Hildebrand v. Toledo, Wabash, & Western Railway Co.

47 Ind. 399
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1874
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 47 Ind. 399 (Hildebrand v. Toledo, Wabash, & Western Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hildebrand v. Toledo, Wabash, & Western Railway Co., 47 Ind. 399 (Ind. 1874).

Opinion

Pettit, J.

This suit was brought by the appellant against the appellee, to recover damages for negligently killing and causing the death of one Graves, of whose estate the appellant is administrator. The complaint is in three paragraphs, to each of which there was a separate demurrer, for want of sufficient facts, filed and sustained, and this ruling presents the only question in the case. If all or either of the paragraphs are or is good, the judgment of the court below must be reversed.

In view of the question presented, and the earnestness with which it is urged on both sides, though the complaint is very long, we have felt it our duty to set it out at full-length, which is as follows :

‘.‘Theodore Hildebrand, administrator of the estate of Calvin Graves, Jr., deceased, plaintiff, complains oftheToledo, Wabash, and Western Railway Company, defendant, and' says that heretofore, to wit, on the 27th day of October, A. D. 1870, at said county and State, said Calvin Graves, Jr.,, was in the employ of the said defendant as carpenter, and upon the day aforesaid, while engaged in repairing one of the cars belonging to said defendant, upon one of their side tracks in the city of Lafayette, in Tippecanoe county, State of Indiana, was, while in the exercise of proper and reasonable care on his part, run over, crushed, and wounded by an engine and cars belonging to said defendant, and in charge of their servants, so that he died of said injuries so received in said county and State on the 28th day, of October, A. D. 1870; that the servants in charge of said engine and cars, by which the said injuries were inflicted, were fellow-servants of the said Graves, and were acting conformably to all the rules of the said company at the time the said injuries were inflicted; that it was the duty of the said defendant to establish, provide, and promulgate rules and regulations in the management of their engines and cars, so as to insure the safety of the company’s employees.while in the discharge of the company’s business while upon the tracks of said company repairing their said cars; yet the plaintiff avers that the [401]*401defendant, by its negligence, carelessness, and unskilfulness in the management of its said engine and cars, and by its failure to provide such rules and regulations in running its said engines and cars upon the said side tracks, so negligently permitted its said engines and cars to be run upon the said side tracks, where its said employees were working, without rules and regulations for their management, that the said Graves by reason thereof received the injuries so complained of, resulting in the death of the said Graves, as aforesaid; that said Graves left as his heirs at law and children the following named persons, to wit: Mary E. Graves, his late wife, Sarah Graves, of the age of-years, Emma Graves, of the age of-years, Susan Graves, of the age of-years, and Eva Graves, of the age of-years, his children, who have sustained damages in a great sum, to wit, five thousand dollars; that the plaintiff has been duly appointed administrator of the estate of the decedent Graves, in said county of Tippecanoe, where said Graves died, and has sustained damages in a great sum, to wit, five thousand dollars;' wherefore he claims damages in the sum of five thousand dollars, and other and proper relief.

“ 2d. The administrator aforesaid further complains of said defendant, and says that heretofore, to wit, on the 27th day of October, A. D. 1870, the defendant was possessed of a certain locomotive steam engine, which was then upon a certain station, to wit, Lafayette, in the county of Tippecanoe, State of Indiana, in which and in a certain siding thereon the said Calvin Graves, Jr., was lawfully employed in mending certain cars, which said steam engine was being moved about, and drawing certain cars, under the care, management, and control of the defendant’s servants; that it was the duty of the defendant and their servants to use due and proper care, skill, and diligence in and about the management of the said steam engine and cars; yet the said defendant so carelessly, improperly, negligently, and unskilfully managed the said steam engine, and took such little care in the management of said [402]*402engine and cars, that by the wrongful act, neglect, unskilfulness, and carelessness of the defendant and its servants, the said steam engine and cars were driven against the said -cars, one of which the said Graves was engaged in mending; and thereby the said Graves was violently struck, run over, crushed, and wounded, so that he died of said injuries, so received, at said Lafayette, on the 28th day of October, A. D. 1870; that said Graves left as his heirs at law and children the following named persons, to wit: Mary E. Graves, his late wife, Sarah Graves, of the age of- years, Emma Graves, of the age of-years, Susan Graves, of the age of-years, and Eva Graves, of the age of-years, his children, who have sustained damage in a great sum, to wit, in the sum of five thousand dollars; that the plaintiff has been duly appointed administrator of the decedent, Graves, in the county aforesaid, where said Graves died, and has sustained damage in a great sum, to wit, five thousand dollars; wherefore he claims damages in the sum of five thousand dollars, and other proper relief.

3d. The plaintiff, as administrator aforesaid, further complains of the defendant, and says that the defendant is a railroad corporation, owning, running, and operating a line of railroad from the city of Toledo, in the State of Ohio, through the city of Lafayette, Tippecanoe county, State of Indiana, to the city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, a distance of about six hundred miles; that in the transportation of freight it becomes necessary for the defendant to use, and they do use and employ, a large number, to wit, two thousand freight cars; that the said city of Lafayette is a large and important station upon the defendant’s railroad, and said defendant has constructed and necessarily uses a large number, to wit, six side tracks in said city of Lafayette of great length, to wit, five hundred feet each, all connected with the main line or track of said defendant’s railroad by means of switches; that in the transportation of freight on defendant’s road, it frequently becomes necessary, after the cars reach the city of Lafayette, to put them, whether empty or laden, [403]

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Bluebook (online)
47 Ind. 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hildebrand-v-toledo-wabash-western-railway-co-ind-1874.