Knaff v. New York Central Railroad

86 N.E.2d 814, 55 Ohio Law. Abs. 193, 1949 Ohio App. LEXIS 871
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 9, 1949
DocketNo. 2036
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 86 N.E.2d 814 (Knaff v. New York Central Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Knaff v. New York Central Railroad, 86 N.E.2d 814, 55 Ohio Law. Abs. 193, 1949 Ohio App. LEXIS 871 (Ohio Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

OPINION

By HORNBECK, J.:

The appeal is on questions of law from a judgment of the Common Pleas Court in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $15,000.00, with costs.

[194]*194The action was for wrongful death predicated upon five specifications of negligence set up in the amended petition.

Plaintiff’s decedent was a passenger in a Chrysler 1941 Sedan, riding on the right side of the front seat. The driver of the car was Arthur Fritz whose wife was also riding in the front seat between him and plaintiff’s decedent. In the rear seat there were four passengers, two men and two women. The automobile was proceeding eastwardly on Bolander Street in the city of Dayton which is intersected by the north and southbound tracks of defendant railway. The locomotive which struck the automobile was attached to a train of some fourteen empty cars moving northwardly. There were also southerly tracks which Fritz had first to cross. The collision occurred at 3:30 A. M. on September 3. 1946. Of the passengers in the car, four others besides the decedent were killed.

The five specifications of negligence were:

(1) The operating of the locomotive at an excessive speed in violation of the city ordinance.

(2) Speed greater than was reasonable and proper and in the exercise of ordinary care.

(3) Failure to give reasonable warning by sounding a bell or whistle.

(4) Failure to maintain a watchman, gates, or flashing lights at the crossing, and

(5) Erection and maintenance within its right-of-way of poles, boxes, cables and other obstructions in such proximity to the crossing as to obscure and obstruct the view of defendant’s right-of-way toward the south.

The trial judge submitted to the jury all five of the charges of negligence.

Five errors are assigned:

(11 The overruling of defendant’s motion to direct verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

(2) In submitting all five of the specifications of negligence to the jury.

(3) Errors in the general charge and in the giving of special charges requested by counsel for plaintiff and refusing to give certain special charges requested by the defendant.

(4) In the admission and rejection of evidence.

(5) Overruling the defendant’s motion for new trial, particularly for the reason that the verdict was manifestly against the weight of the evidence.

We are content to say without further comment that assignments Nos. 1 and 4 are not well taken.

Upon the factual development the only eye witness to the collision was the driver of the automobile, Arthur Fritz. He [195]*195testified that he was familiar with the crossing; that as he approached the crossing he stopped about twelve feet west of the west rail and eleven feet from the south curb of Bolander Ave., at which time he had a view to the south of 150 to 200 feet.

It is inferable from the testimony that if he so stopped, the front of his car was a distance of about 2 feet from what would be the overhang of a train travelling on the southbound track. Fritz inquired of Duanna Knaif if she heard any engines to which she replied, “No, I don’t hear or see any.” He states that he was then looking down the track and so was Duanna Knaff. An automobile passed him to his left, moving at great speed. He states that he approached the crossing at a rate of speed of about 20 to 25 miles per hour and that after he had stopped he first looked to the north and then to the south and started up over the crossing, moving at a rate of speed from 5 to 10 miles per hour; that after he looked to see the car coming west on Bolander, he again looked south when he saw the oncoming locomotive at a distance of about 25 feet; that he then “hit the gas and his car jumped” but he did not clear the track and the auto was struck in the right rear. He fixed the rate of speed of the locomotive at 60 miles per hour. One other witness fixed it at 40 to 50 miles per hour and another said that it was moving fast. Fritz said that although all of the windows in the auto were halfway down he heard no bell from the signal box, no bell or whistle from the locomotive. It is conceded that no watchman was on duty, one having left at 1:30 A. M, and another coming on at 5:00 A. M. Fritz also stated that had he stopped 34 feet from the southbound track he could see down that track a distance of 200 feet. The distance from the westerly rail of the southbound tracks from the westerly rail of the northbound tracks is about 20 feet. In the line of vision of the driver, if he stopped where he stated he did, there were several obstructions on the right-of-way of the company, including the signal bell upon a pole about 6 feet high, the signal box attached to this pole and another pole at about the same heights. Adjacent to these poles was another cement pole, a little shorter than they, and three other poles, a wire fence and other poles with crossarms at varying distances to the south. Adjacent to the fence along the right-of-way of the company and to the west there also was a pile of coal and buildings which would have obstructed the view had the driver stopped at a distance further to his west as he approached the crossing. There was testimony respecting other obstructions not on the [196]*196right-of-way of the company. There was dispute in the evidence as to the speed of the train, whether or not the signal bell was being sounded at the time of the collision and whether or not the whistle and bell were being sounded on the locomotive. The record also develops the visibility of the crossing both to the north and to the south from varying distances from the intersection. The credibility of the statements of the driver was attacked by producing what purported to be a report of an interview between him and an agent of defendant company in which he made statements contradictory to those testified by him on the witness stand. Testimony also was developed purposed to establish that those in the automobile at the time of the collision had been drinking, during the hours preceding the collision and, possibly in the car, all of which was denied and the driver testified that he drank no intoxicating liquor whatever on the nigfit and morning prior to the collision, and in this he was corroborated by one witness. There was also testimony to the effect that there were wine and beer bottles in the automobile but this was denied, not only by Fritz but by at least one other witness for the plaintiff.

It thus appears that evidence was produced on behalf of plaintiff tending to support each and every one of the five specifications of negligence which were submitted to the jury. We find no basis whatever for the claim that these specifications should not have been submitted, except as it relates to the 4th. We doubt if there is enough averment of operative facts to require the conclusion that the crossing in question was unusually dangerous or especially hazardous. We doubt if it is prerequisite to good pleading that one of the terms “peculiarly hazardous”, “especially dangerous”, or “unusually dangerous” be employed to state a ground of negligence as to the failure to maintain proper warnings. It is, however, necessary to good pleading that the facts be set up, the existence of which constitute the crossing as “dangerous”, “especially dangerous,” or “peculiarly hazardous”, We have read the very fine opinion of Judge Cecil, Lacey v.

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Related

Cates v. Consolidated Rail Corp.
653 N.E.2d 1229 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1995)
Fritz v. New York Central Railroad
98 N.E.2d 852 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1950)
Readnour v. Cincinnati Street Railway Co.
93 N.E.2d 412 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1950)

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Bluebook (online)
86 N.E.2d 814, 55 Ohio Law. Abs. 193, 1949 Ohio App. LEXIS 871, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knaff-v-new-york-central-railroad-ohioctapp-1949.