Emery v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co.

127 N.W.2d 826, 372 Mich. 663, 1964 Mich. LEXIS 319
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMay 4, 1964
DocketCalendar 49, Docket 49,800
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 127 N.W.2d 826 (Emery v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Emery v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co., 127 N.W.2d 826, 372 Mich. 663, 1964 Mich. LEXIS 319 (Mich. 1964).

Opinion

Souris, J.

After jury verdict for $51,500 in plaintiff’s favor in this negligence case, the trial judge granted defendant railroad judgment non obstante veredicto.. We review this judgment on plaintiff’s appeal, as we would a granted motion for directed verdict of no cause, by examining the proofs in the light most favorable to plaintiff to determine whether there were any proofs based upon which a jury properly could return a verdict for plaintiff. Barnebee v. Spence Brothers, 367 Mich 46.

Decision in this appeal has required our consideration of the circumstances in which a jury must be allowed to determine performance or breach of a railroad’s common-law duty of care at grade crossings. The trial judge initially submitted this issue *666 to the jury which found from the evidence that due care required more from the defendant railroad than its mere maintenance of warning devices required by statute; but the judge subsequently concluded in granting defendant judgment non obstante veredicto that, as a matter of law, the circumstances disclosed by the evidence did not require of defendant any greater care than mere compliance with statutory requirements. For reasons to be subsequently stated, it is our conclusion that the trial -judg'e was correct initially in submitting the question of defendant’s compliance with its common-law duty of care for factual determination by the jury and that the jury’s finding that defendant had breached such duty was amply supported by the evidence.

Having concluded that the jury’s finding that defendant had breached its duty of due care for the safety of Emerson Emery, plaintiff’s mentally incompetent husband and ward, we were required next to determine whether there was evidence to support the jury’s finding of causal connection between such negligence of defendant and Emery’s injury. The plain fact is that, excepting only for Emery’s own testimony (concerning which more will be said later) there was no eyewitness testimony from which it could be determined directly how the collision occurred. In view of the jury’s verdict for plaintiff, its implicit finding of causal connection could only have been determined by the jury by rejection of at least part of Emery’s own testimony and its favorable consideration of contrary circumstantial evidence, — thus requiring us to determine whether the jury’s finding of causation was based upon permissible inferences from such evidence or upon nothing more than conjecture. We conclude that, taking a favorable-to-plaintiff view of the evidence, the jury was entitled reasonably to infer that defendant’s. *667 negligence was a cause in fact of plaintiff’s ward’s injuries.

In addition to the foregoing issues we will discuss fully in this opinion, there are 2 other issues we may •dispose of summarily. First, defendant on appeal urges that we find Emery to have been guilty of •contributory negligence as a matter of law. We need not discuss at length our rejection of this contention. The contention is based squarely upon Emery’s testimony that he stopped 15 or 20 feet in front of the defendant’s tracks and, seeing and hearing-nothing to warn him of danger, proceeded to cross the tracks and was struck by what he testified he thought was the defendant’s engine. 1 Other evidence in the cáse, including- the physical facts of box car damage and absence of any marks of collision on the engine, sharply contradicts this testimony and, at best, makes of the issue of contributory negligence one for jury determination rather than for determination by the trial judge or by us as a matter of law. ' ‘

Second, by cross appeal defendant claims the statute of limitations, CLS 1956, § 609.13 (Stat Ann 1959 Cum Supp § 27.605), 2 bars this action and that Emery’s mental incompetence did not toll the running of the limitational period within the meaning of CL 1948, § 609.15 (Stat Ann § 27.607). 3 There was ample evidence we need not describe from which the jury properly could find, as it evidently did, that *668 Emery was rendered insane by his injuries and that he remained insane at least until within the 3-year period preceding commencement of this suit. The issue was a factual one dependent upon the jury’s determination that Emery’s mental derangement was such as to “bar the sufferer from comprehending rights he is otherwise bound to know,” as was said in Valisano v. Chicago & N. W. R. Co., 247 Mich 301, 304. It was so submitted to the jury by instruction which was prepared almost verbatim from defendant’s own requests to charge. Nothing-in this record would compel our reaching a factual conclusion on this issue different from that of the jury and certainly not as a matter of law.

