Galloway v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.

54 N.W. 447, 87 Iowa 458
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJanuary 31, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 54 N.W. 447 (Galloway v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Galloway v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co., 54 N.W. 447, 87 Iowa 458 (iowa 1893).

Opinion

Given, J.

' injury in jumping from train: ev&enoece: — I. The appellant contends that the evidence fails to show negligence on the park of the defendant and that it does show negligence On the part OÍ the plaintiff, directly coil- ....... . tnbutmg to the injury complained of. These inquiries involve a careful consideration of the petition as to the negligence charged, and of the évidence relied upon to support that charge. The following facts, about which there is no dispute, will enable us to better understand the evidence as to negligence.

There is no question but that on the morning of October 14, 1890, the plaintiff’s wife took passage on the defendant’s passenger train, bound west, at Cen-terville, at 4:45. That she had with her a child aged about five, and two or three parcels. On the arrival of the train from the east the plaintiff and his wife went [461]*461immediately into one of the cars; she carrying the parcels and he following with the child. The car being pretty well filled with passengers they passed along to about the middle of the car, when the plaintiff hearing the call, “All aboard,” set the child down and hastened to the door by which he entered, for the purpose of getting off the car. That he jumped off the car when moving at about twenty miles an hour, and was violently thrown to the ground, and his arm broken. The train was what is known as a “Vestibule Train,” with doors on the right and left of each car platform in addition to those in the end of each car. The train was stopped for about two minutes at the station, and at the time of the accident it was yet dark. It is alleged in the petition as follows:

“When the plaintiff reached the door he found said door locked and his exit prevented, and the brakeman on the said train refused to let the plaintiff out, and the brakeman was informed by said plaintiff that he would ride to the next station, whereupon the said brakeman, willfully, negligently, and without cause, opened the door, informed the plaintiff that the train had not yet left the depot, that he could safely and easily get off, and urged and compelled the plaintiff to attempt to get off the train; that the plaintiff believed the statement that the brakeman told him to be true, and in attempting to alight from said train, was thrown violently to the ground, breaking the arm of the plaintiff, and violently stunning-him; that said statement so made by the brakeman, was false, but, it being dark, the plaintiff was unable to see. In truth and in fact the train had left the depot and was running at the rate of thirty miles an hour, unknown to the plaintiff and well known to the defendant’s brakeman, who well knew all the facts, but willfully urged and compelled the plaintiff to alight from said train; the plaintiff using due care on his. part.”

[462]*462There is a marked conflict in the evidence for the plaintiff and for the defendant as to what was said and done at the times the plaintiff got on and off the car. The only evidence on behalf of the plaintiff as to what occurred at those times is his own. As the jury had a right to reject, as not entitled to credit, the conflicting testimony introduced by the defendant, and to accept as true that of the plaintiff, and find their verdict thereon, we must look to the plaintiff’s testimony alone in determining whether there is evidence to sustain the verdict as to negligence on the part of the defendant, and care on the part of the plaintiff.

The plaintiff testified, in substance, as follows: He states that when they came to the car a brakeman standing with a lantern said: “ ‘What point are you going to?’ I says, ‘She is going to Horton, Kansas, but I am not going.’ ” That, when he returned to the door to get •out, “I could not open it. It was fastened. The same brakeman was standing on the opposite platform from the one I was standing on. He was standing in the •door that went into the other car. I told the brakeman I wanted to get off; I was not going. He said, •‘If you ain’t going, you have no business on here.’ He says, ‘It is my place to help women and children on and off the train. I said, ‘Why don’t you help them, then?’ He says to me, ‘You can’t get off,’ and I says, ‘I will go to the next station with you. I am no dead beat on here. I will pay my way.’ And when I told him that he opened those doors. I do not hnow how he opened them, but he opened them, and shoved them back, and he looked back, and says: ‘The second hind car is not away from the platform.’ And he says: ‘You can step down on the lower step, and jump far enough so that the train won’t hit you, and you will be all right.’ Before I stepped down on the steps, I says to him, ‘Pull the bell,’ and he either said he could not or would not, and says, ‘You get off;’ and [463]*463I started down the steps, and when I got down on the second step he closed the doors behind me, and that turned the lantern light off of me. I could see the ground when he had the lantern there, but could not when he closed the doors.” He further states that he •could not tell at that time whether the train had any more than left the depot; that it did not appear to be going fast; and that, when the brakeman told him to jump far enough so that the train would not hit him, he said it would be all right. Upon cross-examination he stated that, it was not oyer two or three minutes from the time he tried to open the door until the brakeman opened it. “When he opened the door, and after he told me to get oflE, I stepped down onto the second step. Did not see any platform. I looked to see whether the second hind, coach had left the platform. I stood on the steps about a minute. Do not think I stood there a minute.” “After I got on the steps, he said ‘Get off,’ and then I jumped. He told me before he opened the door that it would break my neck.” On re-examination he stated that he did not mean that he was on the lower step a minute. “I meant on the platform.”

Mr. Bradley, called by the plaintiff, testified that he got on the same car after it was moving, and met the plaintiff about two steps, or three, inside the car, going towards the door; that he went to the door witness came in at, and that the door was open when he came in. The only other witness called by the plaintiff in chief were his wife, who corroborated him as to what took place on their going onto the car, and Dr. Stephenson, as to the extent of the injury. In rebuttal William Trigg, and W. M. Fawcett were called, as to the duties of brakemen; and the plaintiff and his wife were recalled, as to the identity of the brakeman.' They testified that it was another than the one who testified for the defendant. Mr. Bradley was recalled, but gave no different or additional evidence. The tes[464]*464timony on behalf of the defendant tended strongly to show that the defendant was not negligent, and that the plaintiff was; but for reasons already stated, that evidence need not be further noticed.

_._._. compulsion, II. There is contention whether the appellant’s brakeman had such authority as that the appellant is. bound by his acts in the matter under consideration. Passing that question, and assuming that he had, we inquire whether his acts and declarations, as stated, so tend to establish, the negligence charged as to justify the court in submitting that question to the jury and in sustaining the verdict. ' If the brakeman had authority to require the plaintiff to get off the car, it would be clearly negligence for him to so require under the circumstances, that attended the plaintiff’s getting off.

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Bluebook (online)
54 N.W. 447, 87 Iowa 458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galloway-v-chicago-rock-island-pacific-railway-co-iowa-1893.