Hooks v. Alabama & Vicksburg Railway Co.

73 Miss. 145
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1895
StatusPublished

This text of 73 Miss. 145 (Hooks v. Alabama & Vicksburg Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hooks v. Alabama & Vicksburg Railway Co., 73 Miss. 145 (Mich. 1895).

Opinions

Whitfield, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The principle, with its limitations, which must control this case is well put by Clopton, J., in Smith v. Ga. Pa. R. R. Co., 88 Ala., 540, where the court say: ‘‘A railroad company, being a carrier of passengers, is under obligation to use reasonable care to transport them safely. This general duty includes the specific duty not to expose them to unnecessary danger, and not intentionally or negligently to mislead them by causing them to reasonably suppose that their point of destination has been reached, and that they may safely alight, when the train is in an improper place. Calling out the name of the station is customary and proper, so that passengers may be informed that the train is approaching the station of their destination, and prepare to get off when it arrives at the platform. The mere announcement of the name of the station is not an invitation to alight, but, when followed by a full stoppage of the train soon thereafter, is, ordinarily, notification that it has arrived at the usual place for landing passengers. Whether the stoppage of the train, after such announcement and before it arrives at the platform, is negligence, depends upon the attendant circumstances. The rule is aptly expressed in Bridges v. Railway Co., L. R., 6 Q. B., 377, by Whiles, J.: ‘It is an announcement by the railway officers that the train is approaching, or has arrived at, the platform, and that the passengers may get out when the train stops at the platform, or under circumstances, induced and caused by the company, in which the man may reasonably suppose he is getting out at the place where the company intended him to alight. To that extent calling out is .an invitation.’ ” And the court then, after a review of many leading cases, including cases relied on at bar on both sides, thus sums up: “They all concur that neither the announcement of the station nor stopping the train before it arrives at the platform, if required by law or usage, for the [151]*151purpose of avoiding collisions or other accidents, is negligence per se. It will be observed that, in each of the cases in which it was ruled there was evidence of negligence sufficient to be submitted to the j ury, there existed the element that, by reason of the want of light, or other things, the passenger may have been deceived into supposing the train had arrived at the platform or place where it was intended he should alight. Comparing all the cases, we deduce that, when the name of the station is called, and, soon thereafter, the train is brought to a standstill, a passenger may reasonably conclude that it has stopped at the station, and endeavor to get off, unless the circumstances and indications are such as to render it manifest that the train has not reached the proper and usual landing place. ’ ’ And the company was held not liable in that case, under this rule, upon the express ground, as plainly shown in Richmond & D. R. R. Co. v. Smith, 9 So. Rep., 223, where this case is reviewed, that the train was 1 ‘ stopped in a cut three hundred and sixty feet long, and from five to eleven feet deep, in daylight, about one o’clock p.m.,” when, of course, plaintiff saw he was not at his proper landing place.

The rule thus announced by the Alabama supreme court commends itself to us as practical and accurate, if before the word “manifest” we insert the word “reasonably.” In the nature of things, it will nearly always be true that the question of negligence on the part of the company must, on the varied elements of fact present in each particular case, be submitted to the jury. In Hutchinson on Carriers, § 616, it is said, broadly: “The question of negligence in every instance of the kind is one of fact for the jury.” And so, in Wood’s Browne on Carriers, 507, it is said: “But the question of what circumstances amount to an invitation to alight is clearly one for a jury, and although there seems to have been difficulty felt in time past by some of our judges in reference to this point of law, it seems impossible that any further doubt should exist. ’ ’ [152]*152So in the finely reasoned case of Railroad Co. v. Buck, 96 Ind., 346.

The authorities abundantly support these text writers, and illustrate, in a multitude of instances, the necessity of nearly always submitting the question in actions of this kind to the jury.

In Buck's case, supra, the train stopped over a trestle, and the night was dark, and there were no lights, and the case was sent to the jury, and the company held liable though the plaintiff lived near and knew the surroundings, liability being pressed here very far.

In Phil. R. R. Co. v. McCormick, 124 Pa. St., p. 434, the conductor passed through the car, and announced that passengers would change cars at Wawa. Soon after the cars stopped, not at Wawa, but on a bridge, and the plaintiff, it being dark, stepped off and was killed. The court say the case was one for the jury, and observe: “The deceased had a right to suppose that the train had stopped at the station. Having stopped at a place of peril for passengers to alight, at a time when they had a right to suppose, from the notice previously given, that the train had reached the station, proper attention to the safety of the passengers would have required some warning to them to retain their seats. ’ ’

In Central Railroad Co. v. VanHorn, 38 N. J. Law, 137, a very instructive case, the name of the station was called out, the cars were stopped, it being very dark, and the plaintiff, having gone out on the platform, was thrown therefrom by the sudden violent starting of the cars, and Chief Justice Beasley says: “The negligence here complained of was the giving of the false intelligence that the cars had arrived at the station, and by that means inducing the plaintiff to go upon the car platform and endeavor to alight. The court would not be warranted in saying that it is not negligence to give notice of the approach to a station and then to stop the train short of such station, in the night time. Such a course would naturally [153]*153tend to jeopard passengers, for it would induce them to believe that they had arrived at the station designated, and they would, in the ordinary course, go to the car platform. At night this must be the inevitable result.” And a demurrer ivas overruled.

In Pennsylvania Railroad Co. v. Hoagland, 3 Am. & Eng. Ry. Cases, 439, plaintiff was told by the conductor that the next station would be hers. The train stopped ten miles short of that station, in the dark, and the plaintiff, who “had never passed over any part of said railroad, ’ ’ relying upon the conductor’s statement, got out and suffered injuries from exposure to cold, and the case went to the jury and the company was held liable.

In Memphis & Little Rock Railroad Co. v. Stringfellow, 44 Ark., 330, the name of the station was called, the cars stopped short of the station, no notice was given passengers to retain their seats, the night was dark, and the plaintiff stepped off after the train began to move, and the case went to the jury and the company was held liable. Another case in which liability was pressed very far.

In McNulta v. Ensch, 24 N. E.

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Bluebook (online)
73 Miss. 145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hooks-v-alabama-vicksburg-railway-co-miss-1895.