up any car-load of poultry intended for shipment to said eastern markets as aforesaid, partially to load said car with poultry at Gosport, or some other station on defendant’s said road, south of said Ladoga, and to make out bill of lading as for a full load, making a memorandum on such bill of lading directing that additional poultry should be loaded in said car en route at any station named, and such car should be set off at Ladoga to finish loading the same, and it was the custom to set such car off at said Ladoga, pursuant to such memorandum and directions, for the completion of such load, and it was the usage and custom of the defendants, during all said time, when notified that any such car-load was so completed at said Ladoga, to cause the first available freight-train and freight-train crew, passing northward through said Ladoga over its said road, to pick up said,ear so loaded, with this plaintiff in charge, and in said ear with said live poultry, and attach the same to the forward end of said freight-train next to the locomotive, and carry the same over defendant’s said road to Crawfordsville Junction, in said county, and there leave the same to be picked up and carried forward toward its destination by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company, whose railway connects with defendant’s said road at said Crawfordsville Junction. * * * The plaintiff avers that on January 31, 1902, pursuant to the usages and customs aforesaid, which heretofore and at that time existed between the defendant and said Havens Brothers as aforesaid, the defendant, at the request of said Havens Brothers, furnished a certain kind of freight-car, known as a poultry car, on its tracks at its station in Gosport, Owen county, Indiana, where the same was to be partially loaded with live poultry, and forwarded thence on defendant’s said road with directions to stop the same at said Cloverdale station and load poultry thereon, and to set-said car off at said Ladoga, where the same was to be further loaded to completion with live poultry and forwarded thence to Crawfordsville, [470]*470to be there billed through to its destination in New York City over said Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis -railway, all of which the defendant well knew and understood; that on said January 31, 1902, the defendant caused its agent at said Gosport station, pursuant to the usages and customs aforesaid, to issue its duplicate bills of lading for said car so loaded and to be loaded as aforesaid, which bill of lading is in the words and figures following, to wit: [Here the bill of lading is incorporated into and made a part of the complaint.] ” The complaint further alleges that said bill of lading was delivered to said Havens Brothers, and that the defendant wholly failed to cause any indorsement to be made thereon in the nature of a pass, or otherwise to give this plaintiff or said Havens Brothers, or any one.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 N.E. 534, 171 Ind. 465, 1908 Ind. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-indianapolis-louisville-railway-co-v-hostetter-ind-1908.