Collis v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad

24 N.Y.S. 1090, 78 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 504, 55 N.Y. St. Rep. 82, 71 Hun 504
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 23, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 24 N.Y.S. 1090 (Collis v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Collis v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 24 N.Y.S. 1090, 78 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 504, 55 N.Y. St. Rep. 82, 71 Hun 504 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1893).

Opinion

HABDEST, P. J.

Main street, in the village of Herkimer, crosses the tracks of the defendant at a right angle, and defendant’s passenger depot is east of Main street. Its passenger tracks 1 and 2 are separated by the depot. Ho. 1, or the south track, goes south of the depot, and Ho. 2 north. West of Main street was a “dead track,” or a branch track between tracks Ho. 1 and 2, extending some 175 feet west of Main street and easterly of Washington street. At the time of the accident an advertising car or advance car of a circus company stood upon the dead track, and was occupied by persons in the employ of the circus. In one end of the car arrangements were placed for cooldng, and in other parts of the car arrangements for distributing the advertising bills, and for paste and other materials used in preparations to post and circulate. the bills heralding the approach of the circus. The accident occurred about 5:25 in the afternoon. As an express train was passing along track Ho. 2 westerly, and approaching a point opposite the circus car, the deceased, a boy some eight or nine years of age, who apparently had been doing some errand for the parties occupying the circus car, stood upon the easterly platform of the circus car, and from that point could see the approaching train 1,000 feet or more distant." He apparently looked at it, and, as the train neared the car platform on which he was standing, he stepped down, and, in a direction northwesterly taken by him, attempted to pass over track Ho. 2, which was the one occupied by the approaching express train. He failed to make his transit across track Ho. 2 so as to clear the approaching train, and was caught by the cowcatcher, thrown into the air, and killed. Apparently, the express train was approaching at a rate of speed of 35 or more miles an hour, there being some difference in the opinion expressed by the witnesses on the subject of speed of the train, and as to whether the engineer was endeavoring to make up lost time. The evidence in that regard was fully presented to the jury in the charge delivered by the trial judge. Apparently, the deceased, after he got down from the car, and started to cross the track going northwesterly, turned his head, and looked to the east, and immediately started on a run, and, while thus endeavoring to pass across the track, he was struck by the engine. He had been seen at the advertising car carrying water for the cook in the car ■ from a point near the east end of the passenger depot. There was nothing to prevent a person from alighting from the end of the circus car and passing southerly. The defendant owned the property lying between Main and Prospect streets, and was using the same for tracks and cars and in carrying forward its business. The deceased was an ordinary sized boy of his age, ordinarily intelligent, and resided east of the passenger depot, and south of the railroad, about 100 feet from it. He was accustomed to attend [1092]*1092school, and, in doing so, crossed the railroad in passing to and from his school; and he was accustomed to go over the track at other points, having been at times sent to stores to do the trading for his family on the north side of the railroad and on Main street, ■ and when engaged 'in such business lie was required to cross the tracks, and had been so accustomed to cross them for some two years before the- accident. He had good hearing and eyesight, and apparently was a quick, active, bright boy, and for various purposes he had been more or less around the passenger depot. Whether the deceased was guilty of contributory negligence was submitted to the jury as a question of fact. In doing so the court followed the doctrine laid down by Andrews, J., in McGovern v. Railroad Co., 67 N. Y. 422. The doctrine of that case was followed in Barry v. Railroad Co., 92 N. Y. 294. The same doctrine was repeated at the close of the opinion in Byrne v. Railroad Co., 83 N. Y. 620; Swift v. Railroad Co., 123 N. Y. 645, 25 N. E. Rep. 378. In Tucker v. Railroad Co., 124 N. Y. 316, 26 N. E. Rep. 916, it was said:

“An infant of tender years is not expected to exercise the same care and caution which is required of a person of more advanced age, so that it frequently becomes a question for the jury, under proper instructions by the court, whether a child exercised that measure of care and caution which should be required and expected from it.”

We think the plaintiff could not complain of that branch of his case which was submitted to the jury fairly. In considering a case where a boy was injured by an approaching train in Wendell v. Railroad Co., 91 N. Y. 428, it was said by Buger, C. J., viz.:

“He should not be permitted to make close calculations to determine whether he can safely pass in front of an approaching body, and, when the experiment has failed, charge the consequences of his mistake upon the owner of the colliding vehicle or property. Belton v. Baxter, 54 N. Y. 245.”

In the course of the charge, the trial judge said:

“It appearing that he was acquainted with the running of the cars, that he was a boy accustomed to hang around the depot there, as the testimony of Fox shows, and accustomed to get on and off his car at different times, and that he had been ordered off his car at different times, and had been ordered away from the road, tending to show, I say, that he was acquainted, although a boy, with the running and the operation of the cars, being thus acquainted, under all the circumstances, if he was guilty of carelessness, although a boy, then there can be no recovery by the administrator in this case, any more than there could be by the boy himself if he were the living party, and had brought an action for an injury to his person. * * * He must come here free from fault on his part, and if he comes here charged with any fault, however remote, which caused or contributed to the injury which he complains of, he is without remedy. * * * Therefore, if you find that he was careless in the manner in which this accident happened, and in the position in which he put himself in reference to this train, your verdict will be for the defendant. * * * But if you find, under the circumstances,' that the boy was not guilty of any act of negligence for which he should be charged that caused or contributed to his injury, then the next question which would be for you .to determine is, was the defendant guilty of any act of negligence on its part that caused the injury of which the plaintiff complains?”

Thereafter the court proceeded in its charge to consider the question relating to the alleged negligence of the defendant, and ad[1093]*1093verted to the speed of the train, and to the question whether a hell was rung or a whistle was sounded; and, continuing his charge, he said:

“But there was no obligation on the part of the defendant, the railroad company, to blow the whistle or ring the bell upon this train to notify the boy of its approach, for the reason that he was not upon the crossing. He was not rightfully upon the lands of the defendant, the railroad company. He was a trespasser there. He had no right to be there, and as an adult, if he had been injured while thus of his own volition upon the lands of the defendant, the fact that he was a trespasser at the time would have prevented any recovery on his part.

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Bluebook (online)
24 N.Y.S. 1090, 78 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 504, 55 N.Y. St. Rep. 82, 71 Hun 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collis-v-new-york-central-hudson-river-railroad-nysupct-1893.