Home/Oregon Supreme Court/Nichols v. Union Pacific Railroad

Nichols v. Union Pacific Railroad

250 P.2d 379, 196 Or. 488, 1952 Ore. LEXIS 264
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 14, 1952
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 250 P.2d 379 (Nichols v. Union Pacific Railroad) 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
Nichols v. Union Pacific Railroad, 250 P.2d 379, 196 Or. 488, 1952 Ore. LEXIS 264 (Or. 1952).

Opinion

TOOZE, J.

This is an action brought by Luke Nichols, as plaintiff, against Union Pacific Railroad Company, a cor *490 poration, as defendant, to recover damages for personal injuries and for the wrecking of an automobile, alleged to have been caused by defendant’s negligence. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff in the sum of $25,000, for and on account of personal injuries, and in the further sum of $1,000, for and on account of the damages to the automobile. Judgment in plaintiff’s favor was entered accordingly, and defendant appeals.

Defendant operates a railway system in the state of Oregon, a portion of which extends in a general easterly and westerly direction through the city of Hood Eiver, in Hood Eiver county. First street is a paved public thoroughfare of the city of Hood Eiver, is 60 feet in width, and runs in a general northerly and southerly direction. At the scene of the accident hereinafter described, defendant’s right of way is approximately 140 feet in width, north to south. The northerly terminus of the paved portion of First street is at the southerly line of defendant’s right of way. Commencing at the northerly line of defendant’s right of way and running in a general northerly direction, there is a graveled roadway, approximately 16 feet in width, leading to a mole located upon the southerly bank of the Columbia river. There are some manufacturing plants located upon the mole, and several people, including plaintiff, reside on or in house boats moored adjacent to the mole. The evidence does not disclose whether or not this roadway is a duly established public street or highway, but its does disclose that it is now, and for many years has been, used extensively for travel by vehicles and pedestrians proceeding across the railroad right of way to and from the northerly end of First street and to and from the mole. In his complaint plaintiff describes *491 this roadway as an extension of First street, and where it commences at the northerly line of defendant’s right of way, it runs in line with a portion of First street. For a distance of approximately 100 feet from the railroad right of way to the ground level of the mole, the roadway runs downhill on a comparatively steep grade.

It is unnecessary for the purposes of this opinion for us to point out the location of buildings, trees, or other total or partial obstructions to view along the railroad to the east and west that might, at various points, totally or partially obstruct the view of a traveler who proceeds in a southerly direction on said roadway in his approach to the railroad tracks of defendant, as plaintiff was doing immediately prior to the accident involved in this case. We shall hereafter refer to the way across the railroad right of way *492 from First street to the roadway as the railroad crossing. Over this crossing, defendant maintains two lines of tracks, running easterly and westerly and situate about 12 feet apart, the southerly tracks being its main line of railroad, and the northerly tracks being a passing line.

*491

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
250 P.2d 379, 196 Or. 488, 1952 Ore. LEXIS 264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nichols-v-union-pacific-railroad-or-1952.