Eden v. Conrail

435 A.2d 556, 87 N.J. 467, 1981 N.J. LEXIS 1673

• Court: Supreme Court of New Jersey
• Decided: September 28, 1981
• Status: Published

Opinions

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

HANDLER, J.

This case is the companion case to Renz v. Penn Central Corp., 87 N.J. 437 (1981). In this case the plaintiff, William Eden, fell onto Conrail’s railroad tracks while suffering from a grand mal epileptic seizure. Plaintiff brought a negligence action seeking damages for personal injuries caused when he was struck by a train operated by defendant Dorrman and owned by defendant Conrail. The complaint against Conrail was dismissed at the end of plaintiff’s case on the theory that the railroad immunity act, N.J.S.A. 48:12-152, precluded liability to anyone negligently injured while on railroad tracks without authority. The jury found Dorrman not negligent. The Appellate Division reversed and remanded as to both defendants. 175 N.J.Super. 263 (1980). However, a dissent was filed disagreeing with the majority as to several issues. The plaintiff filed an appeal as of right pursuant to R. 2:2-2(a).

The plaintiff was 31 years of age. He had suffered from grand mal and petit mal epileptic seizures since he was eight years old. As long as he was on medication, he was capable of functioning while experiencing a petit mal seizure, being able to talk with people, maintain his balance and generally be aware of his surroundings. When he was in the midst of a grand mal seizure, however, he would become unconscious, fall down and lose memory. Plaintiff suffered petit mal seizures approximately once a week before the accident in question. His last uncontrolled grand mal seizure occurred while he was a passenger on a train in Canada in 1971.

At the time of the accident on April 22, 1977, plaintiff was employed in Paterson, New Jersey. Each workday, he walked from his place of employment at the Irving Trust Building to the railroad station in Paterson. The actual waiting area consists of a blacktop platform extending more than 1,000 feet between the eastbound and westbound tracks. The platform is only inches above the rails. There is a white line two feet from the edge of the tracks, but there are no physical barriers between the platform and the tracks. While waiting for the train, plaintiff put down his briefcase and began walking around the platform. He was aware of the white line and knew that people on the platform were not to cross the line for their own safety.

Plaintiff then fell onto the tracks as a result of a grand mal seizure and was struck by an approaching Conrail train. All that he recalls of the entire accident is looking around while standing on the platform, seeing a signal device overhead, and thereafter being awakened while on his back as he was being removed from the scene. The train that struck plaintiff was operated by Robert Dorrman, an engineer for Conrail. The train was heading in a westerly direction toward Paterson. Approaching the Paterson station the tracks curve to the right (north) for approximately 200 feet and then straighten out between 600 and 900 feet from the eastern end of the platform area. When Dorrman reached the end of this curve he made a general observation down the tracks toward the station but saw nothing out of the ordinary. At this point, as it approached the station, the train Was going approximately 30 m. p. h., or 40 feet per second. When approximately 300 feet from the platform Dorrman next looked down the tracks at which point he noticed what appeared to be a cardboard, boxlike object, light brown in color. The object appeared to be approximately five to six feet long, two feet wide and three to four inches thick, but Dorrman did not view the object as an obstruction and, because he did not think the object was a human being, he decided not to apply his brakes at that point.

When the engine was approximately thirty feet from the object, Dorrman blew the train’s whistle and noticed the object move, at which point he realized for the first time that it was a human being. He then applied his brakes, but it was too late to avoid striking the plaintiff who was making a futile effort to scramble off of the tracks and onto the platform. The injuries suffered from the accident gave rise to this action.

I

We have decided today in Renz v. Penn Central that the railroad immunity act, N.J.S.A. 48:12-152, does not, as viewed by the courts below, codify common law principles of duty and trespass. Rather the act incorporates as its legal underpinning principles of fault and contributory negligence. This is evinced by the clear wording of the statutory enactment which holds that persons engaging in certain conduct described in the statute “shall be deemed to have contributed to the injury sustained and shall not recover therefor any damages.”

We have further held, as a matter of statutory interpretation, that the statute incorporated the legislative determination to create railroad immunity based upon the underlying common law doctrine of contributory negligence for so long as that doctrine in its essential elements endured.

Consistent with the notion that this railroad immunity statute, like all immunity enactments, must be strictly construed, Potter v. Finch & Sons, 76 N.J. 499, 502 (1978), we have lastly determined that the Legislature would not have intended its rule of railroad immunity from liability, enacted in 1869, to remain without modification at this time over a century later when the underlying legal theory of contributory negligence was no longer a part of New Jersey or American common law — having been rendered an obsolete historical relic by its modern heir, the doctrine of comparative negligence.

For these reasons we have prospectively held, subject of course to legislative intervention and modification, that the railroad immunity act is deemed to be predicated on the contemporary principles of comparative negligence. This means that the conduct of a person walking, playing or running on or along the railroad or its tracks or jumping on or off moving railroad cars now constitutes minimal or threshold comparative negligence under the statute. Such a person is not barred from recovery for resulting injuries except if his negligence on a comparative basis is greater than that of the railroad.

