Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway Co. v. Fisher

110 N.E. 240, 61 Ind. App. 10, 1915 Ind. App. LEXIS 68
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 17, 1915
DocketNo. 8,756
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 110 N.E. 240 (Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway Co. v. Fisher) 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, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railway Co. v. Fisher, 110 N.E. 240, 61 Ind. App. 10, 1915 Ind. App. LEXIS 68 (Ind. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

Moran, J.

This was an action for personal injuries, which appellee claims to have suffered by reason of the negligence of appellant, growing out of the misconduct of a fellow passenger, while she was being transported on one of appellant’s passenger trains from Jasonville, Indiana, to Linton, Indiana. A jury awarded appellee damages in the sum of ,|750. From a judgment on the verdict, appellant appeals.

The errors assigned are; (1) overruling the demurrer to the amended complaint; (2) the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; (3) overruling appellant’s motion to strike out parts of the amended complaint; (4) overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial.

The amended complaint is in one paragraph and in substance states, that on September 30, 1911, appellant' was a railroad corporation operating a railroad between Terre Haute, Indiana, and Seymour, Indiana, and that appellee became a passenger for hire at the station of Jasonville, with her [13]*13destination at the station of Linton. At Jasonville, a large number of drunken and boisterous men were negligently accepted by appellant as passengers, and shortly after entering the smoking car a quarrel ensued between five or six of such drunken men; that the conductor in charge of the train saw the altercation, but made no attempt to stop it. • The participants were severely injured and blood flowed out upon their clothing from cuts and bruises, of which fact the passengers on the train were aware; at Midland station appellant stopped its train for the purpose of taking on and letting off passengers, and all of the drunken passengers left the train except one, who was negligently and wrongfully permitted by appellant to go into the ladies’ and gentlemen’s coach where appellee was riding; that he was drunk, angry, bleeding, weak and pale, his face and clothing were covered with blood, and as he was passing where appellee was sitting, he fell upon her with his full weight and crushed and injured her and soiled her clothing. Appellee at the time was pregnant and would have been delivered of a child within five or six months; and on account of the drunken man coming into the car, covered with blood and falling upon appellee, she became greatly excited and shocked, and from the shock, she became ill at the time, and in consequence thereof a miscarriage occurred October 6, 1911, and that appellee became a helpless wreck and is permanently injured. That prior to the injury, she was strong and healthy, but that since the injury she has not been able to perform any kind of labor by reason of the injury thus received. The injury occurred wholly by reason of appellant negligently, wrongfully and carelessly failing to perform its duties as alleged, and in appellant negligently and carelessly permitting the bleeding and angry passenger to enter the [14]*14car where appellee was seated; that appellant could have prevented the drunken passenger from going into said car and should have done so if it had- performed its duty. Appellant had full knowledge of what was taking place on its car. Appellee was damaged in .the sum of $25,000. •

Appellant’s position that the complaint fails to state a cause of action as against the demurrer for want of facts may be summed up substantially as follows: The carrier’s liability to a passenger for the misconduct of a fellow passenger is contingent, depending upon the carrier having knowledge of the misconduct of the fellow passenger, or where the attending circumstances are such that the injury to the passenger by the fellow passenger could have been reasonably apprehended by the exercise of due care; that the carrier is not responsible for subsequent misbehavior of a passenger when the same is of a different nature and kind and unrelated; that there is no causal relation disclosed by the complaint between the fight in one apartment of the train and the subsequent act which injured appellee in another apartment, namely, the falling of one of the participants in the fight after it had ceased; that the facts pleaded are not such as to disclose that appellant could have reasonably anticipated that the safety of the passenger was threatened and an injury likely to occur, especially in the absence of an averment that the passenger fell upon appellee as a result of his intoxication.

[15]*151. 2. [14]*14The general principle of law defining the duty of the carrier to the passenger set forth and supported by authorities in appellee’s brief is not highly instructive as to the question here involved, as the case at bar does not fall strictly within the class of cases to which the general rule thus announced by appellee is applicable. “A common carrier is bound, [15]*15as far as practicable, to protect its„ passengers, while being conveyed, from violence committed by strangers and eopassengers, and undertakes absolutely to protect them against the misconduct of its own servants.” New Jersey Steamboat Co. v. Brockett (1887), 121 U. S. 637, 7 Sup. Ct. 1039, 30 L. Ed. 1049. See, also, Stewart v. Brooklyn, etc., R. Co. (1882), 90 N. Y. 588, 43 Am. Rep. 185. The question presented in this case involved that degree of care that the carrier is bound to exercise to prevent injury to a passenger at- the hands of a fellow passenger, and to its duty in this particular we have confined our investigation. It may be stated generally that,' although common carriers are not insurers of the safety of their passengers, they are in duty bound to protect them from the unprovoked assault or misconduct of a fellow passenger, where the servants of the carrier have knowledge of the existing conditions for a sufficient intervening time between the acquisition of knowledge and the injury to protect their passengers; and this is true where the carrier’s servants have reason to anticipate from the existing conditions that the safety of the passengers is imperiled by the misconduct of a fellow passenger. United Railway, etc., Co. v. Dean (1901), 93 Md. 619, 49 Atl. 923, 86 Am. St. 453, 54 L. R. A. 942; Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Richardson (1907), 40 Ind. App. 503, 82 N. E. 536; Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Minor (1892), 69 Miss. 710, 11 South. 101, 16 L. R. A. 627; Tall v. Baltimore Steam Packet Co. (1900), 90 Md. 248, 44 Atl. 1007, 47 L. R. A. 120; Evansville, etc., R. Co. v. Darting (1892), 6 Ind. App. 375, 33 N. E. 636; Flint v. Norwich, etc., Transportation Co. (1868), 34 Conn. 554; 4 R. C. L. 1189, §611; Irwin v. Louisville, etc., [16]*16R. Co. (1909), 161 Ala. 489, 50 South. 62, 135 Am. St. 153, 18 Ann. Cas. 772.

3. 4. [17]*173. 5. 3. [16]*16A duty was owing from appellant to appellee as the complaint discloses the relation of carrier and passenger existed at the time of the injury. And further from the allegations of the complaint the servants of appellant, who were in charge of the train had knowledge of the altercation that took place in the smoking car between the passenger who caused the injury complained of and the other participants thereto, and likewise had knowledge of the condition of such passenger at and before the time the injury occurred.

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Bluebook (online)
110 N.E. 240, 61 Ind. App. 10, 1915 Ind. App. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-terre-haute-southeastern-railway-co-v-fisher-indctapp-1915.