Hensley v. Braden

91 S.W.2d 34, 262 Ky. 672, 1935 Ky. LEXIS 797
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976)
DecidedNovember 19, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 91 S.W.2d 34 (Hensley v. Braden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hensley v. Braden, 91 S.W.2d 34, 262 Ky. 672, 1935 Ky. LEXIS 797 (Ky. 1935).

Opinion

Opinion op the -Court by

Judge Richardson—

Reversing.

This appeal requires a review of the trial of an. action to recover damages for personal injury alleged to have resulted from the concurrent negligence of Cecil Hensley, a taxi driver, and the Louisville & Nash *674 ville Railroad Company, in which damages in the snm of $10,000 were fixed hy the jury’s verdict against both defendants with its direction that Hensley “shall pay $3,000 of this sum.”

A variety of questions are presented and debated in the briefs and nearly one hundred cases cited to sustain the parties’ respective insistence. In the outset, we dsire to announce that we will not review in this opinion all of the eases cited. To do so would consume too much time and space.

The decisive question to be determined is the right of both Hensley and the railroad company to a directed verdict.

Much evidence was introduced by the parties to prove and disprove that Braden was a licensee as to the railroad company at the time he sustained the injury for which he sues. In disposing of the paramount -question, we shall consider that Braden had the right to use the footpath described by the evidence, as a licensee of the railroad company, and was a passenger of Hensley.

To properly consider and dispose of the right of ■either of them to a peremptory instruction, requires a reproduction of the salient evidence relating to the time, place, and surroundings of the parties immediately preceding and at the time of the accident.

On March 23, 1932, Braden was at the mine of the ICreech Coal Company at Lowe, in company with a Mrs. Bussell, his sister-in-law. Around' 5 o’clock, on the afternoon of that date they hailed Hensley, a taxi driver, and engaged him to transport them to Banner Fork No. 1, an abandoned coal mine camp in the immediate vicinity of which about forty-two families, composed of from four to eleven members, resided. On entering the taxi, they occupied the rear seat, Bra-den on the right, and Mrs. Bussell on the left; they began and continued their journey to Banner Fork No. 1. In making the trip, they reached a public crossing at Lisle, which was blocked by the train of coal cars later involved in the accident in which Braden sustained his injury. After waiting a few moments, the crossing was unblocked when the taxi crossed it and proceeded ■¡on its way. The highway and the railroad track from *675 Lisle to Banner Fork No. 1 paralleled each other. While the taxi was traveling from Lisle to Banner Fork No. 1, Braden occupied the side of the seat next to the railroad track. He claims that while so traveling he did not know the train and taxi were traveling in the same direction. At Banner Fork No. 1, the highway skirts-the railroad track for a distance of about 184 feet. The metal on the highway extends to the end of the ties, this 184 feet. A public crossing is 416 feet from the place of the accident over which the train traveled before it reached the point at which Braden was injured. On reaching Banner Fork No. 1, 416 feet from the public crossing, Hensley stopped his taxi on the right side of the highway within about 6 inches of the ends of the ties. Ais to the length of time the taxi stood still on the highway before Braden was injured, the testimony of Braden and Mrs. Bussell is clear and conclusive. In this fact lies the solution of the case. To be accurate, we quote their testimony establishing it decisively.

Braden’s language is:

“He (Hensley) drove up to No. 1 and'my sister-in-law was opening the pocket-book to pay the fare. I saw she started getting the change out, I opened the door and kinda scooted out, this way, with my right foot, and as I scooted out, the door was about half open. I looked and saw the rails, when I saw the rails I riz to my feet so I could look over the door to see if there was anything on the rail, and the train was in eight feet of me and I tried to make my escape back in, but it was too late to shut the door.”

Also, he was asked and answered as follows:

“Q. About how wide do you think you got the door open and saw the train coming? A. About half open, maybe a little more.
“Q. How many feet did you get on the running board? A. I got one foot out on the running board.
“Q. What did you do when you looked out and saw the train bearing down on you? A. I tried to make my escape back in the car. * * *
“Q. How long from the time you saw that train *676 bearing down on you until it struck tbe car door? ÉL About like that (snapping fingers rapidly).
“Q. "Wbat did it do to you? A. It run over my left foot and had it busted up until it bad to be taken off here.”
Mrs. Bussell was asked and answered thuswise:
“Q. Wbat did you do, if anything, when tbe «ar stopped? A. I started to pay tbe fare.
“Q. Your taxi fare? A. Yes Sir.
“Q. Did you see the train bit your brother-in-law? A. Just as I looked around the train bit him.
“Q. "Where was be at that time? A. He was gust stepping out of tbe door.
“Q. Did be get plumb out of tbe car or partly out? A. Partly out. * * *
“Q. Wbat happened to tbe car when it hit? A. Tore tbe door from tbe car. * # #
“Q. After tbe car stopped, wbat did you do while Claude was getting out or attempted to get out of tbe automobile? A. I started to- pay tbe fare.
“Q. Did you get it paid before be was bit or not? A. No Sir, I just started to pay tbe fare. * * *
“Q. Wbat bad you done towards that? A. I got a dime out of my pocket and was getting tbe other dime out of my pocketbook.
“Q. But hadn’t reached it to tbe taxi driver? ¡A. Started to reach it to bim.
“Q. He hadn’t taken bold of it? A. No Sir.
“Q. How long bad that car stopped to park there before your brother-in-law was struck? A. I don’t know.”

To obtain a more perfect conception of wbat transpired at the time Mrs. Bussell was engaged as described in her testimony, we revert to other questions to, and answers of, Braden, which read:

“Q. Is it true or not that Mrs. Bussell and Mr. Hensley were engaged in a conversation about tbe *677 payment of the taxi fare and making some change there? A. Yes Sir.
“Q. "While that was going on, what did you do? A. I opened the door after she opened her pocketbook.
“Q. Had the payment been made and the change transaction completed before you opened the door? A. Well, I had my head looking off at that time. * * *
“Q.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
91 S.W.2d 34, 262 Ky. 672, 1935 Ky. LEXIS 797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hensley-v-braden-kyctapphigh-1935.