Pennsylvania Co. v. Horton

31 N.E. 45, 132 Ind. 189, 1892 Ind. LEXIS 42
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 30, 1892
DocketNo. 15,186
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 31 N.E. 45 (Pennsylvania Co. v. Horton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pennsylvania Co. v. Horton, 31 N.E. 45, 132 Ind. 189, 1892 Ind. LEXIS 42 (Ind. 1892).

Opinion

Miller, J.

— This action was brought to recover for a personal injury suffered by appellee on the 13th of November, 1884, at a street crossing in Warsaw, Kosciusko county, by collision with the engine of a passenger train of cars running on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago railway.

At the time of the injury, the appellee, as alleged in the complaint, was driving a horse and wagon along Washington street in Warsaw, from the north towards the south. It is further alleged that the railway crossed the street on an embankment twelve feet high, maintained by the appellant; that the approaches to the track were steep and narrow, and that passengers on the street could, with difficulty, see approaching trains until they reached the top of the embankment at said crossing; that a side track was maintained by appellant along the north side of its main track across Washington street, and extended east and west therefrom, a distance of 100 yards, and that adjacent to appellant’s right of way, on the west side of Washington street, a large saw mill, sash factory and manufactory of wooden wares was located, which, when in operation, made a noise so similar to that of an. [191]*191approaching train of cars, that it was difficult to distinguish the one from the other, but that the ringing of a bell or sounding of a whistle could have been distinctly heard ; that at the time of the injury, appellant negligently permitted its freight ears to stand all day on said side track and upon and into Washington street, and leaving only fifteen feet between its cars, for passengers and teams to pass along said street and on its track, although the street was open and used by the public to the width of eighty feet; that Warsaw was an incorporated city at the time of, and for a long time prior to the injury; and by an ordinance duly passed by the common council, and then in force, prohibited steam cars and locomotive engines within said city from moving at a greater rate of speed than five miles an hour; that at the time of his injury the appellee was lawfully passing along Washington street from the north to the south driving a horse, and was about to cross appellant’s track, where it crossed said Washington street, being a public street and much used by the public, and that by reason of said embankment and its steep and narrow approaches, and the freight cars standing upon the side track and in said street obstructing the appellee’s view of the main track, he was unable to see an approaching train passing westward along the main track, and by reason of said mill and factory being in action he was unable to see and hear said train approaching, and while so carefully passing along said street, and about to cross the railway track, and carefully seeking to avoid danger from any engine and ears, and without fault on his part, he was run into by a locomotive and train of cars of appellant, passing along the main track from the east to the west, unlawfully, carelessly, and running at the rate of twenty-five miles per hour, without ringing the bell or sounding the whistle, within 100 yards to the east of said street crossing; that by reason of the foregoing premises the appellee was [192]*192wholly unaware of the approach of the train until he was struck by the same and violently thrown from his wagon and his arm and leg broken, and all without fault or negligence on his part.

A demurrer was overruled to the complaint, exception taken and the ruling is assigned as error.

The counsel for appellants do not assert that the complaint does not sufficiently charge negligence on the part of the defendant, but insist that the facts stated show that the appellee was, at the time of his injury, guilty of contributory negligence.

A general averment that the injury happened without the fault or negligence of the plaintiff is sufficient, unless it appears from other more specific averments that he was in fact negligent. The complaint charges, in effect, that the crossing was a dangerous one; and while it is incumbent upon a traveler in approaching such a crossing to use care and caution reasonably commensurate with the known or apparent danger to be apprehended, it is not necessary to set out, affirmatively, all the precautions taken to avoid injury; the general allegation that the injury occurred without the fault or negligence is all that is necessary. We find no averment in the complaint inconsistent with the statement that he was without fault. If the defendant desired a more particular and definite statement of the facts, the remedy, if any, was a motion to compel the plaintiff to make the complaint more specific. Pennsylvania Co. v. O’Shaughnessy, 122 Ind. 588; Ohio, etc., R. W. Co. v. McCartney, 121 Ind. 385; City of Anderson v. East, 117 Ind. 126; Evansville, etc., R. W. Co. v. Crist, 116 Ind. 446; Ohio, etc., R. W. Co. v. Walker, 113 Ind. 196.

The appellant insists that the court erred in giving the first instruction to the jury. The portion of this instruction objected to is as follows:

If you find from the evidence that the view of the approaching train was obstructed by buildings, trees, and [193]*193cars on defendant’s railroad at such crossing, to a traveler on such street from the north, and at the time of the injury a valid ordinance of the city of Warsaw was in force limiting the rate of speed of defendant’s trains to five miles an hour in said city, and that the train, which injured plaintiff was at the time of the injury running at the rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour, then the defendant was guilty of negligence. And if you find that such negligence produced the plaintiff’s injury without any negligence on the plaintiff’s part which contributed to the injury, then your verdict should be for the plaintiff.”

This instruction contained a correct enunciation of the law relating to what it took to establish actionable negligence on the part of the defendant. It is negligence per se to run a train of ears in violation of a city ordinance, and if any one is injured in consequence of such negligence, without being himself guilty of contributory negligence, he may recover damages for such injury. St. Louis, etc., R. W. Co. v. Mathias, 50 Ind. 65; Pennsylvania Co. v. Hensil, 70 Ind. 569; Pennsylvania Co. v. Stegemeier, 118 Ind. 305.

The instruction does nothing more than inform the jury of the law upon this subject, leaving it to other and subsequent charges to direct their attention to the subject of contributory negligence.

We discover no infirmity in this instruction.

Complaint is also made of the second and third instructions.

They are as follows:

Second. “ The plaintiff was bound to use ordinary care under the circumstances shown to have existed in this case.

He was bound to approach the railroad carefully and to look and listen for the approach of trains, and if the evidence shows that he did this, with that degree of care that [194]*194an ordinarily prudent person would have exercised under all the circumstances, and was unable to hear or see the train approaching until it was too late to avoid the collision, then he was not guilty of contributory negligence.”

Third,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Grand Trunk Western Railroad v. Briggs
42 N.E.2d 367 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1942)
Stone v. . Texas Co.
105 S.E. 425 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1920)
Pennsylvania Co. v. Stalker
119 N.E. 163 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1918)
Mayer v. Mellette
114 N.E. 241 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1916)
Chicago & Erie Railroad v. Biddinger
113 N.E. 1027 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1916)
Schell v. DuBois
113 N.E. 664 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1916)
Tippecanoe Loan & Trust Co. v. Jester
101 N.E. 915 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1913)
Wabash Railroad v. McNown
99 N.E. 126 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1912)
Mortimer v. Daub
98 N.E. 845 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1912)
Leathers v. Blackwell Durham Tobacco Co.
57 S.E. 11 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1907)
Brown v. Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain
28 App. D.C. 351 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1906)
City of Evansville v. Frazer
56 N.E. 729 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1900)
Hopewell v. State
54 N.E. 127 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1899)
Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh Railroad v. Champion
36 N.E. 221 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1894)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 N.E. 45, 132 Ind. 189, 1892 Ind. LEXIS 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pennsylvania-co-v-horton-ind-1892.