Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Downey

98 N.E. 634, 177 Ind. 599, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 47
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 28, 1912
DocketNo. 21,957
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 98 N.E. 634 (Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Downey) 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
Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Downey, 98 N.E. 634, 177 Ind. 599, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 47 (Ind. 1912).

Opinion

Cox, C. J.

Appellee recovered a judgment against appellant for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been received by him in a collision between a horse-drawn vehicle which he was driving and one of the passenger-cars of appellant on a street crossing in the city of Kokomo. The complaint was in three paragraphs to the first of which a demurrer was sustained. Appellant unsuccessfully demurred to the second and third paragraphs of the complaint, and issues were joined thereon by answer of general denial. With a general verdict for appellee, the jury returned answers to special interrogatories.

As the first cause for reversal, it is contended that neither paragraph of the complaint states a cause of action, and that, therefore, the trial court committed error in overruling its demurrer to each paragraph upon which the case was tried.

The second paragraph reads as follows: “And for a second and further paragraph of plaintiff’s complaint, Omer Downey, plaintiff, says that the defendant is a corporation duly organized and doing business under the laws of the State of Indiana, and owned and operated a street and interurban railway along and upon Union Street and the Southern extremity of said street North to a point where Taylor Street crosses Union Street in the City of Kokomo, County of Howard, State of Indiana, on the 13th day of April, 1906, and for a long time prior thereto. That from a point where Sycamore Street crosses Union Street, in said city, North past defendant’s station where the defendant company’s cars stop for the purpose of letting passengers on and off and for loading and unloading of freight, and on North past Walnut Street to a point where Taylor Street crosses Union Street [602]*602the company had on the aforesaid date double tracks upon which said defendant operated their cars by electricity. That on the 13th day of April, 1906, the defendant, by its servants, agents and employes, negligently caused one of their cars to stand on the West track at a point where Walnut Street crosses Union Street; and that said ear was standing in such a position that the North end of said ear was at a point, to-wit; Ten to twenty feet South of the South curb of Walnut Street, and that said car was under the care, control and management of the defendant. That said car standing on said West track was about sixty (60) feet in length and fourteen (14) feet high and obstructed the view of plaintiff so that he could not see another car of defendant company then standing on defendant’s East track and immediately south of said car on the West track. That on the aforesaid date, the defendant had certain trucks for the purpose of conveyance of freight to and from their ears, and that on the date the defendant negligently and carelessly permitted by its agents, servants and employes, said trucks to remain on the street between the car aforesaid mentioned and the West curbing of Union street, at a point, to-wit: Thirty (30) feet South of the North end of said car, thereby carelessly, negligently and unlawfully obstructing and hindering the passing of teams and vehicles on the West side of said car and on the West side of Union Street. That on the date aforesaid, the plaintiff was employed as a cab driver and was lawfully upon said Walnut and Union Streets and was engaged in an effort to pass with his team and cab from Walnut Street, coming from the West, into Union Street going on the West side of the track and car aforesaid mentioned. That it was eight o’clock on said date and the night was dark and it was raining. That plaintiff with his team and cab was in the act of turning to the South on the West side of said car on said Union Street when he saw that the passageway was blocked by the trucks and in the manner aforesaid mentioned on the West side; he then turned to the [603]*603East and without any knowledge that a car was standing on the East track of said defendant company and unaware of any approaching car on the East track and using every means at his command to determine whether a ear was approaching, hy listening for a gong or other signal, hy looking to the North, hy looking through the windows of the car standing on the West track to the South, and hearing no gong or sound of approaching car started his team from practically a walk across the East track. That his only means of getting to his point of destination was to cross to the East of said Company’s tracks on Walnut Street and immediately North of said car standing on said West track as aforesaid, and as he reached the East track, (at all times using the above mentioned precautions), the defendant caused the large interurban car standing on said East track, as aforesaid, to suddenly start North and approach said crossing at Union Street, and negligently and carelessly omitted while approaching said crossing to sound the gong, ring the bell or sound the whistle or to give any signal or warning whatever of its approach, by reason of which negligence on defendant’s part said interurban car ran down and struck the plaintiff’s horses and cab with great force and throwing the plaintiff with great violence upon the front fender of said car, thereby cutting, lacerating, bruising and injuring this plaintiff’s back and shoulders and injuring him internally in this, breaking four of the lower ribs and injuring his spine to such an extent that great pain and suffering and soreness has continuously been located in this part of the back; the exact nature and extent of these injuries is to this plaintiff unknown at this time. That all of said injuries were caused by the negligence of the defendant aforesaid and without any fault or negligence of the plaintiff.”

These allegations are followed by allegations of special damages and prayer for judgment.

The third paragraph is materially different from the second only in allegations concerning the position of the car [604]*604standing on the west track, and of the truck between it and the curb. In the third paragraph it is alleged that the north end of the standing car was flush with the south curb of Walnut street, and that the truck was ten feet south of the north end of the car.

1. If, as contended by counsel for appellant, the complaint does not connect the alleged negligent acts of leaving the car standing on the west track and the truck between it and the curb with appellee’s injuries as a proximate cause, it does not follow therefrom that the complaint must succumb to appellant’s demurrer. If, as a matter of fact, it must be said that neither of them can be said to be a concurring proximate cause leading to appellee’s injury, they still have a relation to the accident and the duty of appellant which made them proper facts to be alleged in the complaint. It is said in 2 Thompson, Negligence §1399: ‘ ‘ Obviously,, the rule of reasonable care which the law puts upon the drivers, gripmen and motormen of street-cars at all times, imposes on them a more exacting attention when they approach street crossings, in a crowded city where vehicles and pedestrians may always be expected in front of them. The failure, under such circumstances, to ring the bell, sound the gong, or give other proper warning, is negligence per se, where there is a city ordinance requiring such precautions, and is undoubtedly evidence of negligence to be submitted to a jury under all circumstances, whether there is such an ordinance or not.”

2.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
98 N.E. 634, 177 Ind. 599, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-union-traction-co-v-downey-ind-1912.