Klenk v. Oregon Short Line Railroad

76 P. 214, 27 Utah 428, 1904 Utah LEXIS 33
Utah Supreme Court·Decided April 9, 1904·No. No. 1527·Published

Opinion

BASKIN, C. J.

It is alleged in the complaint that a brakeman of the defendant, while acting within the scope of his authority, laid hold of, and negligently, carelessly, forcibly, and intentionally ejected, and threw with great force, the plaintiff from a train of the defendant while it was running at a high rate of speed, and that by reason thereof plaintiff was injured. The answer denies the alleged negligence. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and judgment was entered in accordance therewith. The appeal is from the judgment. ■

[430] 1 [429] It appears from the evidence that plaintiff, on the day of his injury, for the purpose of beating his way from Deweyville to Brigham City on a passenger train [430] of the defendant, as the train was moving away from the Deweyville station, got npon the second step of the platform of the rear car. The plaintiff testified as follows: “I was standing on the east side of the platform on the rear coach. The brakeman came ont while I was standing there and asked me where I was going. I said, ‘To Brigham City,’ and he said, ‘Have yon a ticket?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘ Yon have to get off.’ I said, ‘All right, stop the train. ’ He said ‘ They are going to slack np at slow orders. ’ He went hack into the car. Instead of the train slacking np, she went mnch faster, and then he came ont again and said, ‘I told yon to get off. ’ And with that he shoved me off. I was standing on the second step. There are three steps there. I was looking towards the east, and when he was talking to me I tnrned halfway aronnd, and with that he pushed me over, and I let go with my left hand. . . . This was about a mile and a quarter south of Deweyville station. The train was going fast at the time I was pushed off. ’ ’ Ames, the brakeman, testified: “I asked him [the plaintiff] if he had a ticket or money, and he said ‘No.’ I then said, ‘Yon will have to get off at the mileboard where we slow down. ’ I stood at the side door, and he went ont against the vestibule door. I went over on the west side to look ahead, and I just tnrned my head back, and saw him get off feet first. He held on — ran probably six or eight feet. I did not push him. I wasn ’t within four feet of him. I did not touch him at all. ’ ’ He also testified that at the time the plaintiff left the train it was running 12 or 15 miles an hour. The witness’ Loveland testified that, in his judgment, the train was running 20 miles an hour. His further testimony tended to corroborate the statement of the brakeman that he did not push the plaintiff from the train.

The third instruction given is as .follows: ‘ ‘Negligence is the failure to do what a reasonable and prudent person would ordinarily have done under the circumstances of the situation, or doing what such a person, under the existing circumstances, would not have done. [431] The duty is dictated and measured by the exigencies of the occasion. The burden of proving negligence is upon the party alleging it. ’ The court, in other instructions in explicit terms, charged the jury that a trespasser upon a railroad train, attempting to obtain a free ride without the consent of the carrier, can not recover for an injury received as the result of mere ordinary negligence ; that, as a matter of law, the plaintiff in this case was- a trespasser, and therefore the only duty that' the railroad owed to him was not to willfully or intentionally or wantonly injure him, ‘ ‘ and, before you can find a verdict for the plaintiff, you must find that he was willfully, wantonly, or intentionally injured by the brakeman, acting at the time for the company, and within the scope of his authority, ’ ’ that ‘‘ the term ‘willfully,’ when applied to the intent with which an act is done, implies simply a purpose or willingness to commit the act referred to. It does not require any intent to violate law or injure another.” The third instruction was the only one excepted to by the defendant, and the ground of that exception is that “it was not applicable to any issue in the case, was not supported by the testimony, and that the question of mere negligence was not involved. ’' The definition of “negligence” in that instruction is literally the same as that given by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Railroad Co. v. Jones, 95 U. S. 439-441, 24 L. Ed. 506, and is, in substance, the same as that generally given in the decisions of the courts, the law dictionaries and text-books. From the foregoing definition, which is a correct one, it is apparent that negligence, in a legal sense, is either affirmative or negative in character, according to the particular circumstances of each case. The positive and intentional act of pushing the plaintiff from the train while running at great speed, as alleged in the complaint, and as the jury must have, under the instructions of the court, found, was something which a reasonable and prudent, person, under the circumstances, would not have done. While it is true that the defendant did not [432] owe to the plaintiff, as he was a trespasser, any affirmative duties, and had the right to put him off the train, and use force for that purpose, had it been necessary, yet it is also true that the defendant, in exercising that right owed to the plaintiff a civil duty, viz., to refrain from using any unnecessary means calculated to injure the plaintiff. Therefore the expulsion of the plaintiff in the manner alleged in the complaint was such negligence as, under the well-settled law upon the subject, constituted a cause of action for the injuries resulting therefrom, notwithstanding the fact that the plaintiff was a trespasser. A trespasser is not required to allege or prove that the injury complained of was either willfully, wantonly, or intentionally inflicted, except when he seeks to recover exemplary damages. When he does not, he may recover for his injury upon alleging and proving that it was caused by the use of such unnec-sary and dangerous means as a reasonable and prudent person, under the circumstances, would not have employed.

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Klenk v. Oregon Short Line Railroad, 76 P. 214, 27 Utah 428, 1904 Utah LEXIS 33 (Utah 1904).

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