We may turn now to the principal issues involved in this appeal: (1) Was the defendant railroad’s performance or breach of its common-law duty of care a question of fact for jury determination? (2) Was the evidence sufficient to support the jury’s finding of proximate causation?

The collision occurred in the city of Flint on Lippincott road, of gravel surface and 20 feet wide, where it is crossed by the single track main line of the defendant railroad. Emerson Emery, while driving his automobile eastward along Lippincott one dark night in May of 1952, collided with 1 of defendant’s southbound freight trains then crossing the roadway, Emery’s automobile striking the 31st and 32d cars of a 56-car train. The only lights on the train were on the engine, about 1/2 mile south of Lippincott road at the time of the collision, and on the caboose at the rear of the train. The only warning device at the grade crossing was a standard wooden crossbuck sign. Several witnesses testified, from their prior observations and from their experiences on the very night of the collision, that it' was ■ difficult to see trains crossing Lippincott *669 when cautiously approaching this grade crossing from west to east at night.

Two of the witnesses indicated by their testimony that the placement of an ordinary city street light .just west of the defendant’s tracks, the arc of which ■did not extend far enough to illuminate those tracks, .and the darkness of the area immediately east of the tracks, made it difficult for eastbound motorists to .see trains which were in the process of crossing Lippincott road. One of these witnesses testified as follows:

“Q. On the night of this occurrence was the street light shining?
“A. Yes.
“Q. What can you tell us as to what you saw, the 'effect of the street light?
“A. How is that?
“Q. What can you tell us about what you saw of the effect of the street light?
“Mr. Davison: For what position?
“A. From driving down—
“Q.

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

Related

Skinner v. Square D Co.
516 N.W.2d 475 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1994)
Pardy v. United States
548 F. Supp. 682 (S.D. Illinois, 1982)
Paavola v. Saint Joseph Hospital Corp.
325 N.W.2d 609 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1982)
Beasley v. Grand Trunk Western Railroad
282 N.W.2d 401 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1979)
Decker v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co.
265 N.W.2d 785 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1978)
Martin v. Ann Arbor Railroad Co.
255 N.W.2d 763 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1977)
Johnson v. Grand Trunk Western Railroad
228 N.W.2d 795 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1975)
Koch v. Southern Pacific Company
513 P.2d 770 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1973)
Ebel v. Saginaw County Board of Road Commissioners
194 N.W.2d 365 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1972)
Davidson v. Baker-Vander Veen Construction Co.
192 N.W.2d 312 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1971)
Joslin v. Grand Trunk Western Railroad
192 N.W.2d 261 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1971)
Holpainen v. American Motors Corp.
181 N.W.2d 38 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1970)
Arrasmith v. Pennsylvania Rd.
410 F.2d 1311 (Sixth Circuit, 1969)
Arrasmith v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co.
410 F.2d 1311 (Sixth Circuit, 1969)
Schedlbauer v. Chris-Craft Corp.
160 N.W.2d 889 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1968)
Masters v. Grand Trunk Western Railroad
163 N.W.2d 661 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1968)
Morman v. Standard Oil Co.
263 F. Supp. 911 (D. South Dakota, 1967)
People v. Grand Trunk Western Railroad
142 N.W.2d 54 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1966)
Savage v. PETERSON DISTRIBUTING CO., INC.
137 N.W.2d 291 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1966)
Bauman v. Grand Trunk Western Railroad
138 N.W.2d 285 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1965)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
127 N.W.2d 826, 372 Mich. 663, 1964 Mich. LEXIS 319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/emery-v-chesapeake-ohio-railway-co-mich-1964.