Hornschuch v. Southern Pacific Co.

203 P. 886, 101 Or. 280, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 162
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 30, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 203 P. 886 (Hornschuch v. Southern Pacific Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hornschuch v. Southern Pacific Co., 203 P. 886, 101 Or. 280, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 162 (Or. 1921).

Opinion

JOHNS, J.

The witness Tihl, testified:

“Well, the whistle was blowing right along. We were coming in, and I was sitting up by the window, with the window open, and just as I felt the brakes go on I turned and looked out, and there was a Ford machine standing by the curve, with a lady standing in the back end of the machine, and I heard her say, ‘Stop.’ ”

The witness further testified that he spoke to the woman and saw the machine after the accident, that “the window was open, and just then I looked out and saw this Ford machine on the curve and standing still. The Ford had made the turn already. They were right on the curve” and the lady was standing in the back part of it. He also testified:

“Q. Did yon see the Schneider automobile?
“A. I seen them — the first I seen of that machine was when it went on the outside of the Ford machine, and was just a little bit past.
“Q. You saw that Schneider automobile, then, in which these people were riding, just the other side of the Ford?
“A. It was past the Ford.
“Q. After it had passed the Ford?
“A. The Ford was right on the curve — just made the turn of the curve.
“Q. And before the smash-up, of course?
“A. Yes; before the smash-up.”

The evidence of the witness that he heard the lady in the Ford machine say “Stop” was admitted by the trial court as a part of the res gestae. The plaintiff claims that this was error. The brakeman, W. H. Gould, testified that “there was a machine at the crossing where we struck the car.” As we read the [286]*286record, both the train and the automobile were going toward Portland and the county road ran parallel with the railroad track to the crossing where a turn was made in the county road to make the crossing, and the Ford machine referred to by witness Tihl was standing in the county road at some point in the turn at the time of the collision, and apparently the Schneider car passed the Ford car as it stood there in the county road. Although there is no evidence as to the exact point where the Ford car did stand or as to how far it was from the crossing, yet from the photographs in evidence, it is very apparent that it could not have been more than 150 feet from the crossing and that the Ford car had a plain and unobstructed view of the crossing and of the Schneider car as it went to, up and on the railroad track. The surrounding country was open, and outside of the cattle-guards, telephone and telegraph poles and trolley wires, there was nothing to obstruct the view in any direction. That is to say, it appears from the physical facts and surrounding circumstances that a person standing in the Ford ear on the curve could at all times see the Schneider car as it passed and drove to and upon the railroad crossing. Charles S. Sweeney, who was the train’s motorman, testified:

“There was automobiles out in the road, and I noticed an automobile running along close to where the train was to be met, and the crossing. There was another automobile standing at the turn of the crossing, apparently waiting for the train to go by, .and this automobile when it got behind that one — lined up between me — we were, of course, approaching this crossing rapidly — why I presumed that it stopped there.”

[287]*287E. W. Stephens, a life insurance agent, testified:

“Now, I don’t remember in particular that car stopping, or how it got there, but there was a small car there, and this Schneider car had to go around that, and we were quite aware then that these people., hadn’t seen the train, because they paid no attention, to it, especially when they went around this other car that apparently had stopped to let the train go by.”

Mrs. Stephens testified that:

“When they came to the turn they made the turn, and there was a Ford standing in the road there, and they went around that Ford and went right up to the track.
“Q. Did you see anyone in the Ford?
“A. Oh, yes; I talked to the lady in the Ford. * *
“Q. Did you hear her do anything?
“A. I heard some calling and screaming. I heard them holler — I presume it was her.
“Q. That was before the collision?
“A. Oh, yes; that was all before the collision.”

A. A. Nielsen, in speaking about the Schneider car testified:

“A. Why, it just passed around the Ford that was standing at the curve.
“Q. Had it passed the Ford?
“A. It had passed the Ford; yes.
“Q. And then the emergency brake went on?
“A. Well, I say yes. I looked out through the window, and at the same time I felt the emergency brake on.
“Q. The automobile then had made that turn?
“A. Around the Ford; yes, sir. * *
“Q. And it had passed the Ford- — the Schneider car had passed the Ford, or the car that you say was standing there in the road?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. How-far was the train at that time from the crossing, if you know?
[288]*288“A. Well, anywheres from 75 to 100 feet from the crossing, I would judge.”

The evidence is conclusive that with the Ford car in the lead, it and the Schneider car were running in the county road parallel with the railroad track and in the same direction with the train; that the Ford car stopped when it reached the curve and that after it had stopped on the curve, the Schneider car came from behind, passed it, and drove to and upon the crossing. In this situation the witness Tihl who was a passenger on the train, testified that he heard the woman in the Ford car who was standing up say, “Stop,” and the collision instantaneously followed.

1. None of the parties in the Ford automobile were called as witnesses. This statement of the lady in the automobile was a spontaneous exclamation of a bystander. Wigmore on Evidence, Volume 3, page 1755, says:

“In a few courts, the declarations of a mere bystander have been excluded. But, in the greater number, no such discrimination is made, — assuming, of course * * that the bystander’s declarations relate only to that which has come under his observation.”

On principle, the case of Britton v. Washington Water Power Co., 59 Wash. 440 (110 Pac. 20, 140 Am. St. Rep. 858, 33 L. R. A. (N. S.) 109), is square in point and it is there held:

“In an action for injuries to a boy alleged to have been kicked off the steps of a street-car by the conductor after opening the door, the exclamation of a bystander ‘The boy is off!’ made as the conductor started to open the door, is admissible as part of the res gestae. * *

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
203 P. 886, 101 Or. 280, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hornschuch-v-southern-pacific-co-or-1921.