Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co. v. Mathews

97 N.E. 320, 177 Ind. 88, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 8
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 31, 1912
DocketNo. 21,711
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 97 N.E. 320 (Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co. v. Mathews) 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
Indianapolis Traction & Terminal Co. v. Mathews, 97 N.E. 320, 177 Ind. 88, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 8 (Ind. 1912).

Opinion

Monks, J.

This action was brought by appellee to recover damages for personal injury resulting from a collision of two cars, which at the time were being run over the street railroad lines of appellant in the city of Indianapolis. Appellee, who was at the time of the collision an employe of appellant as motorman, and had charge of one of said cars as motorman, bases his right to recover on the common-law liability.

The complaint was in two paragraphs. A separate demurrer for want of facts to each paragraph thereof was overruled by the court. Answer by general denial. A trial of said cause resulted in a general verdict for appellee. The jury also answered interrogatories submitted by the court. Over a motion by appellant for a judgment in its favor on [92]*92the answers to the interrogatories, notwithstanding the general verdict and a motion for a new trial, judgment was rendered on the general verdict in favor of appellee.

The first and second errors assigned call in question the action of the court in overruling the separate demurrer to each paragraph of the complaint. Appellee claims that the judgment was rendered on the second paragraph of the complaint, and that even if the court erred in overruling the demurrer to the first paragraph, the ruling was harmless. The averments of said second paragraph of complaint show that on the line of appellant’s street railroad tracks on west Washington street, “it has and had its car shops, wherein it repairs its own cars and the cars of divers other street and interurban railway companies, and many spur tracks or switches connected with said track in Washington street entered said shops from said street, and were used by defendant in moving cars in and out of said shops from and to said track in said street; ’ ’ that on the day of the injury “he was the motorman of a car of said defendant which was propelled along and over West Washington street in the city of Indianapolis, and was in the line of his duty as such motorman, and at his proper place in the front vestibule of said car, and ran the same along said West Washington street at or near the shops of said defendant where it had cars under repair and where it was receiving and discharging repaired ears of other street railway companies; that said plaintiff was due in front of said shops in the propelling of his car at about the hour of 7 o’clock and 8 minutes a. m., which was well known to defendant, and he was required to pass said shops and the said switches and cuts entering said shops along and over the tracks on said West Washington street; that upon said morning the atmosphere was extremely foggy, and objects could not be discerned or discovered at any great distance in front of the car being operated by said plaintiff, and cars on said switches and entering on said main track from said shops could not be seen or [93]*93discerned by plaintiff in front of the car so operated by him, without the display of strong signal lights on such cars, or without a conductor or flagman at the intersection of such tracks to give warning of their approach, all of which the defendant at the time well knew; that plaintiff was moving said car along and over said tracks of defendant at or near said shops in a careful and cautious manner when said defendant negligently and carelessly threw a ear of the Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Eastern Traction Company out upon the main track over which this plaintiff was operating said ear, and carelessly and negligently caused said interurban car, which was sixty feet long and weighed many tons, to collide with the car being operated by this plaintiff; that defendant carelessly and negligently failed to give plaintiff any notice or warning of the approach of said interurban ear, carelessly and negligently failed to provide or display any signal light thereon, and carelessly and negligently backed the same out of said shops onto said main track in such fog and into collision with plaintiff’s car, in charge of one person only, who was operating the motor at the far end of the car, and carelessly and negligently failed to employ a conductor on said car or any assistant or flagman at the intersection of said main track and switch, and carelessly and negligently failed to employ a sufficient force of men on said interurban ear and in and about the said shop and switches to safely move the said car out of said shop and on to said main track, and without such conductor, assistant or flagman, such person could not give warning to plaintiff of the approach of said interurban car and could not know of the approach of plaintiff’s car in time to avoid collision, and by reason of all and singular the said negligent acts and omissions of defendant and not otherwise the said collision occurred, and without such negligence plaintiff would not have been injured.”

It also alleged, in substance, in said second paragraph of complaint, that said interurban car had been received from [94]*94the Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Eastern Traction Company for repair by appellant at its said shops, and that appellant was in the act of returning said ear to said, traction company; that said interurban car was not intended or fitted for use on appellant’s street railway, but was much larger, heavier and higher than the cars used by appellant and operated by appellee, and was so constructed that when it came into collision with the ear operated by plaintiff the bumper or cross-beam of said interurban car passed over the bumper and cross-beam of the car which appellee was operating, and crushed the light framework inclosing the vestibule in which appellee was standing, and caught and injured him.

1. Por the purpose of determining the questions presented by the demurrer to each paragraph of the complaint, it must be assumed from the allegations therein that the repair and storage of its own ears and of the cars of other street and interurban railway companies, was a part of the work and business of appellant which it was authorized to do.

It is insisted by appellant that each paragraph of the complaint “fails to allege facts showing the existence of any duty owed by it to appellee, the omission to perform which operated to bring about the accident and consequent injury complained of,” and that each of said paragraphs is insufficient for that reason.

2. In an action by an employe to enforce a common-law liability against the employer, facts must be alleged in the complaint showing the existence of a duty on the part of the employer to the employe, the omission to perform which caused the injury complained of. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Lightheiser (1904), 163 Ind. 247, 251, 253, 71 N. E. 218, and cases cited; Robertson v. Ford (1905), 164 Ind. 538, 546, 74 N. E. 1; Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Peck (1905), 165 Ind. 537, 540, 542, 76 N. E. 163, and cases cited; Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Barker (1908), 169 [95]*95Ind. 670, 675, 676, 83 N. E. 369, 17 L. R. A. (N. S.) 542, and authorities cited; Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Lain (1908), 170 Ind. 84, 88-91, 83 N. E. 632, and eases cited; Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Morrey (1909), 172 Ind. 513, 519-522, 88 N. E. 932, and cases cited.

If said second paragraph alleged facts from which the law would imply the duty of appellant to do or not to do, what it is alleged it negligently did or negligently failed to do, then a violation or breach thereof may be shown by an allegation that it negligently did or failed to do what was necessary to discharge such duty.

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Bluebook (online)
97 N.E. 320, 177 Ind. 88, 1912 Ind. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indianapolis-traction-terminal-co-v-mathews-ind-1912.