Given this redefinition and reapplication of the statutory enactment, we must assess the applicability of the statute as construed to the situation present in this appeal — a person on the tracks as a result of an epileptic seizure. Judge Fritz, writing for the Appellate Division, although understandably applying the underlying doctrine of trespass rather than contributory negligence, held the statute was inapplicable to the plaintiff in this case because he was on railroad property without volition.

We believe that this same result obtains even under our interpretation of the enactment in Renz as one based upon comparative negligence. It is undisputed that Eden fell upon the railroad tracks as a result of an unconscious state. The reasons that persuaded Judge Fritz below to conclude that this factual circumstance precluded the application of the trespass doctrine, 175 N.J.Super. at 274-275, apply even more cogently in fending off the imposition of negligence under the doctrine of comparative negligence. We do not believe that non-cognitive action brings a person within the purview of the railroad immunity act or is sufficient to trigger comparative negligence principles as incorporated by the statute. We are thus satisfied that the railroad immunity statute does not in this setting serve to iftipute negligence to the plaintiff as a matter of law. The statute does not apply and its provisions cannot be invoked to bar or reduce any recovery to which plaintiff may otherwise be entitled.

Nonetheless, in the present posture of the case, there has been no consideration of the issue of plaintiff’s negligence independent of the railroad immunity act. While plaintiff’s unconscious falling upon the railroad tracks, considered in isolation, cannot fairly be viewed as faulty or negligent conduct, it is unclear from the record whether circumstances other than plaintiff’s non-volitional presence on the tracks, such as plaintiff’s awareness of his condition and the likelihood of danger to himself, or the reasonable foreseeability of the potential for an epileptic seizure under circumstances creating a risk of personal injury, might be sufficient to render his conduct on the platform negligent. Because of the previous construction of the statute, it does not appear that any of the parties focused on or addressed these other factual aspects of plaintiff’s conduct as they bear upon comparative negligence. These factors are appropriately a concern for a jury and consequently we deem it proper to remand this case for the trial judge and jury to assess these matters under the Comparative Negligence Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1, -5.2.

II

Plaintiff has raised additional grounds which he contends constitute reversible error in this case, namely, the inadequacy of the jury charge, the invalid use of answers to interrogatories at trial and the failure to transcribe portions of testimony read to the jury. In view of our disposition today, we need not decide whether these assertions, if sustainable, constitute reversible error. The Appellate Division, however, addressed these contentions in order to guide the trial court on remand. We view the determination by Judge Fritz below as to the interrogatories, the transcription of the testimony read to the jury and the confusion inherent in the jury charge to be substantially correct. 175 N.J.Super. at 278-283.

The majority and dissent in the court below also addressed the question of whether plaintiff Eden should be considered a trespasser within the framework of the railroad immunity act and, if so, what duty, if any, was owed by the railroad. Although we have determined in the companion case of Renz v. Penn Central Corp. that the railroad immunity act is based upon principles of comparative negligence, the defendant railroad on remand is, of course, free to argue that the plaintiff in this case was a trespasser. We caution, however, that plaintiff, under the facts in the present record, could very well be considered as one authorized to be on railroad property. Because Eden was clearly an invitee in terms of his presence in the train station and on the platform, the defendant railroad was required “to use reasonable care to make the premises safe.” E. g., Handleman v. Cox, 39 N.J. 95, 111 (1963). Plaintiff surely did not cognitively desire to leave the authorized area, but did so involuntarily. Accordingly, if the railroad inadequately protected against an individual’s inadvertent entrance onto a dangerous area, the plaintiff may very well have remained an invitee, or as noted by Judge Fritz, have become a licensee or a “tolerated intruder,” rather than a trespasser, even though he was not expressly invited into the area where the harm occurred. The Appellate Division also opined that a person not on another’s property pursuant to conscious choice is not a trespasser. 175 N.J.Super. at 276. However, neither the parties nor the appellate court had the benefit of addressing that particular issue unencumbered by the railroad immunity act, N.J.S.A. 48:12-152, and therefore we do not here pass upon it.

Although all the factors in the present record strongly indicate that the plaintiff was not a trespasser and that the railroad had a requisite duty of care, we cannot prognosticate that upon remand there will not exist genuinely disputed issues of material fact that may directly or inferentially support a finding that the plaintiff was a trespasser. In that posture of the proofs, the parties and trial court should consider our decision in the companion case of Renz v. Penn Central Corp. as to the appropriate duty of care that would be owed by the defendant railroad to the plaintiff.

Lastly, we must consider the application of our determination today to the railroad engineer, Dorrman. Under our decision in Potter v. Finch & Sons, supra, the railroad immunity act, even as previously interpreted, did not bar an action against a railroad employee. Accordingly, the issue of the engineer’s liability was submitted to the jury by the trial judge. In the trial judge’s charge, the jury was told that Eden was a trespasser, a charge which, in view of our discussion above, was correctly criticized by the court below. Potentially affected by the unavailability of recourse to the corporate defendant and by the notion that Eden was initially deemed to be a trespasser, the jury found no negligence on the part of Dorrman. The Appellate Division found these influences upon the jury to be sufficient to justify a remand as to liability of the individual defendant. We agree. See Potter v. Finch & Sons, supra, 76 N.J. at 509 (Pashman, J., dissenting, noting that, equitably, individual defendant and defendant railroad should be treated similarly).

Accordingly, the judgment below is modified and, as modified, is affirmed.