Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Myers

93 N.E. 888, 47 Ind. App. 646, 1911 Ind. App. LEXIS 86
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 2, 1911
DocketNo. 6,874
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 93 N.E. 888 (Indiana Union Traction Co. v. Myers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals 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. Myers, 93 N.E. 888, 47 Ind. App. 646, 1911 Ind. App. LEXIS 86 (Ind. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinion

Myers, C. J.

— Appellee brought this action against appellant to recover damages for the death of her decedent, Franklin C. Myers, resulting from the alleged negligence of appellant in running one of its ears against the decedent at a highway crossing. A complaint in one paragraph, answered by a general denial, formed the issues submitted to a jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee. Appellant’s motion for a new trial was overruled, and this ruling is assigned as error. Under this assignment the questions discussed, and the errors relied on for a reversal of the judgment, are presented.

[648]*6481. 2. [647]*647Appellant first insists that the evidence shows, without [648]*648any contradiction, that decedent was himself guilty of contributory negligence. The burden of showing contributory negligence on the part of decedent was on appellant. The general verdict amounted to a finding that appellant had not established that fact.

3. It must be kept in mind that appellate tribunals in this jurisdiction will not weigh oral evidence, but will look to the evidence,' when its sufficiency to sustain the verdiet is challenged, and consider it most favorably and with all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, in support of the general finding of the jury. Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Wynant (1893), 134 Ind. 681, 686; Robbins v. Spencer (1895), 140 Ind. 483, 487. In matters of this character it is not our province to interfere when the evidence, measured by the rule stated, is such that fair-minded and reasonable men might draw different conclusions.

4. The question now under consideration requires us to examine the evidence. Some facts are not in dispute, while as to others there is sharp conflict in the evidence. The accident occurred on September 27, 1906, about 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon. It had been raining, and the afternoon was dark and gloomy. The collision happened on a public highway known as Thirty-eighth street, in the city of Indianapolis, where said highway crossed at right angles appellant’s line of double track interurban railroad, then constructed along a platted highway known as College avenue. Neither highway at that point was then within the corporate limits of Indianapolis. The country in the immediate vicinity of said crossing was -practically level, and but sparsely settled. On the west side of College avenue, beginning from six to fifteen feet north of Thirty-eighth street, and sixteen and one-half feet west of the track, was a line of shade trees, extending [649]*649north from one thousand two hundred to one thousand six hundred feet. The witnesses refer to the first of these trees at Thirty-eighth street as a tall maple, its body being about six inches in diameter, with limbs branching out in all directions about seven feet above the ground. The next one north is described as having the appearance of a broken down tree, with sprouts, possibly eight or ten feet high, growing up from its roots, and forming a bushy top ten or twelve feet in diameter. The remainder of the row consisted of catalpa trees, about fifteen feet tall, with limbs branching out about five or six feet above the ground. A witness testified that the limbs were so close to the ground that he had to stoop when walking under them. Immediately north of Thirty-eighth street, and fronting on College avenue, were two vacant lots. On the next lot north was a dwelling-house facing the east, and located about forty feet west of the railroad track. A short distance west of the house was a barn. A few feet south of the dwelling and bam was a board fence, five or six feet high, extending from College avenue west. These buildings and said trees, and the high weeds in the common north of the house and barn, says a witness, obstructed the view, along College avenue north of said crossing, of persons traveling east along Thirty-eighth street toward the crossing. At a point on Thirty-eighth street, about two hundred feet west of the crossing, it is said that one looking north between the barn and the house could possibly have seen a car approaching for two squares, but after that the house and trees obstructed the view of approaching cars until within six or eight feet of the track. Decedent at the time of the accident was thirty-four years old, and in possession of all his senses, except he had a defect of hearing in his right ear. He was familiar with the situation of the crossing, and knew that ears ran over this crossing at frequent intervals. He resided within one and one-half miles of the crossing, and had traveled over it once a [650]*650day for ten months. At the time of the accident he was driving two horses attached to a covered milk wagon, and had approached the crossing from the west. Appellant’s car which collided with the wagon came from the north, at a speed estimated at thirty miles an hour. It was an interurban electric car, equipped with a whistle, and when within about three hundred feet of the crossing — the horses on the track, decedent sitting on a seat about the center of the wagon with the door to Ms left open, and looMng toward the car — whistling danger signals were given. The evidence sustains a finding that the whistle was not sounded within the hearing of a person at the crossing prior to the danger signal. The point where these signals should have been given was between Fortieth and Forty-first streets, Fortieth street being 1,200 feet north of Thirty-eighth street. "When the horses reached the railroad track, they were walking. A short distance back from the crossing they were in a slow trot. There is some evidence from which it might be inferred that the decedent looked and listened, but none that he stopped before going onto the track. The motorman on the car was standing in the front vestibule looking ahead. He testified that the horses had just cleared the track when the car collided with the wagon, and that he stopped the ear about one hundred twenty-five or one hundred fifty feet south of where the collision occurred; that as soon as he saw the traveler was not going to get off the track in time to avoid a collision he attempted to stop the ear, and had decreased the speed at least one-half when he reached Thirty-eighth street. Other eyewitnesses to the transaction testify they could not notice any lessening of the speed of the car. We find no evidence as to the distance required to stop the ear when running at the rate of thirty miles an hour. If appellant’s servants in charge of said car gave any signals of the approaching car other than the danger signals immediately before the collision, there is [651]*651no evidence that decedent heard them. For 1,200 feet north of Thirty-eighth street the track is down grade toward Thirty-eighth street.

The jury found that decedent was not guilty of contributory negligence. We are asked to disturb this finding on the theory that the evidence affirmatively and conclusively shows that decedent was actively and contemporaneously at fault at the time the alleged wrongful injury was inflicted.

5. As a proposition of law, a grade railroad crossing is a place of danger, and to a person intending to cross, who is acquainted with its existence and surroundings, it is a warning of danger. Malott v. Hawkins (1902), 159 Ind. 127; Southern R. Co. v. Davis (1905), 34 Ind. App. 377.

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Bluebook (online)
93 N.E. 888, 47 Ind. App. 646, 1911 Ind. App. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-union-traction-co-v-myers-indctapp-1911.