Hoffman v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad

13 Ohio Law. Abs. 153
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 1, 1932
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 13 Ohio Law. Abs. 153 (Hoffman v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoffman v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, 13 Ohio Law. Abs. 153 (Ohio Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

POLLOCK, J.

The plaintiff claims that there was error in the failure to give a request of the plaintiff before argument, number one:

“I say to 'you as a matter of law, that when a gateman or towerman and gates are maintained at a street railroad crossing, in a generally traveled public street in a town or city, it is his duty to observe the tracks and know when, on account of trains or engines, there, it is dangerous for drivers of motor vehicles or automobiles to cross, and when it is so, to close the gates and keep them closed to prevent such drivers of motor vehicles or automobiles from going upon the .tracks, and it is as much their duty to observe and know when the tracks are clear, and persons may cross over in safety, when it is, to open the gates and keep them open for that purpose, so long as it continues to be safe to cross, and no longer.”

[155]*155This request was refused by the court and it is urged that this was error. The request has been taken from the opinion in the case of Railroad Company v Schneider, 45 Oh St 630, and it is very closely adapted to a certain paragraph in the opinion in that case. We think the court might well have given the request, but if it was error not to give this request it comes under the rules of what is commonly known as the two issue rule. This was first announced in Sites v Haverstick, 23 Oh St, 626:

“Where the jury, by their verdict, find the issues joined in the cause in favor of one of the parties, this is to be taken as a verdict finding each and all of the issues therein for such party.
In such case if the issues are such that a finding of either of them in favor of the successful party, entitles him to the judgment rendered, the judgment will not be reversed for error in the instructions of the court relating exclusively to the other.”

This request relates exclusively to the negligence of the defendant. In this case not only the negligence of the defendant but also the contributory negligence of the plaintiff was in issue; in fact, the negligence of the defendant is practically admitted in this case, in not lowering the gates, but it does not affect the contributory negligence of the plaintiff, and that was the real issue in this case, whether or not the plaintiff herself was not negligent in running into this car as it was backed over the crossing.

The next error complained of is the refusal of the court to give plaintiff’s request number three before argument, which reads as follows:

•T say to you, as a matter of law, that it is much more important, where a traveler is driving a motor vehicle or automobile, and comes to a steam railroad crossing, where gates and a gateman or towerman tire maintained, than when she is walking, because in the former case her attention is necessarily divided between the operation and control of the motor vehicle or automobile and the. observation of the track, and her reliance upon the gates and the gateman or towerman, in the nature of things, must be greater than in the case of a pedestrian.”

This statement is true so far as the facts arc concerned, but it lays down no rule whatever that would guide the jury in determining the negligence of a party approaching a railroad track in an automobile. It is simply an argument in comparing the degree of care between a person driving an automobile and a person walking along the street. We think there was no error in the failure to give this charge.

The next complaint is that there was error in giving the fourth request of the defendant:

“The law charges you, as a matter of law, that the plaintiff was under duty to exercise ordinary care under the circumstances in looking and listening for approaching trains, and if you find that the plaintiff should have seen or heard the approaching train at a time when in the exercise of ordinary care she should have stopped her automobile before colliding with this train, then your verdict must be for the defendant.”

This is a general legal proposition saying to the jury that she must exercise ordinary care under the circumstances. If we understand the reason why objection is made to the giving of this request, it is because in this case the railroad had provided gates and a gateman to lower the gates and that it does not include within its terms that proposition. It is true a person approaching a railroad crossing where there are established gates to be raised and lowered as a train is passing over, has a right to presume that the railroad company will do its duty in lowering the gates, but while they can rely upon that principle, yet it does not release the party approaching a railroad crossing from using ordinary care under those conditions. Now, all that was said to the jury was that it was her duty to exercise ordinary care under the circumstances, all the conditions that surrounded her at that time. The court might and no doubt would have given a charge, if requested, in regard to the rules of care, or rather the reliance that a person approaching might have upon a railroad doing its duty at a crossing where there are gates, but that was not requested and there was no error in giving this general charge.

The next error complained of is that the verdict is against the manifest weight of the evidence. As we have said, Second Street in Lowellville was a paved street. The improved part for vehicle travel was not very wide, possibly the street was thirty-five feet wide. It was comparatively level [156]*156as you approached the tracks, and as we have stated there were thirty-two feet between the south rail of the railroad tracks and a cobbler’s shop or shoemaker’s shop; that when you passed beyond the north end of that shop a train of cars could be seen to the east for some distance. The plaintiff says that she pulled around the automobile that was backing out of the alley way and started along this street slightly to the east of the center of the street, and she is asked on direct examination:

“Q. When did you notice the train coming? Where were you, about how far from the first track when you noticed the train coming, — about, you don’t have to be exact?
A. About fifty feet, anyhow.
Q. How far was your car parked from the railroad tracks?
A. From the railroad tracks to where I was parked, about fifty or seventy-five feet.”

Then she is afterwards asked:

“Q. And after you passed the shoemaker’s shop is when you saw the train going?
A. I saw the train coming after I passed it.
Q. Do you know what the space is, if you don’t don’t attempt to say, but if you do, about how far it is from the shoemaker’s shop, that open space here?
A. I didn’t measure it but I imagine twenty-five feet.”

We have stated it was proven by measurement that it was thirty two feet 'to the railroad track,

“Q. Where was the train that you saw with reference to the crossing?
A. Just about where the end of the gates would come.
Q. That is, it hadn’t gotten upon the crossing yet, proper, when you first saw it?
A. I believe the front end was.
Q.

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Bluebook (online)
13 Ohio Law. Abs. 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoffman-v-pittsburgh-lake-erie-railroad-ohioctapp-1932.