Comstock v. United States

114 F. Supp. 632, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4033
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedJuly 8, 1953
DocketCivil No. 5779
StatusPublished

This text of 114 F. Supp. 632 (Comstock v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Comstock v. United States, 114 F. Supp. 632, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4033 (D. Md. 1953).

Opinion

COLEMAN, Chief Judge.

This is a suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1346(b), against the United States as owner of certain property on which plaintiff’s car was damaged, due to the alleged negligence of employees of the United States in failing properly to' maintain the property, and to warn persons, permitted to use it of its dangerous condition. The. suit was originally also brought against Merritt-Chapman & Scott Corporation, lessee of the property where the damage occurred. This corporation was dismissed for lack of jurisdictional amount in suit, but thereafter upon petition of the Government, this lessee was permitted to be impleaded as a third-party defendant, the Government contending that the lessee, by the terms of the lease, was responsible to. the Government for the amount of any judgment the plaintiff might obtain against it in the present suit.

The following facts were established by the weight of the credible evidence. About midnight on the evening of October 13,. 1950, Thomas E. Comstock, son of the plaintiff Elmer E. Comstock, was driving plaintiff’s automobile with plaintiff’s permission on Government property known as. Hawkins Point Pier Military Reservation, at Thom’s Cove, on the Patapsco River,, such use by the son of his father’s car being covered under a policy of collision insurance issued by United Services Automobile Association, for whose joint use the suit is brought. According to the son’s testimony, he had gone there to show a girl [633]*633friend the Army transports then at a Government pier and upon returning, he took a short cut across an asphalt surfaced area •when his car struck a sunken catch basin or drain, the top of which had fallen in. At the time, Comstock was not traveling over a defined road, but was crossing this large asphalt surfaced parking and unloading area, near the Patapsco River, which had been used for storage of war mate.riél, but over which, for some time past, the general public had been accustomed to drive, and at times park their cars, without objection on the Government’s part. No light or warning of any other kind had ever been placed by this catch-basin. There is no credible evidence that the plaintiff’s son was lacking in due care at the time of the accident. As a result of the accident, the plaintiff’s car was damaged and repair bills were incurred in the amount of $362.26 of which $50.00 was paid by the plaintiff and the balance ($312.26) was paid by the equitable plaintiff, United Services Automobile Association, under a policy of collision insurance.

The plaintiff asserts that his son was an invitee on the Government premises because the Government had tacitly acquiesced in the use of this asphalt surfaced area by the general public in automobiles and that therefore the Government was under a duty to exercise reasonable care to maintain this area in a safe condition for motors. To support his position plaintiff relies largely on Burke v. Maryland, Delaware & Virginia Ry. Co., 134 Md. 156, 106 A. 353, and Sheridan v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, 101 Md. 50, 60 A. 280.

In the Burke case the plaintiff was injured when one of the defendant’s express trucks which was being unloaded from ■defendant’s steamer ran into a gate on the pier where plaintiff was standing, striking it with such force that it fell upon plaintiff. The court held that on these facts it was a jury question whether plaintiff’s injury was caused by defendant’s negligence.

In considering whether the plaintiff was an invitee or a trespasser, the Maryland Court of Appeals analyzed the theories of (1) implied invitation from benefit and (2) implied invitation from acquiescence, and said, 134 Md. at pages 164—165, 106 A. at page 356: “Even if we assume that there is not sufficient evidence in this case of any benefit accruing to the defendant to warrant a finding by the jury that excursionists and persons visiting Love Point were invited ta fish and crab on the pier, we think there was ample evidence to justify the finding of an implied invitation from the acquiescence of the defendant in such use of the pier. Moreover, at the time of the accident, the plaintiff was not fishing or crabbing, but, according to his testimony, was on his way to the store on the defendant’s boat, to purchase some of the things it offered -for sale, and stopped at the point where he was standing at the time of the accident to wait until the passengers and freight were discharged. He could not have been regarded as a trespasser or mere licensee in the store of the defendant, and there mould be no greater reason for holding him to be a trespasser or licensee in going on the pier to visit the store.” (Emphasis supplied.)

From the above quoted language of the court in the Burke case it will readily be seen that the facts there were quite different from those in the present case. Here, there is no evidence of implied invitation or of a business attraction, as in the Burke case.

In the Sheridan case, plaintiff found his way across a certain street in Baltimore blocked by one of defendant’s trains. It had long been customary for persons obliged to cross defendant’s tracks thus blocked to crawl over or under the cars. This custom was acquiesced in by the defendant. The plaintiff, with the express acquiescence of one of defendant’s brakemen, attempted to go between two freight cars by getting on the bumpers, when the train started without any warning and plaintiff’s foot was crushed between the bumpers. The Maryland Court of Appeals held that under the special circumstances involved the plaintiff was not a mere trespasser, and also that the question of whether the plaintiff had been contributorily negligent was one of fact, which should have been submitted to the jury. The Court said, 101 Md. at pages 57-58, 60 A. at page 281: [634]*634“The appellant was not a passenger, and was therefore not entitled to the exercise by the appellee of the highest degree of care and diligence in his behalf. Nor was he a mere trespasser, to whom the appellee owed only the duty of abstaining from wantonly and willfully injuring 'him. If we, admit that it was beyond the scope of the brakeman’s employment to bind the appellee by the express invitation to cross the train which he gave to the appellant at the time of tire accident, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that for many years the appellee had acquiesced, without objection, in the habit of the men working in the factories in that vicinity of crossing between or under its stalled trains, which impeded their passage to and from their daily labor. Under somewhat similar circumstances we said in Siacik’s Adm’r v. Northern Central R. R. Co., 92 Md. [213] 219, 48 A. 149, that thw railroad company’s 'servants might have known, from experience and ordinary observation of the blockading of streets by railway cars, that some people would likely climb over, between, or, if small enough, under the cars, in order to cross the street.’ A jury might conclude that this conduct of the appellee in the present case, in so long permitting the crossing of its stalled trains, amounted to an implied assent or invitation to the appellant to cross between the cars of the train which on the day of the accident for so long time closed the passage from his home to his place of labor. If so, the appellee was bound to exercise reasonable care to protect him in accomplishing the crossing which he was, with its consent, attempting to make. Swift v. Staten Island R. T. R. Co., 123 N.Y. [645] 650, 25 N.E. 378; Taylor v. Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., 113 Pa. 162, 8 A. 43; Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Murowski, 179 Ill. 77, 53 N.E.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
114 F. Supp. 632, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4033, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/comstock-v-united-states-mdd-1953.