Home/California Court of Appeal/Hampton v. Pacific Electric Railway Co.

Hampton v. Pacific Electric Railway Co.

257 P.2d 703, 118 Cal. App. 2d 263, 1953 Cal. App. LEXIS 1541
California Court of Appeal·Decided June 1, 1953·No. Civ. 19251·Published

Opinion

SHINN, P. J.

Plaintiff, about 65 years of age, for many years employed by the Pacific Electric Bailway as a conductor, was injured when he fell in descending from a loading platform of the company at its station in Azusa. Suing under the Federal Employers' Liability Act he was awarded substantial damages in a jury trial and following denial of its motion for a new trial the defendant company appeals.

The sole question is whether the evidence and proper inferences therefrom, viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, were such as to justify the determination by the jury that defendant failed to provide plaintiff with a safe place to work, or in other words, that it was negligent with respect to that duty.

We can give a better recital of the facts by use of the accompanying photograph. It shows the major portion of the south side of the building. The door seen in the picture, which we will refer to as the south door, leads into the room of the stationmaster. To the west is the freight room. At the west end of the freight room is a door which was locked with an inside bolt. On the north side of the building is a single track for use in loading and unloading cars. Also on the north side of the building is a broad platform, the height of the loading platform, from which loading and unloading may be done. This platform extends easterly from the westerly loading platform and leads into a ramp which meets the ground level near a door which is opposite the south door. The floor of the loading platform seen in the picture at the west end of the freight room is approximately 3 feet 9 inches above the ground. A short distance above *266 the ground is a stringer, 4 inches wide and 12 inches deep. On the day of the accident plaintiff reached the north side of the shed in a box motor attached to a boxcar. He alighted onto the platform, went to the west door of the freight room, found it locked, went to the south edge of the loading platform, eased himself down onto the stringer, placing one foot thereon, and in his attempt to reach the ground fell heavily when his foot slipped off the stringer.

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Hampton v. Pacific Electric Railway Co., 257 P.2d 703, 118 Cal. App. 2d 263, 1953 Cal. App. LEXIS 1541 (Cal. Ct. App. 1953).

257 P.2d 703 (Hampton v. Pacific Electric Railway Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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