Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction Co. v. Hardwick

123 N.E. 249, 70 Ind. App. 192, 1919 Ind. App. LEXIS 23
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 14, 1919
DocketNo. 9,841
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 123 N.E. 249 (Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction Co. v. Hardwick) 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
Indianapolis & Cincinnati Traction Co. v. Hardwick, 123 N.E. 249, 70 Ind. App. 192, 1919 Ind. App. LEXIS 23 (Ind. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

Nichols, J.

This was an action brought by the appellee against the appellant to recover damages for [194]*194tlie death of her husband, John Hardwick, who was killed by being struck by one of appellant’s work trains. The complaint was in one paragraph, to which a demurrer was filed by appellant and overruled by the court. Appellant filed a general denial to the complaint, and the cause was submitted to the jury for trial. There was a general verdict for $2,500, with answers to interrogatories. The appellant made its motion for judgment in its. favor on the interrogatories and answers thereto, which was overruled, to which ruling the appellant excepted. Judgment was entered on the general verdict in favor of the appellee in the sum of $2,500 and costs. From this judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

Errors relied upon for reversal are: (1) The court erred in overruling appellant’s demurrer to the complaint. (2) The court erred in overruling appellant’s motion for judgment in its favor upon the interrogatories answered by the jury notwithstanding the general verdict. (3) The court erred in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial.

The substance of the complaint, so far as is necessary for this decision, is as follows: The appellee is the administratrix of the estate of John Hardwick, deceased. The appellant at the time of the accident resulting in the death of appellee’s decedent operated a street railway from the city of Indianapolis to the city of Connersville, Indiana, as a common carrier of passengers for hire. Stop 33 was one of its stopping places, at which it stopped upon signal given to the motorman in charge of the car. In order to give such a signal after dark, it was customary for intended passengers to enter upon the track at said stopping place and swing a light across the track in [195]*195front of the approaching car; snch custom was well known to the defendant company. On November 27, 1911, it was, and had been for a long time prior thereto, the custom, and the schedule time, of the defendant company to run one of its passenger cars in a westerly direction passing stop 33 at about 6:00 p. m., which car, upon signal given, would stop to take passengers, all of which was well known both to thé-deceased and the appellant. About 6:00 p. m. of said day, being after dark, the deceased went to' said stop 33 for the purpose of taking passage on appellant’s car due to pass about that time, and, while deceased was waiting for such car to arrive, the appellant carelessly and negligently approached said stop from the east, with a work car, which looked like, and had the appearance of, a passenger car which was then about due at said stop, which car was equipped and lighted with electric lights in the same manner as such passenger cars, and carelessly and negligently had attached to the front end of said car four cinder trucks, which trucks were about five feet lower than the said work car, and extended about 200 feet in front of said work car. Appellant carelessly and negligently placed lights in said work car, and carelessly and negligently failed to place any light or lights or signal of warning on said cinder trucks, and carelessly and negligently failed to give warning to the deceased of the position of said cinder trucks. On account of the darkness, and of the negligence of the defendant as aforesaid, said cinder trucks could not be seen by a person standing near said track at said stop in time to avoid being-struck by them. On said November 27, 1911, as the defendant approached said stop with said work car, and said cinder trucks in front of said work car, de[196]*196ceased, believing it was one of its passenger cars that was about to pass said stop aforesaid, went upon the track with a lighted lantern in his hand to signal such car to stop for the purpose of taking passage on the same, and while he was in the act of signaling said car to stop he did not know of said cinder trucks, and could not see them in time to avoid being struck by them. The defendant carelessly and negligently approached, and carelessly and negligently ran its cinder trucks against and over the deceased and thereby killed him. The complaint further avers that the deceased left surviving him the appellee as his widow and seven minor children all dependent upon him for support and maintenance. There is a prayer for damages in the sum of $10,000.

1. The appellant failed to except to the ruling of the court in overruling its demurrer to the complaint, and has thereby waived the question, and such ruling will not be reviewed. Young v. McLane (1856), 8 Ind. 357. We do not need to cite other authorities; this rule is elementary.

So far as is material to this decision, the jury found in substance: That the decedent and his daughter had gone to stop 33 after dark, for the purpose of taking-passage on one of appellant’s ears to Bushville. The decedent lived about one-half mile from said stop for eight months before the accident. He was fifty-seven or fifty-eight years of age, his hearing and eyesight were good, and he could read. He had frequently boarded and alighted from cars at this stop, and was acquainted with the surroundings and location, and knew that work trains, freight trains and passenger cars passed said stop both in the daytime and nighttime ; that the train that killed decedent consisted of [197]*197a motor car and four cinder tracks pushed in front-of it, and extending in front about 135 feet, and over the rails of the track at the side about twenty-four inches; that there was a platform on the front of the cinder trucks about four feet wide and four feet and four inches above the rails of the track, the bed of the cinder trucks being about four feet above this platform, making the trucks eight feet and four inches high; that the track was straight for about a mile and the ground level for a distance of about a mile east. There was no obstruction along the' track east except a pole line on the north side of the track three feet and eleven inches north of the north rail of the track. There was a shelter house on the north side of the tracks about four feet therefrom, and a cinder platform between the shelter house and the n,orth rail of the track. The decedent was killed about 5:40 p. m., and the next passenger car was due to arrive at 5:58 p. m., which was after dark. There was no lantern carried on the front end of the cinder trucks which struck decedent. There was nothing to prevent decedent from seeing a light on the front end of the train as it approached stop 33, if a light had been there. The decedent was in the shelter house on the north side of the track, and left it to go partially between the rails of the track, for the purpose of signaling a car which he knew was approaching, and tried to signal it by waving the lighted lantern across the tracks. He could have seen the car from the north side of the tracks, but voluntarily straddled the rail to signal it. If he had stood north of the tracks more than two feet from the north rail he would not have been injured. The train of cars made a noise as they approached. At about the time the decedent went [198]*198upon the track his daughter said to him, “Watch out papa.” The approaching train whistled at about 1,400 feet from the stop, and the decedent heard it, and upon hearing it went out of the shelter house, and, after looking, called for the lantern, which was handed to him by his daughter, and then went partially into the middle of the track. After the whistle, the train continued to approach stop 33.

2-4, 5.

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Bluebook (online)
123 N.E. 249, 70 Ind. App. 192, 1919 Ind. App. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indianapolis-cincinnati-traction-co-v-hardwick-indctapp-1919.