Pensacola, St. Andrews & Gulf Steamship Co. v. Austin

63 Fla. 241
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 63 Fla. 241 (Pensacola, St. Andrews & Gulf Steamship Co. v. Austin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pensacola, St. Andrews & Gulf Steamship Co. v. Austin, 63 Fla. 241 (Fla. 1912).

Opinion

Shackleford, J.

— The defendant in error brought an action against the plaintiff in error, wherein she sought to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been occasioned by the negligence of the defendant corporation. The declaration as amended consisted of five counts, but the court instructed the jury that the evidence would not warrant a recovery upon any of the first four counts and directed that the jurors confine their consideration of the case to the fifth count, which is as follows:

“The plaintiff by her attorneys, sues the defendant, for that, to-wit: On November 5, A. D. 1910, in Escambia County, Florida, the defendant was a common carrier of passengers and freight by water, for hire, and, as such common carrier, was possessed of, owned and operated between the ports of Pensacola and Apalachicola, in the State of Florida, and other ports, the steamer Tarpon; that the date aforesaid, defendant’s said steamer Tarpon was lying alongside Tarragonna Street wharf, in the city of Pensacola, Florida, and by and through defendant’s agents and servants, was discharging from defendant’s said steamer Tarpon to a certain box car on a certain railroad track on said Tarragonna Street wharf aforesaid, certain large and capacious barrels filled with resin and of great weight, preparatory to shipping said resin to inland points by railroad, said box car, the said steamer Tarpon, and said barrels of resin being at the time under the management and control of defendant’s agents and [243]*243servants; that, on the date aforesaid, plaintiff called at said Tarragonna Street Wharf for the purpose and with the intention of securing from aboard said steamer Tarpon a package that had been brought to plaintiff from her mother at Apalachicola, Florida, by a member of the crew of said steamer Tarpon; that, on said date, it became and was the duty of defendant not to injure plaintiff, by and through the negligence of its servants and agents, after defendant and its agents and servants had knowledge of plaintiff’s presence upon said Tarragonna Street wharf, near the said steamer Tarpon, and the box car upon the railroad track aforesaid, to which said steamer was discharging and storing said barrels of resin, in the manner aforesaid, and of her peril; that, on said date, defendant, through its said agents and servants had knowledge of plaintiff’s presence at said Tarragonna Street Wharf, near the said steamer Tarpon and the box car upon the railroad track aforesaid, to which said steamer Tarpon was discharging and storing said barrels of resin, in the manner aforesaid, and of her peril; that, on said date, not regarding its duty in this behalf, the defendant, through its agents and servants so carelessly and negligently conducted itself, with knowledge of her presence and peril as aforesaid, in and about the loading of said barrels of resin from defendant’s said steamer Tarpon to the box car upon the railroad track aforesaid, and in and about the storing of said barrels of resin on said box car, and in and about the movement of said box car, as to cause a certain barrel of resin of great weight to be thrown from said box car upon plaintiff, who was then and there standing on said Tarragonna Street wharf, thereby knocking plaintiff from said wharf into the waters of the Bay of Pensacola, many feet below, at a point where.said waters were much over plain[244]*244tiff’s head and sufficient to drown her, and plaintiff, being unable to swim, would have drowned, had it not been for the heroic assistance of a gentleman standing by who leaped into the water and rescued plaintiff as she was going down for the last time and while she was in imminent .danger of being drowned, whereby plaintiff was in great peril, suffered greatly from fright and nervous shod?:, and received many wounds and bruises and sprains at and upon her person and limbs, from the effects of which plaintiff was compelled to take to her bed and there be and remain for a long period of time, and after she was able to leave her bed was compelled to limp about her home from the effects of which plaintiff has suffered, continues to suffer and will hereafter suffer intense pain in body and mind, and plaintiff, lost much time from her vocation of school teacher and the consequent loss of earnings, and was compelled to lay out and expend' much money and to obligate herself for medical and doctors bills in and about the treatment of herself, and is permanently disabled. And the plaintiff claims ten thousand dollars.”

To this count of the declaration the defendant filed the following pleas:

“1. That it is not guilty in manner and form as in said declaration alleged.

4. That tire plaintiff’s own negligence directly contributed to her alleged injury in this, that the place of the alleged injury at the time mentioned in the declaration was an obviously dangerous place, and the plaintiff voluntarily placed herself in such obvious place of danger without authority or invitation of defendant, or its authorized agent, in consequence whereof such alleged injury occurred.

5. That the plaintiff at the time of such alleged in[245]*245jury did not' exercise ordinary and reasonable care for her own safety, but negligently placed herself in a dangerous position near the box car mentioned in the declaration, in consequence thereof her alleged injury occurred.

6. That plaintiff, by the exercise of ordinary and reasonable care for her own safety, could have seen the danger and avoided the alleged injury, but she failed to exercise such care, in consequence whereof her alleged injury occurred.

And for further pleas to the fifth count: Defendant denies that it at the time of the alleged injury to the plaintiff, through its agents and servants, had knowledge of the peril of the plaintiff, as alleged in the said count.”

The plaintiff joined issue upon all of these pleas and the case came on for trial before a jury, which resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $1,599, which judgment the defendant had brought here for review by writ of error. Twenty-two errors are assigned, but they need not be considered in. detail.

Each of the parties litigant, as did also the trial judge, proceeded upon the theory that the statute modifying the common law rule as to the liability of railroad companies in certain cases had no applicability. See Sections 3148 and 3R9 of the General Statutes of 1906. In so doing they wouid seem to have pursued the proper course. See Atlantic Coast Line R. R. Co. v. McCormick, 59 Fla. 121, 52 South. Rep. 712, and German American Lumber Co. v. Hannah, 60 Fla. 70, 53 South. Rep. 516, 30 L. R. A. (N. S.), 882, wherein prior decisions of this court will be found cited. This being true, the doctrine of comparative negligence cannot enter into a consideration of the case. As at common law, the plaintiff could not [246]*246recover for injuries to lierself caused by the negligence of another if she in any appreciable way contributed to the proximate cause of the injury, upon the theory that there is no apportionment of the results of mutual negligence. In the absence of a statute changing the common law rule, where plaintiff and defendant are each at fault, there can be no recovery by the plaintiff.

It will be observed that the fifth count of the declaration, which we have copied above and on which the recovery was had, does not allege that the plaintiff was at the place where the injury occurred by invitation of the defendant, either express or implied.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 Fla. 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pensacola-st-andrews-gulf-steamship-co-v-austin-fla-1912.