Hart v. West Side Railroad

57 N.W. 91, 86 Wis. 483, 1893 Wisc. LEXIS 205
Wisconsin Supreme Court·Decided November 28, 1893·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

Cassoday, J.

There is no bill of exceptions. This being so, the questions presented must be determined upon the pleadings, the special verdict, orders, and judgment mentioned in the foregoing statement. It is contended, in effect, that the gravamen of the complaint is the negligence of the defendant; that the same is put in issue by the answer ; and that such issue has not been determined by the special verdict, and hence that the verdict is defective. Undoubtedly a special verdict is defective which fails to determine all the material and controverted facts put in issue by the pleadings. It is equally true that the form of such verdict is very much in the discretion of the trial court, and that it is not to be regarded as defective merely because such court fails to submit questions not in issue, or not material, or not controverted because admitted upon the trial or established by the undisputed evidence. Heddles v. C. & N. W. R. Co. 74 Wis. 257; Sherman v. Menominee R. L. Co. 77 Wis. 22; Montreal R. L. Co. v. Mihills, 80 Wis. 551.

This court has repeatedly sanctioned the propositions apparently contended for by counsel for the defendant, to the effect that, as a general rule, negligenceis to be deduced as an inference of fact from several facts-and circumstances disclosed by the evidence, after their connection and relation to the matter in issue have been traced and their weight and force considered; that in one sense it is a quality attaching to acts dependent upon and arising out of the [490] duties and relations of the parties concerned, and is as much a fact to be found by the jury as the alleged acts to which it attaches by virtue of such duties and relations. Hill v. Fond du Lac, 56 Wis. 246; Kaples v. Orth, 61 Wis. 533, and cases there cited. When such facts and circumstances, though undisputed, are ambiguous and of such a nature that reasonable men, unaffected by bias or prejudice, may disagree as to the inference or conclusion to be drawn from them, then the case should be submitted to the jury. Ibid. But when such facts and circumstances are not ambiguous, and there is no room for two honest and apparently reasonable conclusions, then the court may take the case from the jury. Ibid. The same rules are applicable to questions of contributory negligence. Hoth v. Peters, 55 Wis. 410, and cases there cited. Hoye v. C. & N. W. R. 62 Wis. 672, 67 Wis. 15.

In the case at bar the act complained of is not the mere neglect or failure to perform a duty imposed by law under a given state of facts and circumstances, but consisted in forcibly and intentionally ejecting the plaintiff from the car, under the facts and circumstances found. It appears from the special verdict that the plaintiff was warned to leave the car after it was in motion and before he was ejected, but it does not specifically appear therefrom that the plaintiff was so ejected while the car was moving at a high rate of speed. As indicated in the statement of the case, the complaint so alleges, and in the order for judgment and the judgment the trial court finds that all the allegations of fact in the complaint, beyond those covered by the special verdict, had been proved to be true by the undisputed evidence upon the trial. If such facts were so established by the undisputed evidence, then the court was not required to submit them to the jury; and we perceive no necessity or propriety in having a bill of exceptions for the mere purpose of showing such undisputed facts, when they can [491] just as well, and much better, be made to appear as in the case at bar. W e must therefore regard the facts so found from the undisputed evidence as verities in the case.

Thus it appears affirmatively in the record that the plaintiff was forcibly ejected from the car by the conductor while the same was running at a high rate of speed. That such act of the conductor is highly culpable is frankly conceded. This court has recently sanctioned the direction of a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, where it appeared from the undisputed evidence that he was wrongfully ejected from the train. Phettiplace v. N. P. R. Co. 84 Wis. 412. Upon the same principle, it has been held, as a matter of law, that where it appears from the undisputed evidence that a passenger voluntarily and unnecessarily jumps from a rapidly moving train, and is thereby injured, he cannot recover damages therefor against the railway company. Jewell v. C., St. P., M. & O. R. Co. 54 Wis. 610; Brown v. C., M. & St. P. R. Co. 80 Wis. 162. It follows from what has been said that, if the plaintiff is to be regarded as a passenger upon the car, then the fact that he was forcibly ejected therefrom as indicated would, as a matter of law, render the defendant liable therefor in damages.-

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Hart v. West Side Railroad, 57 N.W. 91, 86 Wis. 483, 1893 Wisc. LEXIS 205 (Wis. 1893).

57 N.W. 91 (Hart v. West Side Railroad) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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