New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Ault

102 N.E. 988, 56 Ind. App. 293, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 11
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 31, 1913
DocketNo. 7,981
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 102 N.E. 988 (New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Ault) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Ault, 102 N.E. 988, 56 Ind. App. 293, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 11 (Ind. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Lairy, C. J.

Appellee recovered a judgment against appellant for personal injuries. The complaint is in two paragraphs, the first of which charges that the servants of appellant wilfully and intentionally injured appellee in the management and operation of the locomotive and ears of appellant. The second paragraph is based upon the alleged negligence of appellant’s servants in the operation of such locomotive and cars.

1. Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the second paragraph of complaint, and this is the first question we will consider. The allegations of this paragraph disclose that appellee, at the time she received her injuries was a trespasser on the bridge and tracks of appellant. It is generally stated as a rule of law that a railroad company owes no duty to a trespasser on its tracks, except to refrain from inflicting on him a wilful injury. Palmer v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1887), 112 Ind. 250, 14 N. E. 70; Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Hall (1910), 46 Ind. App. 219, 90 N. E. 498, 91 N. E. 743; Freitag v. Chicago Junction R. Co. (1910), 46 Ind. App. 491, 89 N. E. 501, 92 N. E. 1039; 2 Thompson, Negligence §1713. Relying on this proposition, appellant takes the position that, as the paragraph in question affirmatively shows that appellee was a trespasser when she received her injury, it is insufficient to state a cause of action on the ground of negligence, for the reason that it shows affirmatively that appellant owed no duty to appellee to use care to avoid injuring her

2. [296]*2963. [295]*295The fact that a person at the time of receiving an injury was trespassing on the tracks of a railway company shows him to be guilty of negligence per se in so far as his relations with such company are concerned, and, if such negligence directly and proximately contributes to his injury he can not recover. The paragraph of com[296]*296plaint under consideration does disclose that appellee was a trespasser and thereby shows that she was guilty of negligence per se. It therefore discloses a defense, and it is fatally defective for that reason unless further facts are pleaded which are sufficient to meet and overcome the defense disclosed. If the other facts pleaded are sufficient to show that the negligence of appellee in being upon the tracks was not a direct and proximate cause of her injury, but that it was only a remote cause giving rise to a condition in view of which appellant was called upon to act, it may still be held to state a cause of action under the doctrine of last clear chance. Even though it be conceded that under ordinary conditions a railroad company does not owe a duty to trespassers on its tracks, still, conditions may, and often do arise which create a duty on the part of the railroad company to use care in favor of such persons.

4. The conditions as disclosed by the paragraph of complaint under consideration are, that plaintiff was attempting to cross defendant’s trestle in the nighttime on a plankedTspace between the north and south tracks laid thereon, and was struck by defendant’scar running on the south track and, thrown upon the north track where she was run upon by defendant’s engine; that the defendant, through its employes in charge of the engine which was over plaintiff, “well knew the danger in which plaintiff was placed, and was in full view of plaintiff and well knew that said engine was over and upon plaintiff, and was fully able to raise said engine up and extricate the plaintiff without injuring her, and was fully able to remove the front footboard of said engine, which said front footboard pinioned plaintiff to the earth, and thus remove plaintiff from under said front footboard and said engine without injuring her, and saw plaintiff under said engine, and saw plaintiff’s perilous situation and saw and knew that they could net back said engine from off plain[297]*297tiff while said footboard was on said engine”, that without exercising any of the precautions mentioned or allowing plaintiff to extricate herself, through its employes “then and there carelessly and negligently gave orders to back said engine from off plaintiff, and then and there brought said front footboard on said engine over plaintiff’s body, and then and there carelessly and negligently injured the plaintiff.” Appellee practically concedes that appellant is not liable for any act prior to the time she was lying beneath the front footboard of the engine, and it may likewise be conceded that her position there was the result of the fact that she was a trespasser and guilty of contributory negligence. The complaint proceeds upon the theory that appellant was guilty of negligence in backing the engine off of appellee and injuring her after it knew of her perilous situation beneath the footboard and the danger to her of moving the engine backward. The doctrine of last clear chance aptly applies to the facts alleged in this paragraph of complaint. The principle on which this doctrine rests and some of the conditions under which it may be applied have been recently considered by this court. Evansville, etc., Traction Co. v. Spiegel (1912), 49 Ind. App. 412, 94 N. E. 718, 97 N. E. 949; Schilling v. Indianapolis, etc., Traction Co. (1912), 51 Ind. App. 131, 96 N. E. 167, 97 N. E. 124; Indianapolis, etc., Traction Co. v. Croly (1913), 54 Ind. App. 566, 96 N. E. 973, 98 N. E. 1091; American Car, etc., Co. v. Inzer (1913), 53 Ind. App. 316, 101 N. E. 676.

5. [298]*2986. 7. [297]*297The doctrine of last clear chance is most commonly applied to a class of eases in which it appears that the transaction out of which the accident arose involved some antecedent negligence on the part of the defendant, and where the injured party has also been guilty of some fault or negligence which exposed him to the danger of the injury which resulted, but where a condition arose prior to the injury which afforded the defendant a last clear chance of avoiding such injury of which chance he [298]*298negligently failed to take advantage. The same principle applied in these cases may, however, be applied to a case where the defendant has not been guilty of any antecedent negligence. If conditions develop prior to an injury which afforded a defendant a last clear chance of avoiding it, the duty to use care to that end immediately arises. It is a duty born of the situation of the parties, and its existence does not depend upon any facts showing a duty in favor of the party injured, prior to the time such conditions arose. The negligent failure to discharge such a duty may constitute original negligence. Schilling v. Indianapolis, etc., Traction Co., supra. The doctrine of last clear chance has been applied to cases where the injured party was a trespasser. Clark v. Wilmington, etc., R. Co. (1891), 109 N. C. 430, 14 S. E. 43, 14 L. R. A. 749; Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Pritchard (1907), 168 Ind. 398, 79 N. E. 508, 81 N. E. 78, 9 L. R. A. (N. S.) 857; Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Coleman (1888), 86 Ky. 556, 6 S. W. 438, 8 S. W. 875; 2 Thompson, Negligence §1734.

8. It is contended on behalf of appellant that no distinction exists between the duty imposed by the doctrine of last clear chance, as announced and applied by the courts, and the duty not to inflict a wilful injury.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
102 N.E. 988, 56 Ind. App. 293, 1913 Ind. App. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-chicago-st-louis-railroad-v-ault-indctapp-1913.