Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. v. Stepp

88 N.E. 343, 44 Ind. App. 353, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 180
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 14, 1909
DocketNo. 6,517
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 88 N.E. 343 (Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway Co. v. Stepp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals 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. Stepp, 88 N.E. 343, 44 Ind. App. 353, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 180 (Ind. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinions

Comstock, P. J.

Appellee recovered judgment against appellant for the killing of her decedent by a train run on appellant’s railway over a public crossing about 9 o’clock in the morning of October 7, 1905.

The amended complaint is in three paragraphs. The first alleges negligence in failing to give the statutory signals as the train approached the crossing; the second, negligence in failing to give such signals, and in erecting a berry shed and piling crossties upon the right of way some distance south of the crossing, so as to obstruct the view of a train from the time it was within five hundred feet, until within about one hundred and fifty feet of the crossing; the third, [355]*355negligence in failing to give warning to the decedent when he was discovered upon the track when the engineer was about one hundred and twenty-five feet from the crossing, and also in maintaining a berry shed and piling crossties as before stated. In the third paragraph there is no charge of failure to give the statutory signals.

A separate demurrer for want of facts was overruled as to each of said paragraphs, and a general denial filed thereto. Appellant’s motions for judgment on the answers to interrogatories returned by the jury, and for a new trial, were overruled.

The assignment of errors questions the sufficiency of each paragraph of said amended complaint, the action of the court in overruling appellant’s motion for judgment on the answers to interrogatories, and in overruling the motion for a new trial.

Appellee makes the point that the record fails to disclose that any demurrer was filed to any paragraph of the complaint, and that no question is presented as to their sufficiency.

1. The point is made upon the fact that the pleading to which the demurrer was addressed is styled “the complaint.’’ The demurrer was, however, filed after the amended complaint was filed, and it was overruled as a demurrer to the amended complaint. It should, therefore, be treated as a demurrer to the amended complaint. City of Vincennes v. Spees (1905), 35 Ind. App. 389.

2. It is objected that in none of said paragraphs is it averred that defendant was negligent. Each paragraph alleges that the defendant on October 7, 1905, was the owner and operator of a line of railroad, with locomotives, freight- and passenger-ears to and from the city of Louisville, Kentucky, to the city of Chicago, Illinois; that on said day defendant’s railroad and right of way ran through Clark county, Indiana, and crossed at right angles a public highway known as the "Salem road, ” at a point near [356]*356St. Joe, Clark county, Indiana; that said railroad runs north and south at said highway crossing, and said highway runs east and west; that on said day while plaintiff’s decedent was traveling west on said highway, and when he arrived at a point about four or five feet from defendant’s railroad track and right of way, where the same crosses said highway, and when he reached a point about twelve inches west of the west rail of defendant’s railroad track he was struck by a locomotive in charge of defendant’s servants, drawing a passenger-train, and traveling north on said railroad track at the rate of fifty miles per hour, and then and there instantly killed.

The first paragraph alleges, in addition, that defendant’s servants, in charge of defendant’s locomotive and train of cars which struck and killed the decedent, carelessly and negligently failed and omitted to sound the whistle on said locomotive distinctly three times when said locomotive was not less than eighty rods nor more than one hundred rods from said crossing, and carelessly and negligently failed to ring the bell attached to said locomotive continuously when said locomotive was not less than eighty rods nor more than one hundred rods from said crossing, and until said locomotive had reached said crossing. In addition to said objections made to the first paragraph, it is especially objected that it contains no averment that if the statutory signals had been given they could have been heard and the injury avoided. Said paragraph, after a direct statement of the acts of negligence by defendant’s servants, alleges that a,s a direct result of the negligence of the defendant, as herein set out, the decedent met his death. These averments taken together sufficiently charge the cause of the injury and the fault of defendant.

In the second paragraph the defendant is also charged with having, on said October 7, and for more than four weeks prior thereto, kept and maintained a berry shed, located at a point about one hundred and sixty feet south of [357]*357the crossing of said highway and about six feet from defendant’s railroad track; that said shed was about fifteen feet high, fifteen feet wide, and about thirty-six feet long; that beginning at the south end of said berry shed there was, and had been for more than two weeks prior to the accident, a pile of crossties extending about four hundred and fifty-eight feet south of said shed and parallel with said railroad track and right of way; that said erossties extended about nine feet above the grade of said railroad track; that both the berry shed and the erossties were on the east side of said track; that because of said erossties upon the defendant’s right of way as aforesaid, and of said berry shed, decedent’s view of said railroad track was obstructed, beginning at a point 150 feet south of said crossing, for a distance of 494 feet; that, notwithstanding the fact that they obstructed the view of people using said highway traveling west, defendant carelessly and negligently permitted them to remain. It is also alleged that, by reason of the carelessness and negligence of the defendant’s servants in failing to sound the whistle on said locomotive and to ring the bell attached to the same, as complained of herein, and owing to the carelessness and negligence of defendant in permitting said crossties and berry shed to be and remain along and upon the right of way, obstructing decedent’s view, he received the injuries which caused his death as herein complained of.

3. The maintenance of the shed and the pile of erossties is charged directly to appellant. It is not alleged by direct averment that when the servants failed to discharge their particular duties they were in the employ of, and acting for, the appellant, but under recent decisions the complaint was sufficient to withstand a demurrer. Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. VanNatta (1909), post, 608; Indianapolis Union R. Co. v. Waddington (1907), 169 Ind. 448; Southern R. Co. v. Elliott (1908), 170 Ind. 273; Cincinnati, etc., Electric St. R. Co. v. Cook (1909), ante, 303.

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Bluebook (online)
88 N.E. 343, 44 Ind. App. 353, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-indianapolis-louisville-railway-co-v-stepp-indctapp-1909.