Home/North Dakota Supreme Court/Marshall v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

Marshall v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

227 N.W. 55, 58 N.D. 626, 1929 N.D. LEXIS 257
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 14, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 227 N.W. 55 (Marshall v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marshall v. Northern Pacific Railway Co., 227 N.W. 55, 58 N.D. 626, 1929 N.D. LEXIS 257 (N.D. 1929).

Opinion

*628 Biejozell, J.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff in a collision which occurred on April 17, 1926, upon a crossing of a branch line of the Northern Pacific Eailway Company near the village of Breien in Morton county. Damages are also predicated upon the destruction of the plaintiff’s automobile. In the trial court the plaintiff had judgment and the defendants appeal. The facts are as follows: The plaintiff was a resident of Huron, South Dakota, and for approximately two years had been engaged as a traveling salesman in a territory comprising the-state of South Dakota and the southern half of North Dakota, embracing the Northern Pacific main line and its branches. He traveled by automobile. In the morning of April 17, 1926, between nine and ten o’clock, the plaintiff and a young man named Blount left Flasher-in the plaintiff’s car to travel eastward as far as Cannon Ball on the-Missouri Eiver. They had made the town of Timmer and as they were approaching Breien they drove along a highway which is parallel with the railroad for some distance and on the north side of it, travel-ling eastward. As they neared the town they turned to the right at right angles where the road crossed the railroad track. There the car-was knocked off the track by the engine of an approaching train, the automobile being demolished, the plaintiff being seriously injured and Blount killed. In submitting the case to the jury the trial court *629 submitted two charges of negligence; one as to whether or not the defendants were guilty of negligence in omitting to give the necessary warning signals upon the approach of the train to the crossing; the other, as to whether the railroad and the crossing were so maintained by the defendant company as to apprise persons approaching the crossing of the fact that they wTere approaching a place of danger and whether the crossing was so maintained as to enhance the danger. The question of the plaintiff’s contributory negligence was also submitted. The principal questions argued upon this appeal are the sufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict upon both the questions of negligence and absence of contributory negligence.

The testimony on behalf of the plaintiff is that he had not "been over this part of his territory before; that he was not familiar with the roads; that he could not say he knew the towns of Breien, Timmer and Flasher were on the railroad; that he inquired at Timmer or Flasher how he could get to Breien, but he received no definite instructions ; that there were no signs; that he stopped in Timmer for a time, then followed a trail out of there, and between Timmer and Breien he crossed the railroad twice. After crossing the last time he went in a northeasterly direction on a trail with grass growing up between the tracks, with numerous curves and dips in the road. lie went down in a hollow, crossed a bridge or culvert and as the road rose again proceeded a short distance to a turn. At the turn he looked to the right, straight ahead and to the left. He turned, looked east again (toward Breien) and noticed the car take a sudden rise. lie looked again and just as he looked Blount called his name. They both saw the engine and the collision occurred instantly. The plaintiff testified that between Timmer and Breien he thought he was lost most of the time; that he had crossed the railroad about a mile west of the crossing in question but that he was not aware of the presence of the railroad as he approached the latter crossing; that his vision was so obstructed by grass, weeds or other bushy growth as to prevent his seeing the rails or the railroad; that he did not see the railroad crossing sign because it was too high. There were two lines of poles — one a telegraph line, the other a telephone line along the right of way, which according to the plaintiff’s evidence obscured one’s vision of the track as he would look up or down the track from certain angles as he approached tho *630 crossing. He testified that he saw some buildings in Breien but paid no attention to them; that as he approached the crossing there was an abrupt rise of about five feet near the railroad track; that he returned to the scene of the accident in June, 1927, and at that time the condition of the approach to the crossing had been changed to the extent that it had been filled in about four feet at the lowest point. The plaintiff’s evidence is corroborated in this respect by friends who came out from Minneapolis to see him immediately upon learning of the accident and one of whom later returned to the scene in June, 1927. But, on the other hand, the testimony of witnesses for the defendant, who lived in the vicinity and who had been familiar with the crossing for the period both before and after the accident, down to the date of the trial, is to the effect that there had been no change in the grade of the approach.

The plaintiff heard no’ bell or whistle, although he was alert and listening for any sound that might be heard. There is considerable testimony on behalf of the plaintiff indicating that there were grass and weeds on the railroad right of way, between the highway and the rails, of the previous season’s growth sufficient to obstruct the vision. 'Under this evidence the grass and weeds were not to exceed two feet and a half high. This testimony is disputed by witnesses for the defendants who testify that the grass and weeds upon the right of way had been burned off by a burning machine the year before. In addition to this, photographs and a profile map show the uniform grade of the railroad line in its relation to the parallel highway to be high and even compared with the grade of the highway, which is uneven and in most places considerably lower than that of the railroad. The plaintiff’s evidence concerning the crossing signals is likewise disputed both by the trainmen and others 'in the vicinity at the time.

It will be assumed, for the purpose of this decision, that the evidence is sufficient to establish negligence oh the part of the defendant in failing to give the necessary warnings or signals upon approaching the crossing; likewise, thát the defendant railroad company was negligent in the manner in which it maintained its crossing, and we will pass at once to the question of the sufficiency of the evidence on the question of contributory negligence.

The burden of proof of contributory negligence is upon the defend *631 ant, and it is only where the evidence is such that reasonable minds must conclude that the plaintiff did not act with reasonable care for his own safety that the question ceases to be one for the determination of the jury. The accompanying photograph taken the year following the accident gives a general view of the highway upon which the plaintiff was traveling and of the railroad crossing as he approached Breien: The train shown in the picture faces west, while the train with which the plaintiff collided was traveling east. The camera was stationed 250 feet from the crossing with the lens at approximately .the same distance from the ground as would be the eyes of the driver of an automobile similar to that, used by the plaintiff; On the morning of the collision the plaintiff had" been in two towns situated upon the same railroad and he had been driving substantially parallel with it for some distance.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
227 N.W. 55, 58 N.D. 626, 1929 N.D. LEXIS 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marshall-v-northern-pacific-railway-co-nd-1929.