Clark v. Illinois Cent. R. Co.

872 So. 2d 773, 2004 WL 1049827
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMay 11, 2004
Docket2003-CA-00094-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 872 So. 2d 773 (Clark v. Illinois Cent. R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 872 So. 2d 773, 2004 WL 1049827 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

872 So.2d 773 (2004)

Sharon CLARK, Gracie Hulsey, James W. Rogers, Lynda Eaton, and Sherman Rogers, Individually, and as the Administratrix of the Estate of Patricia Martin, Deceased and on Behalf of All Wrongful Death Beneficiaries of Patricia Martin, Appellants
v.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 2003-CA-00094-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

May 11, 2004.

*776 Pat M. Barrett, Joseph L. McNamara, Derek Arthur Wyatt, Richard Runft Barrett, Lexington, attorneys for appellants.

Chad Michael Knight, George H. Ritter, Jackson, attorneys for appellee.

EN BANC.

LEE, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. On the morning of June 4, 1996, Patricia Martin left her home in Rankin County for work via her usual route along Old Pearson Road which intersects a railroad crossing. At the crossing, Old Pearson Road runs roughly east and west, and the tracks run roughly north and south. Approximately 289 feet from the crossing is a round railroad advance warning sign. About 250 feet from the crossing a railroad symbol is painted on the roadway. Twenty feet from the track a stop bar is painted on the roadway. Posted between the stop bar and the railroad is a reflectorized railroad crossbuck sign. Martin proceeded across the tracks without stopping to look for a train. Tragically, Martin was struck by a northbound train and was killed. Martin's wrongful death beneficiaries filed suit against Illinois Central Railroad ("ICRR") and Richard Whiddon, the train's engineer.

¶ 2. During the course of litigation, Sharon Clark filed a motion to abandon certain liability theories and to supplement the record with color photographs. In that motion, Clark requested that the court grant her authority to abandon and/or withdraw all theories of liability in this case except for the following: (1) claims based upon sight distance as a result of excessive vegetation growing on Illinois Central's right of way, and (2) claims based upon the adequacy of the audible warning given of the train's approach. At the trial, the jury found for the defendants. Clark moved for a new trial pursuant to Rule 59 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. The trial court denied the motion, and Clark has appealed, citing nine assignments of error.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE LAW

¶ 3. Duties and obligations at railroad crossings, both on the part of railroad operators and upon automobile drivers, is predominately a matter of statutory law. Mitcham v. Illinois Cent. Gulf R. Co., 515 So.2d 852, 854 (Miss.1987). The principal statute that describes these duties and obligations is found in Mississippi Code Annotated Section 77-9-249, which provides in pertinent part the following:

(1) Whenever any person driving a vehicle approaches a railroad grade crossing under any of the circumstances stated in this section, the driver of such vehicle shall stop within fifty (50) feet but not less than fifteen (15) feet from the nearest rail of such railroad, and shall not proceed until he can do so safely. The foregoing requirements shall apply when:
(a) A clearly visible electric or mechanical signal device gives warning of the immediate approach of a railroad train;
(b) A crossing gate is lowered or when a human flagman gives or continues to *777 give a signal of the approach or passage of a railroad train;
(c) A railroad train approaching within approximately nine hundred (900) feet of the highway crossing emits a signal in accordance with Section 77-9-225, and such railroad train, by reason of its speed or nearness to such crossing, is an immediate hazard;
(d) An approaching railroad train is plainly visible and is in hazardous proximity of such crossing.
...
(4) At any railroad grade crossing provided with visible railroad crossbuck signs without automatic electric or mechanical signal devices ... the driver of a vehicle shall, in obedience to such railroad crossbuck sign, yield the right-ofway and slow to a speed reasonable for the existing conditions, and shall stop if required for safety at a clearly marked stop line, or if no stop line, within fifty (50) feet, but not less than fifteen (15) feet, from the nearest rail of the railroad, and shall not proceed until he can do so safely.

Miss.Code Ann. § 77-9-249 (Rev.2001).

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 4. Clark's first four assignments of error stem from the trial court's instruction of the jury. On appeal, jury instructions are not reviewed in isolation; instead, they are read as a whole to determine if the jury was properly instructed. Payne v. Rain Forest Nurseries, Inc., 540 So.2d 35, 40 (Miss.1989). Defects in specific instructions do not require reversal "where all instructions taken as a whole fairly—although not perfectly—announce the applicable primary rules of law." Id. However, if those instructions do not fairly or adequately instruct the jury, reversal is appropriate. Id.

¶ 5. Clark also contends that the trial court erred in refusing to admit eight aerial photographs, and in admitting a panoramic photograph offered by ICRR. The supreme court has held that the abuse of discretion standard is proper in reviewing the admission or exclusion of evidence. Fielder v. Magnolia Beverage Co., 757 So.2d 925, 928(¶ 9)(Miss.1999). Finding Clark's assignments of error to be without merit, this Court affirms the judgment of the trial court.

DISCUSSION

I. DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN REFUSING JURY INSTRUCTION P-1?

¶ 6. Jury instruction P-1 reads as follows:

The Court instructs the jury that on June 4, 1996, the railroad crossing at Old Pearson Road where the collision in this case occurred was a public crossing which Mississippi law required Illinois Central to exercise reasonable care in its maintenance so as to make it reasonably safe.

¶ 7. The trial court properly denied this jury instruction. As ICRR argues, this instruction is both vague and misleading. Clark clearly abandoned all claims other than those based on (1) restricted sight distance due to vegetation on ICRR's right of way and (2) the adequacy of the warning given to sound of the train's approach. If granted, instruction P-1 would have opened the door to rampant speculation as to potential safety precautions and possible maintenance steps which were not at issue in this trial. In lieu of granting instruction P-1, the trial court granted instruction P-5.

The Court instructs the jury that if you find from a preponderance of the evidence that Illinois Central Railroad *778 Company failed to exercise reasonable care to maintain its right-of-way at the subject crossing with regard to vegetation during the period of time immediately before the accident so that the crossing was not reasonable safe for motorists, in that vegetation growing on the railroad right-of-way unreasonably obstructed motorists' view of approaching trains, and if you further find by a preponderance of the evidence that such a failure, if any, by Illinois Central was a proximate, contributing cause of the accident, then you must return a verdict for the plaintiffs against Illinois Central Railroad.

This instruction clearly addressed the issue of ICRR's duty to maintain the vegetation growing on the ICRR right-of-way.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
872 So. 2d 773, 2004 WL 1049827, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-illinois-cent-r-co-missctapp-2004.