Florida East Coast Railway Co. v. Carter

65 So. 254, 67 Fla. 335
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedApril 7, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 65 So. 254 (Florida East Coast Railway Co. v. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Florida East Coast Railway Co. v. Carter, 65 So. 254, 67 Fla. 335 (Fla. 1914).

Opinions

Hocker, J.

The defendants in error, who will be referred to as the plaintiffs, brought an action at law [338]*338against the plaintiff in error, in the opinion referred to as the defendant, in the Circuit Court of Duval County, Florida, in September, 1910. The declaration contains two counts. The first count is as follows:

“Comes now Dartha Carter and Ezekiel M. Carter, her husband, plaintiffs in the above case, by their attorney, A. H. King, and sues the defendant, Florida East Coast Railway Company, a corporation under the laws of the State of Florida, in an action of trespass for this, to-wit:

That during the time herein set forth and for a long time theretofore, the defendant, Florida East Coast Railway Company, was and still is a corporation doing business in the State of Florida, and owning, maintaining and operating for the transportation of freight and passengers by the use of cars and steam locomotives operated thereon a line of railway and system of railroads in the State of Florida, a portion of which extends from the town of Pablo therein to the City of Jacksonville therein; that on or about the 10th day of July, A. D. 1910, at or about 4:45 P. M., the plaintiff, Dartha Carter, having procured transportation in due course on the passenger train of defendant from the said town of Pablo to the said City of Jacksonville, boarded and took passage on the passenger train of .the defendant then and there provided for her passage and proceeded to her destination, the said City of Jacksonville; that upon the arrival of said train of defendant’s at the station of defendant in said City of Jacksonville, and after said train of defendant had come to a standstill, said plaintiff, Dartha Carter, prepared and undertook to leave said train of defendant and had proceeded for said purpose as far as, to-wit, the lower or bottom step of the platform of the passenger coach of defendant attached to defendant’s said train, upon which said plaintiff had been riding as [339]*339aforesaid, whereupon said train of defendant was started and run forward whereby said plaintiff was then and there precipitated to the ground with great force and violence; and plaintiff alleges that defendant was guilty of carelessness and negligence in the premises in this, to-wit: that it caused said train to be started and run forward as aforesad, while said plaintiff was in the act of alighting, as aforesaid, from said train and before said plaintiff had time to alight; that by reason of said carelessness and negligence of defendant in so allowing said train to be started and run forward, as aforesaid, before said plaintiff had time to alight, as aforesaid, said plaintiff was precipitated to the ground whereby said plaintiff was painfully, seriously and permanently injured in and throughout her body and by reason whereof there was caused an impacted fracture of the neck of the femur of said plaintiff on the right side, and whereby her right leg was shortened, to-wit, two inches, thereby rendering said plaintiff a cripple for life; and did thereby expose and did subject the said plaintiff to great shame and mortification, by reason whereof said plaintiff, Dartha Garter, has suffered great pain and anguish at all times between said date and the date thereof, and is still suffering the same, and by reason of such hurting, wounding and injuring said plaintiff, Dartha Carter, then and there became lame, sick and disordered and has suffered great pain and anguish and has so continued and suffered for a long time, to-wit, from then to this time, and the said plaintiff was thereby permanently injured and will continue permanently to suffer pain and anguish; and plaintiff, Dartha Carter, was then and thereby during that time and still is rendered incapable of performing her duties and services by her to be done and performed; and the plaintiff, Ezekiel M. Carter, was at the time of [340]*340said hurting, wounding and bruising, and has ever since been and is still the husband Of the said Dartha Carter, and was then and thereby and has since been deprived of the services, companionship and wifely attention, society and aid of the consortment with said plaintiff, Dartha Carter, and that plaintiffs were obliged to and did necessarily lay out divers sums of money in and about endeavoring to have the plaintiff, Dartha Carter, cured of her wounds, sickness and disorder, as aforesaid, to the damage of the plaintiffs of Twenty-five Thousand ($25,-000.00) Dollars; and therefore plaintiff brings their suit and claim Twenty-five Thousand ($25,0,0.00) Dollars damages.”

The second count is like the first, except that it alleges defendant caused the train after stopping at Jacksonville, to be suddenly started forward, without notice to the plaintiff, and while she was in the act of alighting, and before she had time to alight, causing the injuries described in the first count.

Each count of the declaration was demurred to on fifteen grounds, among others that no cause of action is shown. These demurrers were overruled, and these rulings, are challenged in the first and second assignments of error.

We have examined the authorities cited to sustain the several grounds of demurrer, and we do not think they are based on declarations like those at bar. It is held in the case of German American Lumber Co. v. Brock, 55 Fla. 577, 46 South. Rep. 740, that a declaration in an action at law should by direct allegation, or by fair inference from its direct allegation, contain all the essentials of a cause of action, and when negligence is the basis of the recovery, the declaration should contain allegations of the negligent act or omission complained of, [341]*341and also allegations of the injury sustained, and of facts showing that such injury was a proximate result of the negligence alleged. It seems to us that applying this test, each of the counts of the declaration states a cause of action, and the demurrers were properly overruled.

Pleas of not guilty, and several special pleas were filed, upon which issue was joined and a trial had. Among these pleas was one alleging that the defendant in error was injured entirely by reason of her own negligence, and another that the plaintiff in error gave notice in the newspapers published in Jacksonville, and by a notice printed in large letters on the viaduct hereinafter referred to, that no trains would be stopped to receive or deliver passengers on Sunday at a viaduct in the City of Jacksonville; that the trains were obliged to stop at the switch near the viaduct to receive the signal to enter the Terminal or Union Station yard. The jury found a verdict .for the plaintiffs, and assessed the damages at $12,-500.00, upon which a judgment was entered, which is here for review on writ of error.

On the 10th of July, 1910, Dartha Carter, one of the plaintiffs, and her son Dahl and daughter Eula bought round trip tickets- over the Florida East Coast Railroad from Jacksonville to Pablo Beach, in Duval County, Florida. They went to Pablo in the morning, and about 4:45 o’clock P. M. boarded the train to return to Jacksonville. The track of the defendant railroad crosses the St. Johns river on the drawbridge, proceeds westward in the city, and under what is familiarly called in these proceedings the viaduct, being a part of a street leading to Bay street. The defendant’s track goes from the viaduct in a westerly direction to the Union or Terminal Station, which is about 200 yards from the viaduct. Between the viaduct and the Terminal Station the Florida [342]

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Bluebook (online)
65 So. 254, 67 Fla. 335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/florida-east-coast-railway-co-v-carter-fla-1914.