Dixon v. Great Falls & Old Dominion Railway Co.

43 App. D.C. 206, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2598
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMarch 1, 1915
DocketNos. 2713 and 2714
StatusPublished

This text of 43 App. D.C. 206 (Dixon v. Great Falls & Old Dominion Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dixon v. Great Falls & Old Dominion Railway Co., 43 App. D.C. 206, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2598 (D.C. Cir. 1915).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Van Orsdel

delivered the opinion of the Court:

The first assignment of error is to the refusal of the court to grant the folloAA'ing prayer requested by counsel for plaintiff: “You are instructed, as a matter of law, that it Avas the duty of the defendant railway company to have its platform reasonably sufficient and safe in all respects for the use of its plaintiff passenger on August 25, 1907; if, therefore, you find from all the [210]*210facts and circumstances in the case that said defendant railway company’s station platform was not reasonably sufficient to safely accommodate the.number of people allowed thereon at the time of the accident, and further find that because thereof said plaintiff passenger, without fault on her part, was injured, then she is entitled to your verdict.” This instruction is defective in that it does not conform to the evidence. It was not contended nor shown that the defendant company pretended to have a platform there that was capable of accommodating the passengers that usually assembled to take the cars, much less the crowd that was assembled at the time of the accident. What was here referred to as a platform was a wide step to enable passengers to safely get on and off the cars from the station grounds, which furnished the waiting place for passengers intending to take the outgoing cars.

The object aimed at by the prayer, however, was fully covered by the general charge of the court, and also by the first prayer of plaintiff, which was granted, as follows: “You are instructed, as a matter of law, that the plaintiff, Mary L. Dixon, was a passenger when standing on the defendant railway company’s station platform at Great Nalls, and as such passenger was entitled to the highest degree of care for her safety and protection from hurt or injury; and if you find that while such a passenger she was injured by being pushed off said defendant railway company’s platform, by reason of the failure on the part of the said defendant company to exercise such care and protection, under all the facts and circumstances of the case, your verdict should be for the plaintiff.” It was also covered by the fourth prayer of defendant, which was conceded by plaintiff’s counsel and granted, as follows: “The jury are instructed, as a matter of law, that before they can find for the. plaintiffs, they must find by a preponderance of the evidence, not only that the plaintiff, Mary L. Dixon, was pushed and shoved in such a manner as that she was jostled, pushed, or thrown violently from the top of the station platform, but they must also find as a fact that the defendant was guilty of negligence in maintaining the platform described in these cases, or [211]*211that on this occasion there was present on said platform a crowd of people that should and could have been controlled or regulated by the employees of the defendant, and that the said defendant did not furnish a sufficient number of competent employees to control or regulate said people, and that its failure to do so was negligence on its part, which was the proximate cause of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff, Mary L. Dixon.” It has been repeatedly held by this court that it is not error for the court to refuse requested prayers where all that is properly contained therein is covered by instructions given. Columbia Heights Realty Co. v. Macfarland, 31 App. D. C. 112; Cooper v. Sillers, 30 App. D. C. 567; Sullivan v. Capital Traction Co. 34 App. D. C. 358.

Plaintiff’s second assignment of error relates to the refusal of the trial court to allow plaintiff to show' by the testimony of certain witnesses that defendant had no guards in uniform around the station platform at the time of the accident. Three witnesses were interrogated by counsel for plaintiff on this point, to which objection was interposed and sustained by the court. It appears that four witnesses were subsequently examined, who testified that there were no persons on guard on and around the platform at the time of the accident. Plaintiff herself testified that she saw no guards nor any person attempting to control the crowd on the platform. Plaintiff could not have been prejudiced by the ruling of the court, since it was conceded that no guards were on and about the platform, except two, one on the front and one on the rear of each car as it came in, to look after the safety of passengers while alighting from and boarding the cars. The evidence offered only amounted to proving a conceded fact. Besides, plaintiff was permitted to fully develop this line of testimony. Taken in connection with the general charge of the court to the jury as to the duty of the defendant company to furnish a safe place for the protection of passengers boarding and alighting from its cars, the whole ¡••sue as to the condition of the platform'and surroundings at the time of the accident went to the jury.

Plaintiff’s third assignment of error is to the action of the [212]*212trial court in granting defendant’s prayer No. 3, as follows: “The jury are instructed, as a matter of law, that there is no evidence in this case establishing or tending to establish any negligence on the part of the defendant company in failing to provide lighting facilities to so light up its platform at Great Falls, Virginia, at the time plaintiff, Mary L. Dixon, received the injuries complained of herein, so as to render it reasonably safe for use by persons intending to become passengers upon its cars, so as to be the proximate cause of Mrs. Dixon’s injuries, and therefore they cannot find that the injuries sustained by said plaintiff were the result of any such alleged negligence of the defendant.” In the first place, there was little or no conflict in the evidence given by a large number of witnesses to the effect that the place was well lighted. But had there been defective lighting facilities, the theory of plaintiff’s case is such that this defect could not be found to be the proximate cause of the injuries sustained by her, or to have even materially contrib-. uted to the accident. No claim is made by plaintiff that in moving about on this platform, for want of sufficient light, she was unable to see and properly protect herself. On the contrary, she testified that she realized she was standing at the edge of the platform, at a place she had selected in order to board the car, and that, while in that position, she was abruptly pushed therefrom without any warning. It is not contended that insufficient lighting contributed to her being jostled from the platform, the proximate cause of the accident upon which she based her case. Hence, the giving of this prayer by the court cannot be regarded as prejudicial to the plaintiff, and the evidence was such that we think there was no reasonable ground for difference of opinion in arriving at the conclusion that the place was amply lighted.

The fourth assignment of error relates to the refusal of the court to permit counsel for plaintiff to cross-examine two of defendant’s witnesses, employees of defendant company, as to their instructions from the company not to permit crowding upon the platform. . These witnesses were the two guards whose duty it was to ride on the front and rear platforms of incoming [213]*213cars, and superintend the unloading and loading of passengers. Any instructions they may have had relative to this matter could only apply when they were on duty at the platform. They were not there when the accident happened, but were at their respective stations on the approaching car, which had not yet reached the platform.

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

Related

District of Columbia v. Woodbury
136 U.S. 450 (Supreme Court, 1890)
Ohlendorf v. Kanne
8 A. 351 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1887)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
43 App. D.C. 206, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dixon-v-great-falls-old-dominion-railway-co-cadc-1915.