Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Smith

32 N.E. 809, 5 Ind. App. 560, 1892 Ind. App. LEXIS 277
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided December 13, 1892·No. No. 751·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

Black, J.

The question as to the sufficiency of the appellee’s complaint after verdict is presented under assignments that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and that the court erred in overruling the appellant’s motion in arrest of judgment.

The action was one for the recovery of damages for a personal injury sustained by the.appellee while a passenger upon the appellant’s freight train.

The objection urged against the complaint is that it does not show that the appellee was free from negligence.

In actions for negligence the complaint must contain an averment to the effect that the plaintiff was without fault or without negligence, or there must be a statement of facts [562]*562which will indicate that the plaintiff did not contribute to the injury by his own fault. Jeffersonville, etc., R. R. Co. v. Hendricks, 26 Ind. 228; Pennsylvania Co. v. Gallentine, 77 Ind. 322 (329), and cases cited; Town of Rushville v. Poe, 85 Ind. 83; Gheens v. Golden, 90 Ind. 427; Louisville, etc., R. W. Co. v. Lockridge, 93 Ind. 191.

When the sufficiency of the complaint is questioned, not by demurrer, but after verdict by motion in arrest, or by assignment of error in this court, all intendments, it has been frequently held, are taken in favor of the pleading, and if it contains a statement of facts sufficient to bar another suit for the same cause of action, its defects, if any, are cured by the verdict, and it will be treated as sufficient to uphold the judgment. Colchen v. Ninde, 120 Ind. 88; Peters v. Banta, 120 Ind. 416.

A complaint will not be held insufficient on motion in arrest of judgment if it be sufficient to bar another action for the same thing, and the necessary facts omitted be such as might be supplied by proof. Chapel v. Shuee, 117 Ind. 481; Evansville, etc., R. R. Co. v. Willis, 80 Ind. 225; Robinson v. Powers, 129 Ind. 480; Louisville, etc., R. W. Co. v. Harrington, 92 Ind. 457.

In Eberhart v. Reister, 96 Ind. 478, it was said : Where there is a material fact lacking, the pleading is not cured by the verdict, unless it states other facts from which, by liberal intendment, the omitted fact can be supplied. Where there are no allegations touching the subject, then there are no grounds which will support an inference, or which will supply reasons for an intendment, that the omitted fact was proved. * * Our cases lay down the rule that where an independent fact essential to the cause of action is omitted, the pleading will be bad on a motion in arrest.” See, also, Cincinnati, etc., R. R. Co. v. Stanley, 4 Ind. App. 364.

In each of the two cases last cited, as in the case at bar, the plaintiff’s freedom from fault was an essential fact.

[563]*563In Eberhart v. Reister, supra, it was said : If there were any facts at all bearing upon that subject, then .a liberal intendment would be indulged. * * There may be eases where, in stating the facts constituting the defendant’s negligence, the plaintiff’s freedom from fault is made to appear.”

In Bedford, etc., R. R. Co. v. Rainbolt, 99 Ind. 551, a complaint which did not expressly aver that the plaintiff was without fault or negligence, but which by its averments showed that while he, being a passenger, was seated in the defendant’s railroad coach, the coach, by reason of the defendant’s negligence, broke through a bridge, whereby he was injured, was held sufficient. It was said : From the averments in the complaint, in this case, it must be taken that the appellee was lawfully a passenger on the appellant’s train of cars, presumably submitting to its rules and regulations as such. The giving way of the railroad bridge, over which the train was passing, precipitated him violently into the river below, inflicting upon him the injuries complained of, and it must be held from the situation in which the appellee is shown to have been, the relation which he occupied toward the railroad company, which relation placed him under no-duty except to remain passive in its hands while being carried, that all presumption of negligence on his part is rebutted by the averments of the complaint.”

In Mitchell v. Robinson, 80 Ind. 281, the complaint charged that the defendants owned and were operating certain steam engines and other machinery in the prosecution of a certain business ; that the plaintiff was in their employ, in the vicinity of the boilers connected with said machinery ; that while he was near the same, in the proper discharge of his duty under his said employment, one of the boilers, without any fault of the plaintiff, and only by reason of the unsafeness, defectiveness and insecurity thereof, exploded, whereby large quantities of steam and water escaped therefrom [564]*564and fell upon him, by reason of which he was greatly injured, etc. .It being objected by counsel that the complaint did not sufficiently show that the plaintiff was injured without fault on his part, the court said : “ He was lawfully and without fault at the place where he was injured; the explosion occurred without his fault; and from these facts, considered in connection with the other facts stated, it is certain to a common intent that he was free from any fault which contributed to his injury.” And the complaint was held sufficient on demurrer.

In the complaint before us it is not directly alleged that, the appellee was without fault or negligence. Among other things it was shown by the averments of the complaint that on a day stated at North Vernon, a station on appellant’s railroad, the appellee purchased of the appellant a ticket entitling her to passage on the railroad from that station to Lexington, another station on said railroad, and that the same day she, with her two infant children, took passage on the appellant’s car on said road at North Vernon station; that the station at Lexington, by the rules and regulations of the appellant, was a regular place for the stopping of its train, and that the train on which she took passage was accustomed to stop thereat.

It was alleged that “ on arriving at said station at Lexington the defendant stopped its said train; that the plaintiff immediately and without delay proceeded as far as the door of said car, and while in the act of stepping out of the door on to the platform of the car the train and said car suddenly and with a sudden bound started, without any warning from the defendant that the train was going to start.”

It is further shown that the train, without stopping, ran forward about one-eighth of a mile from said station of Lexington, where it was stopped, and the appellee, with her children, was put off. It is alleged that by reason of the sudden stopping and starting of the train as aforesaid, she, with one of her said children in her arms, was thrown down on [565]*565the floor of the car, whereby she was injured in her back,” etc., “in violation of the duties and obligations of the defendant toward her as a passenger on its train,” etc.

There is not here an entire absence of averment of matter affecting the question of want of fault on the part of the appellee. Facts are stated which have relation to the sub7 ject of her care and diligence.

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Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Smith, 32 N.E. 809, 5 Ind. App. 560, 1892 Ind. App. LEXIS 277 (Ind. Ct. App. 1892).

32 N.E. 809 (Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Smith) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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