McGilchrist v. Portland E. & E. Ry. Co.

154 P. 419, 79 Or. 91, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 152
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 18, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 154 P. 419 (McGilchrist v. Portland E. & E. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McGilchrist v. Portland E. & E. Ry. Co., 154 P. 419, 79 Or. 91, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 152 (Or. 1916).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Moore.

No transcript of the testimony given at the trial has been brought up. The bill of exceptions, however, states that evidence was received tending to substantiate all the controverted allegations of the complaint and to the effect that the speed of the car had been lowered to about two or three miles an hour for the plaintiff to alight, and when he was doing so the car was suddenly started, causing the injury charged, and that, when he was hurt, there was on the porch of his home, near where he was injured, an electric light which illuminated such place; that testimony was also introduced tending to prove all the disputed averments of the answer and to the effect that the plaintiff was hurt at the usual place of receiving passengers upon [95]*95and discharging them from the defendant’s cars; that he was injured about 9:30 or 10 o ’clock at night when it was raining; and that at such place there was then no light.

The court modified an instruction requested by the plaintiff’s counsel as here indicated, to wit:

“The defendant being a common carrier of passengers for hire, it owes to its passengers the highest degree of care, prudence and foresight consistent with the practical operation of its road, or the utmost skill, diligence, care and foresight consistent with (the practical operation of its road, or the utmost skill, diligence, care and foresight consistent with) the business, in view of the instrumentalities employed and [the] danger naturally to be apprehended [and such carrier is held responsible for the slightest neglect against which skill, diligence, care and foresight might have guarded].”

Additions were made to the instruction, as denoted-by the words embraced within parentheses, and that part of the language requested was omitted from the charge given, as indicated by the words included within brackets so displayed.

The following requested instructions were also denied:

“If you find that the car on which the plaintiff was a passenger was so nearly stopped that an ordinarily prudent person would have deemed it safe to alight therefrom, and while attempting to alight the plaintiff was thrown to the ground by the motorman in charge of the car suddenly starting it before the plaintiff had safely alighted, the plaintiff would be entitled to recover damages for the injury sustained, and your verdict should then be for the plaintiff for such sum under the evidence as you may deem the plaintiff entitled to in order to compensate him for the injury.”
“The court further instructs you that it is not necessarily contributory negligence for a passenger to alight [96]*96from a moving street-car, and in considering the question of contributory negligence in this case, if you find that the defendant’s car was slowed down to a slow rate of speed, such as an ordinarily prudent person would deem safe to alight from, and the plaintiff then attempted to alight from such car, he would not be guilty of contributory negligence.”

Exceptions were severally taken to the court’s refusal to give the instructions so requested. An exception was also saved to a part of the general charge which reads:

“I instruct you that, if the place at which plaintiff alighted from defendant’s car, if you find that plaintiff did alight from said car, was so dark as to render it obviously dangerous for a person to attempt to alight at said point from said car while the same was in motion, then plaintiff would be guilty of contributory negligence in so attempting to alight, which would bar any recovery by him in his action. ’ ’

It is contended that errors were committed in the respects mentioned. It is argued by defendant’s counsel that, under the bill of exceptions herein, the alleged errors so assigned should not be considered unless- it can be legally asserted that the requested instructions which were denied were essential, and that the part of the charge which was challenged was an improper expression of the law under any view of the case.

1. In Raiha v. Coos Bay Coal & Fuel Co., 77 Or. 275 (149 Pac. 940), in discussing this matter, it is said:

“When an exception is taken to the ruling of a trial court upon the admission or exclusion of evidence, so much of the testimony as will enable, the appellate court fully to understand the question involved must be copied in the bill of exceptions. If, however, an exception relates to the giving of an instruction which under the pleadings would have been an improper application of the rules of law to the case under any view that [97]*97might he taken, the error will be reviewed on appeal, though no testimony is incorporated in the bill of exceptions.”

To the same effect, see, also, Parker v. Monteith, 7 Or. 279; State v. Jancigaj, 54 Or. 361 (103 Pac. 54); Willis v. Horticultural Fire Relief, 69 Or. 293 (Ann. Cas. 1916A, 449, 137 Pac. 761); State ex rel. v. Rider, 78 Or. 318 (152 Pac. 497).

2. It will be kept in mind that the bill of exceptions sets forth a brief summary of the testimony received. Such statement of the evidence was evidently relied upon by the respective parties, and it is sufficient to illustrate the legal principles involved. A bill of exceptions would become a very cumbrous affair if it were essential to set forth therein all the evidence received in order to determine the sufficiency of instructions the giving or refusal of which had been challenged by proper exceptions. The miles of law do not require the performance of vain things, and when a trial court in settling and allowing a bill of exceptions gives therein a brief synopsis of all the testimony received, such statement is adequate to a proper review of challenged instructions that have been given or denied.

3. Considering the exceptions in the order hereinbefore stated, the first requested instruction is evidently predicated upon the language of Mr. Justice Straup in Paul v. Salt Lake City R. Co., 30 Utah, 41 (83 Pac. 563, 565). If the court had given that part of the language so requested which reads, “And that the carrier is held responsible for the slightest neglect against which such skill, diligence, care and foresight might have guarded,” the question of plaintiff’s alleged contributory negligence would have been wholly eliminated.

4. However careless the defendant may have been, as alleged in the complaint, if the plaintiff’s heedless[98]*98ness conduced to Ms injury, it would bar a recovery of damages for the hurt he sustained, for in this state the doctrine of comparative negligence does not obtain, except in cases in which the relation of employer and employee exists. As that relation did not obtain in the case at bar, no error was committed in modifying or refusing to give in its entirety the first requested instruction.

5. The bill of exceptions contains all the instructions given. In one part of the charge the court, referring to the plaintiff, said to the jury:

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Related

Erb v. Shope
12 P.2d 308 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1932)
Houston v. Maunula
255 P. 477 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1927)
Thomas v. Smith-Wagoner Co.
234 P. 814 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1925)
Johnson v. Portland Ry., L. & P. Co.
155 P. 375 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1916)

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Bluebook (online)
154 P. 419, 79 Or. 91, 1916 Ore. LEXIS 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcgilchrist-v-portland-e-e-ry-co-or-1916.