Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Wade

48 N.E. 12, 18 Ind. App. 346, 1897 Ind. App. LEXIS 216
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 2, 1897
DocketNo. 2,105
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 48 N.E. 12 (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Wade) 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
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Wade, 48 N.E. 12, 18 Ind. App. 346, 1897 Ind. App. LEXIS 216 (Ind. Ct. App. 1897).

Opinion

Wiley, C, J. —

Appellee sued appellant for injuries alleged to have been received on account of the negligence and carelessness of appellant’s servants in the running and operation of one of its trains. ■ Trial by jury; special verdict, and judgment for appellee.

The facts as averred in the complaint, and upon which the appellee bases his right of action, are so unusual and out of the ordinary, that we deem it expedient to state them fully in this opinion. The complaint avers that the appellant was the owner and at the time of the injury complained of, operating a railroad in and through Dearborn county, Indiana, and that said railroad runs from Lawrenceburgh to Aurora; that on the 12th day of May, 1895, appellee purchased a round-trip ticket of appellant’s ticket agent at Lawrenceburgh, to Aurora, which entitled him to be carried from said city of Lawrenceburgh, to Aurora and return; that for said ticket he paid twenty-five cents; that he did go upon appellant’s train to Aurora, and that the part of the ticket which entitled [348]*348him to ride on said train to Aurora was taken up; that on the same day he attempted to return from Aurora to Lawrenceburgh, on a passenger train, upon which he was entitled to ride by virtue of his ticket; that he went to the train at appellant’s passenger depot, arriving there before the schedule time for the train to start; that said cars were “vestibule” cars, having doors at each side of the platform, and at the outer ■ edge of the platform, so that when the doors were closed, the entire platforms are in, and no part thereof can be reached from the steps; that the appellant had carelessly and negligently left the vestibule door of said car closed and locked, of which fact the appellee was wholly ignorant, but supposed thé same was unlocked and easily opened; that while he was waiting at said steps, the appellant, by its servants, before ringing any bell and without any signal or warning, started said train on its return trip to Lawrenceburgh, and appellee, as soon as said train started, immediately ascended the steps of the platform and attempted to open the vestibule door, so as to enter said car, when he discovered, for the first time, that said door was locked, and that he could not open the same; that there was not at the time any conductor or other ■employe of appellant within his sight or hearing whom he could call, or to whom he could make known his situation, and the train was then moving very slowly; he undertook to pass from the said steps on which he was standing, to the steps of the car immediately in front, the vestibule door of which was open; that he took hold of the hand-rail of said car in front, and had a firm and sufficient hold of the same, and had put his foot upon the step thereof and was passing over, when the engineer in charge of the engine drawing the train, carelessly and negligently caused said engine to suddenly move forward, so that the train was thereby [349]*349jerked forward suddenly and with great force and violence, thereby causing his feet to slip from the step, and causing him to lose his grasp of the hand-rail and to be thrown violently to the ground, beneath the train, whereby he was injured, etc. The complaint avers that the injuries received by him were without his fault or negligence. The sufficiency of the complaint was challenged by a demurrer, but was by the court overruled, and appellant excepted.

Upon the return of the special verdict, appellant moved the court for judgment in its favor thereon, which motion was overruled, and an exception was reserved. Appellant interposed its motion for a new trial, which was also overruled, but as the overruling of the motion is not assigned as error, no questions raised thereby are presented for determination.

The only error assigned by appellant is the overruling of its motion for judgment on the special verdict. The special verdict consists of 108 interrogatories and the answers thereto, and.we are glad to say contains very little redundant or irrelevant matter. While it is highly proper for us to copy literally into the opinion some of the interrogatories and answers, embracing the more potent, controlling, and important facts, as to the general and less important ones, as we get them from the special verdict, we content ourselves by stating them as briefly as possible, in our own language.

The jury found that appellant, on May 12, 1895, maintained at Lawrenceburgh, Indiana, a passenger depot and station, and that an agent was in charge thereof, authorized to sell tickets; that on said day appellee was a passenger on one of appellant’s trains from Lawrenceburgh to Áurora; that he purchased of appellant and had in his possession a ticket which entitled him to ride on one of its trains from Aurora to Lawrenceburgh; that on said day appellee attempted [350]*350to get on one of appellant’s passenger trains to return to Lawreneeburgh; that he attempted to get on to a, vestibule car, and that he was prevented from entering said car because the door thereof was locked. The jury further found that appellee did not know the door of said car was locked when he attempted to enter it; that at the time and place appellee attempted to enter the car, and found the door fastened, the train was moving; that when he so attempted to enter said car, he did not know that any car or cars in appellant’s train were not intended for the reception of passengers; that the schedule time for the train to leave Aurora for Lawreneeburgh was 6 o’clock p. m.; that the lamps in the vestibule car which appellee attempted to enter were lighted the same as they were in the other cars; that appellant’s employes backed its train across Hogan creek and passed west of its station at Aurora, so that its locomotive stood opposite the whter tank, which was located near the west end of a passenger platform at said station; that after the locomotive had taken water, the train pulled east and stopped with the locomotive near the east line of Second street in Aurora; that said train consisted of a locomotive, tender, baggage car, and five coaches; that one of the coaches was vestibuled and was the second from the rear; that there was a passenger ‘ platform eighty feet long, along the main track, almost opposite the depot building; that after the train pulled up from the water tank, the smoking car and ladies’ coach stood opposite and alongside of the passenger platform; that the other coaches on the rear of the train, while it was standing at the platform, stood west of the west end of the platform; that appellant had not provided any accommodation for passengers to alight from or get upon its trains at any point west of the west end of the platform; that after said loco[351]

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Bluebook (online)
48 N.E. 12, 18 Ind. App. 346, 1897 Ind. App. LEXIS 216, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railway-co-v-wade-indctapp-1897.