Cincinnati, L. & A. Elec. St. Ry. v. Lohe

17 Ohio C.C. Dec. 138
CourtOhio Circuit Courts
DecidedJanuary 15, 1905
StatusPublished

This text of 17 Ohio C.C. Dec. 138 (Cincinnati, L. & A. Elec. St. Ry. v. Lohe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Circuit Courts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cincinnati, L. & A. Elec. St. Ry. v. Lohe, 17 Ohio C.C. Dec. 138 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1905).

Opinion

JELKE, J.

The law of Ohio, and particularly the law in this case, was laid down by the Supreme Court, when this same case was before it, and is reported in the Cin. L. & A. Elec. St. Ry. v. Lohe, 68 Ohio St. 101 [67 N. E. Rep. 161]:

“1. An interurban electric railroad is classed as a street railroad by the statutes of this state.
“2. While such interurban railroad companies- are subject to the same regulations, and have all the powers of street railroad companies, so far as applicable, the law of negligence .governing the standing on a platform of a moving street car in a municipality, is not applicable to the case of standing on such platform of a moving interurban car in the open country.
“3. The law of negligence governing the standing on a platform of a moving interurban car outside of a municipality, is the same as in the case of steam cars; and where a rule of the company prohibits passengers from standing on the platform, * * * or where the passengers upon request refuse to enter the ear, there being in either case vacant seats, they may remain on the platform at their peril.
“4. In a contract for safe carriage there is.an implied agreement that the passenger will obey the reasonable rules 'of the carrier; and where the passenger purposely violates such rule, and is thereby injured, he cannot recover damages from the carrier in an action on the contract. ’ ’

After such reversal, the case was remanded to the court of common pleas and there tried again, resulting once more in a verdict for the plaintiff, Lohe, administrator; upon which the court rendered judgment, error to which is now prosecuted to this court.

If the case as submitted to the jury at this recent trial is substantially the same case as was contained in the record which went to the Supreme Court, the verdict below cannot be sustained, as the same conclusion must be reached as was reached by the Supreme Court.

An examination of the record shows that at this hearing the testimony presented a somewhat different case and developed issues of fact on all the matters found proven or assumed by the Supreme Court in its opinion.

Probably in mew of the Supreme Court’s opinion counsel in pre[140]*140senting his case emphasized whatever of dispute there was in these issues of fact. In this second trial, the whole first half of the case was eliminated by an agreed statement in regard to the alleged negligence of the defendant, The Cincinnati, Lawrenceburgh & Aurora Electric Street Railroad Company, which was as follows:

“For the purpose of facilitating the trial of this case, it is hereby agreed that neither party shall offer any evidence whatever on the question of the negligence of the defendant, that is, the railroad company, but that question shall be considered and determined as though the plaintiff had offered sufficient evidence to establish the allegations of the petition as to the negligence of the defendant. This agreement not to limit the right of either party in the offer of evidence as to any or all other questions .in the case. ’ ’

It appears in the testimony that the decedent, William Lohte, was standing upon the platform of defendant’s car at the time when the car was derailed. It is claimed on behalf of the plaintiff that he was there because there was no available or reasonably convenient room in the car, and that being there under these circumstances, it was not negligence per se.

When last before the Supreme Court, the court said, page 111:

“In the case at bar the deceased was ordered into the ear by the conductor, and requested to go in by the assistant conductor, there were vacant seats inside, a sign was up, ‘Passengers not allowed on the platform, ’ and yet he remained on the platform because he wanted to smoke a cigar.”

In the case of Cincinnati, D. & T. Trac. Co. v. Kent, 27 O. C. C. 000, this court following the decision of the Supreme Court in Cin. L. & A. Elec. St. Ry. v. Lohe, supra, and the case of Hickey v. Railway, 96 Mass. (14 Allen) 429, which our Supreme Court approved, held that it was negligence for a passenger to voluntarily and unnecessarily stand upon the platform of an interurban car when there was standing room inside.

The first proposition of the syllabus in Hickey v. Railway, supra, is:

“A traveler by railroad cannot maintain an action against a railroad company to recover damages for a personal injury sustained by him in consequence of his voluntarily and unnecessarily standing upon the platform of a passenger car, while the train is in motion. ’ ’

As the case was submitted to the jury at 'this latter hearing, there was conflicting testimony on this issue as to whether or not there was standing room within the ear. It' appears that parties boarded this car and subsequently found seats. Most of these parties, however, were [141]*141ladies, and it. does not appear whether they found vacant seats or • whether they secured seats through the gallantry of gentlemen who surrendered their seats to them. Just how crowded this car was and whether dr not standing room within was reasonably available or could be conveniently obtained, is .a mixed and doubtful question involving many elements of fact, which must, by its nature, have been submitted to the jury, as it was in this case. In the Ohio Law Bulletin for January 2, 1905, there is reported a ease by the Illinois supreme court, October 24, 1904, Chicago & W. I. Ry. v. Newell, 50 Bull. 2 (72 N. E. Rep. 416), wherein it is said:

“1. Where a railroad train was so crowded with passengers that some of them were standing on the platform, and the train rounded a curve at the rate of twenty-five or thirty miles an hour, and a passenger whs thrown off, in an action for his injuries it could not be said as a matter of law that there was no negligence in so operating the train.
“2. Where a passenger was injured by being thrown from the platform of a railroad train as it rounded a curve, in an action for the injuries, it appearing that neither seats nor standing-room in the cars could be conveniently obtained, it was a question for the jury whether plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence.”
“Ordinarily, it is prima facie evidence of negligence for a passenger to stand or ride upon the platform of a moving railway train; but where, as the evidence tends to show in this case, neither seats nor standing room in the cars could be conveniently obtained, it became a question of fact for the jury whether the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence by being upon- the platform from which he fell. It is only when the inference of negligence necessarily results from the statement of facts that the court can properly instruct the jury that such facts establish negligence as a matter of law. Standing or sitting upon the platform or steps of a railway car when the train is in motion, although it may be prima facie evidence of negligence, is not, under all circumstances, negligence per se and as a matter of law. ’ ’

If submitted to us de novo

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hickey v. Boston & Lowell Railroad
96 Mass. 429 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1867)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 Ohio C.C. Dec. 138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cincinnati-l-a-elec-st-ry-v-lohe-ohiocirct-1905.