Payne v. Thurston

230 S.W. 561, 148 Ark. 456, 1921 Ark. LEXIS 76
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 9, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 230 S.W. 561 (Payne v. Thurston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Payne v. Thurston, 230 S.W. 561, 148 Ark. 456, 1921 Ark. LEXIS 76 (Ark. 1921).

Opinion

Wood, J.

An action was brought by Henry Thurs-ton, appellee, who was the husband of Dora Thurston, to recover judgment against the appellant for damages which he alleged he sustained by reason of the death of his wife. The appellee, among other things, alleged that Mrs. Thurston was a passenger on appellant’s train from Booneville, Logan County, Arkansas, to Waveland, Yell County, Arkansas; that the agents of appellant negligently failed to stop and hold the train at Waveland for a sufficient length of time to allow Mrs. Thurston to alight in safety; that they negligently failed to furnish her with the necessary assistance and means to enable her to safely debark from the train; that by reason of the acts of negligence alleged, Mrs. Thurston fell while endeavoring to alight from the train and received injuries which produced and hastened her death, to his damage in the sum of $3,000, for which he prayed judgment.

The appellee, Charles I. Evans, as administrator of the estate of Mrs. Thurston, instituted an action against the appellant to recover damages for the benefit of the children of Mrs. Thurston. The acts of negligence alleged in his complaint are the same as those set forth in the complaint of the appellee, Henry Thurston. Appel-lee Evans alleged damages also in the sum of $3,000, for which he asked judgment. The answers denied the allegations of negligence and damages and denied liability. The causes were consolidated for trial and were sent to a jury. The trial resulted in verdicts and judgments in favor of the appellees, from which is this appeal.

1. The appellant contends there was no evidence to sustain the allegations of negligence in the complaint. The facts on the issues are substantially as follows:

About July 1, 1919, Mrs. Thurston, in company with her little girl and carrying such baggage as she needed for a trip, hoarded appellant’s train at Booneville, Logan County, Arkansas, for appellant’s station at Wave-land, Yell County, Arkansas, a distance of about eighteen miles. Mrs. Thurston had been ill'for some years with tuberculosis, though at that time she was better and was going on a visit to her mother for the benefit of her health. The train on which Mrs. Thurston took passage was about five hours late. It arrived at Waveland about two o ’clock p. m.

A witness who lived at Waveland observed Mrs. Thurston attempting to get off the train after it bad started. He was standing close to the steps and beard Mrs. Thurston holler and she kept hollering to let her off. Witness took hold of the little girl and set her off, and as she looked around Mrs. Thurston stepped off of the steps and got down and fell over on one leg and knee. She fell in an effort to get off of the train as it was starting. When witness heard Mrs. Thurston hollering after the train started, somebody began to flag the train. It did not stop until after Mrs. Thurston got in the waiting room. No one else got off there, and witness did not see any one get on. Neither the conductor, the porter, nor the brakeman were there. The train moved five nr six feet before it stopped. It was barely moving when she stepped off. She got down on one leg and on both hands. Witness did not assist her at all. The train was barely moving when witness helped the little girl off. Witness did not get to Mrs. Thurston before she got up. Witness did not know whether Mrs. Thurston kicked the step box off or not, but it fell off.

Another witness saw Mrs. Thurston while she was waiting to take the train that day, and she looked like she had been sick. Another witness, who was on the train when it reached Waveland, stated that she heard the step box fall and looked around and saw Mrs. Thurs-ton on one knee on both her hands on the ground. The train was then moving slowly. Mrs. Thurston got up and went to the station.

The conductor of the train testified that the-first he saw of Mrs. Thurston was when she was right in front of the freight room, probably going into the waiting room. The porter -had told him that some lady had fallen. He went back and asked her about getting off and asked her if she was hurt, and she stated that she was frightened more than anything else. This occurred in the waiting room. The witness looked after the unloading of passengers from the white passenger coach. He did not see Mrs. Thurston attempting to get off. The train was a vestibule train. Witness had been off the train at the front end of the chair car. They had a porter and a brakeman that day. The brakeman was back three or four car lengths protecting the rear end of the train. After the passengers were unloaded and loaded, witness and porter and brakeman went up to the express ear. They stayed there three or four minutes. The brakeman’s duties required him to be back at the rear end of the train. When the witness took up the ticket from Mrs. Thurston, she did not say anything to witness about being sick, and she was sitting in a seat just like the rest of the passengers. Witness did not pay any attention to her.

Another witness on behalf of the appellant testified that he was the station agent at Waveland and that he remembered the time Mrs. Thurston came down there and got off the train while it was just moving up. He saw her in the waiting room — was there when the conductor asked, her if she was hurt and she said she was not. Witness heard her say that she stepped off of the train and fell.

In Barringer v. St. L., I. M. & S. Ry. Co., 73 Ark. 548, we said: “But the law is that it is the duty of carriers to allow their passengers a reasonable opportunity of getting on or off their trains, and they must stop at stations long enough for that purpose. A reasonable time is such time as a person of ordinary care and prudence, under the circumstances, shouldhe allowed to take. It is the duty of the carrier, in determining what is a reasonable time, to take into consideration any special condition peculiar to any passenger, and to the surroundings at the station, and to give a reasonable time under the existing circumstances, as they are known, or should be known, by its servants, for a passenger to get on or off its train.” St. L., I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Trotter, 101 Ark. 183; St. L., I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Wright, 105 Ark. 269; St. L., I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Aydelott, 128 Ark. 479-485.

Applying the above doctrine to the facts which the evidence above set forth tended to prove, it was clearly an issue for the jury to determine whether or not the servants of appellant were negligent in not allowing Mrs. Thurston sufficient time and rendering her the necessary assistance in debarking from appellant’s train. The jury was warranted in finding that Mrs. Thurston and her little daughter were the only passengers who alighted from the train at Waveland station the day of the alleged injury, and that the conductor and his assistants — the porter and brakeman — knew, or should have known, this fact; that, when they were in the act of aligthing, the train was started and was moving slowly as they got off; that no step box was placed on the ground for their use; that, in her sick and feeble condition and. with her little girl and their baggage, it was necessary that Mrs. Thurston have assistance to enable them to get .off safely, and that appellant’s agents were bound to have known such facts and were negligent in not furnishing her such assistance and in not holding the train a reasonable length of time, under the circumstances, for Mrs. Thurston to safely alight.

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Bluebook (online)
230 S.W. 561, 148 Ark. 456, 1921 Ark. LEXIS 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/payne-v-thurston-ark-1921.