Friend v. Boston & Maine Railroad

13 Mass. App. Div. 48
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedJanuary 21, 1948
StatusPublished

This text of 13 Mass. App. Div. 48 (Friend v. Boston & Maine Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Friend v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 13 Mass. App. Div. 48 (Mass. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

Pettingell, P. J.

Action of tort in which the plaintiff seeks to recover damages for injuries received by her on a train operated by the defendant, on or about November 21, 1943. The plaintiff’s declaration contains three counts, the first alleging that the plaintiff was a passenger on a train of the defendant arriving at Boston; that its agents [49]*49and servants negligently announced prematurely that the train had arrived at Boston and brought the cars to a stop and opened the gates; that the plaintiff sought to alight from the train in accordance with the defendant’s invitation when the car suddenly started without any warning and the plaintiff was thrown to the ground and injured.

■Count 2 alleges that the defendant permitted or required the plaintiff to alight when and as a result of the unexpected start of the train the plaintiff was thrown and injured. Count 3 is substantially the same as Count 1, but for property damage.

The trial judge found the following facts, which contain all the evidence material to the questions reported:

“On November 21, 1943, the plaintiff and her husband, who had just been married that day, left Gloucester for Boston at about 10:00 P. M. as passengers on a train of the defendant. Her husband had purchased tickets for them at the railroad station in Gloucester. They sat in the second seat from the rear-in the third car from the front of the train. As the-train approached the North Station, a conductor came from the front of the car, called out ‘Boston’ and opened the rear door of the car. The plaintiff made ready to leave, got up and walked to the rear door. The conductor was standing on the platform facing her and the gates were open. It was nearly 11:00 P. M. and very dark. The station platform was poorly lighted in compliance with government dim-out regulations in' force at the time. The car in which the plaintiff was. riding had just reached the awning over the station platform. There was no one in front of the plaintiff and the conductor who was still in the same position said nothing to her and did nothing to prevent her leaving the train. Believing that the train had come to a full stop, the plaintiff walked out onto the platform, turned right, and proceeded down the steps, taking hold of the ‘grab rail’ as she descended. The train had slowed down as it approached the station and was going only three or four miles per hour — a walking pace — at the time the plaintiff descended the steps. As [50]*50.she stepped off the last step she was thrown onto the platform by the movement of the train. The train went one and one-half car lengths after the plaintiff fell on the platform. When the plaintiff was picked np by a conductor and a passenger she said she thought the train had stopped.”

The following requests for rulings were filed, the disposition of each ruling being indicated after the statement of the ruling.

(1) The Plaintiff cannot recover because the negligence of the Plaintiff, Dulce Friend, in alighting from a moving train contributed to the accident. Denied.

It is apparent from the finding of facts made by the trial judge that the case as presented by the evidence is not one of a jolt or jar caused by a sudden or unexpected jerk or starting up of the train which threw the plaintiff off as she was moving down the steps of the car upon which she was riding but one of an invitation or permission to alight on the assumption that the train had stopped when it was actually still in motion and an alighting while that motion still continued.

The issues involved are the contributory negligence of the plaintiff and the negligence of the defendant, the negligence of the defendant including the existence of an invitation by a defendant’s servant to alight while the train was still in motion.

The plaintiff’s declaration is based upon a sudden starting of the train while the plaintiff was alighting but there was no evidence of a stopping and starting. On the other hand the trial judge found that the plaintiff’s fall was due to her alighting when the train was still in motion. The declaration presents a picture of a train stopping, and a plaintiff on the way out of the car, and a sudden starting of the train by which she was thrown from the car step. The evidence as compared with the declaration, shows a train slowing down for the stop, the plaintiff leaving the car while it was still in motion and stepping off the train while the motion still continued. At no time before the plaintiff fell did the train stop. There was no starting up after it did stop. The declaration presents one picture and the evidence another.

Jolts and jerks and sudden startings and stoppings have a definite place in the liability of street railway companies [52]*52which is almost entirely absent in the liability of steam railroads. Weinschenk v. New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R., 190 Mass. 250, 251, 252; Foley v. Boston & Maine R. R., 193 Mass. 322, at 334, 335; Hunt v. Boston Elevated Ry., 201 Mass. 182, at 184, 185; Viglas v. Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn R. R., 270 Mass. 264, at 266; Caranicos v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 277 Mass. 364, 365.

The finding of the trial judge makes irrelevant and immaterial the long list of cases cited by the plaintiff relating to jolts and jerks of street railway operation and simplifies the issues of fact and law presented by the leaving of a passenger from a railroad train while the train is in motion. Such a situation presents, however, the issues of the negligence of the defendant, that of the passenger, and whether or not there was an invitation on the part of the defendant for the passenger to alight.

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13 Mass. App. Div. 48, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/friend-v-boston-maine-railroad-massdistctapp-1948.