Petrie v. Columbia & Greenville Railroad

7 S.E. 515, 29 S.C. 303, 1888 S.C. LEXIS 144
CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina
DecidedOctober 9, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 7 S.E. 515 (Petrie v. Columbia & Greenville Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petrie v. Columbia & Greenville Railroad, 7 S.E. 515, 29 S.C. 303, 1888 S.C. LEXIS 144 (S.C. 1888).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Mr. Justice MoIver.

The plaintiff brings this action, as administrator of Margaret W. Petrie, to recover damages in behalf of her children, for injury sustained by them by reason of her death, caused by the alleged negligence of the defendant company. The testimony on behalf of the plaintiff tended to show that the deceased was a widow lady about the age of seventy-nine years, living with her son-in-law very near the track of the railroad, and that she was killed by a passenger train while attempting to cross the track of the railroad at or near a point where it was intersected by a highway. At the time of her death she left several children, none of whom were minors, but they had all been settled off to themselves several years before the death of their mother. The old lady had a small income, sufficient for her own support, derived from the rent of her land, but at the time of her death she was living with her daughter, who had been in bad health for several years, and whose husband was also disabled, and was attending upon them. The testimony tended to show that the deceased was quite active and vigorous for a person of her years, and was in the habit of rendering valuable services to her children and grandchildren, especially in cases of sickness, as she claimed to have read and to have some knowledge of medicine. There was, however, no distinct evidence of the value, in [314]*314dollars and cents, of her services, the testimony being in general terms, that her services were of value to her children, in saving them physicians’ bills, and in many ways being of material assistance to them, and there was also evidence that she was in the habit of assisting one of her sons, who had been disabled in the war, by giving him money and other things.

The evidence tended to show that the country was open at the place where the disaster occurred, and that an approaching train could be seen and heard fora considerable distance; though there was also evidence that, on the side of the track from which the deceased was probably returning at the time she met her death, the view at one point was obstructed by a depression in the ground and by a sort of embankment or mound, as the witnesses called it, upon which wood was piled for the train, and also that there were some trees or bushes near the track which, it was claimed, obstructed the view. The day on which the disaster occurred — March 15, 1884 — it was cold and windy, the wind blowing down the road in a direction opposite to that from which the train approached, and when the body of deceased was found, her head was tied up with a veil and shawl, and she had on a large bonnet. The testimony was, that when the train reached the whistle post, some distance below the highway crossing, but how far was not shown, there were three or four short blows of the whistle on the engine, but there was no ringing of the bell, and the whistle was not kept blowing until the engine had crossed the highway.

At the close of plaintiff’s testimony, counsel for defendant moved for a non-suit upon the grounds hereinafter more particularly stated, which motion was refused. The defence then went into their testimony, and first offered the testimony of Mrs. Neighbors taken before the coroner’s inquest, which, at a previous trial of this case, had been offered by the defence and received then without objection. Plaintiff’s counsel objected and ihe testimony was ruled out. Counsel for defendant then offered the testimony of B. P. Faker, the engineer of the train which caused the death of plaintiff’s intestate, which had been offered in evidence by the plaintiff on a former trial of this case and received then without objection. This testimony was objected to by coun[315]*315sel for plaintiff and was likewise excluded. After other testimony had been offered in behalf of the defence for the purpose of showing that the death of deceased was not caused by any negligence on the part of the defendant company, but was due to her own gross negligence, the case was submitted to the jury, under the charge of the court, who rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for eight hundred and fifty dollars.

Defendant’s counsel then submitted a motion for a new trial upon grounds which are mostly embraced in defendant’s ninth, tenth, and eleventh grounds of appeal. This motion was also refused, and judgment having been entered in favor of plaintiff, defendant appeals and moves for a reversal of said judgment for the following alleged errors therein:

I. In overruling defendant’s motion for a non-suit.

II. In not admitting in evidence the testimony of Mrs. Neighbors.

III. In not admitting in evidence the testimony of B. F. Faker.

IV. In charging, “Was Mrs. Petrie guilty of gross or wilful negligence * * when the killing occurred ? * * * Did she go upon that track wilfully ? Did she put herself wilfully there with that intention ? Wilful negligence, gentlemen, is where one wilfully places himself in a place of known danger, as was illustrated to you in the case of one going upon a track for the purpose of committing suicide.”

V. In charging, “It is not necessary that any witness should have testified to the value in dollars and cents of these services.”

VI. In charging, “In this action, if the defendant is liable, funeral expenses of deceased may properly be considered as among the elements of damage, if it is satisfactorily proven that the plaintiff has paid the same.”

VII. In charging, “The failure to blow the whistle or ring the bell as required by statute, if such failure existed, would be negligence in the defendant, whether that failure occurred by reason of the employment of one of its officers in arranging some other parts about the machinery or not.”

VIII. In charging, “If a person should voluntarily put himself or herself upon the track and the engineer sees that person, [316]*316it is his duty to endeavor to stop the train. To make no such effort when he saw such person would be gross negligence.”

IX. In refusing to charge, “If the deceased saw and heard the train approach the crossing, and notwithstanding this undertook to cross the track of defendant in front of tins train, and, but for this act of hers, she would not have been killed, then the plaintiff cannot recover.”

X. In refusing to charge, “It is the duty of a person approaching a railroad crossing, in order to avoid danger, to stop and look and listen, and if the deceased failed to use her sense of sight and hearing and walked upon the track of an approaching train in plain sight and hearing, and but for this act of hers would not have been killed, then she was guilty of such negligence as will defeat the plaintiff’s right to recover.”

XI. In refusing to charge, “If Mrs. Petrie saw or heard the train approaching, or if she, by the exercise of reasonable care, could have seen or heard it, then the defendant is not liable, even though it failed to blow the whistle or ring the bell as required by the statute.”

XII. In refusing to charge, “Even if the jury are satisfied in this case that the engineer was guilty of great negligence and want of care, yet the plaintiff cannot recover if the deceased w7as also guilty of contributory negligence; that is to say, that she did not observe proper care under the circumstances.”

XIII.

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

Related

El Pueblo De Puerto Rico v. Seda Troche, Juan
Tribunal De Apelaciones De Puerto Rico/Court of Appeals of Puerto Rico, 2023
People v. Hamacher
438 N.W.2d 43 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1989)
Clark v. Ross
328 S.E.2d 91 (Court of Appeals of South Carolina, 1985)
Gowan Ex Rel. Estate of Gowan v. Thomas
116 S.E.2d 761 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1960)
Gomillion v. FORSYTHE
62 S.E.2d 297 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1950)
State v. Steadman
59 S.E.2d 168 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1950)
Ford v. A. A. A. Highway Express, Inc.
29 S.E.2d 760 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1944)
Mishoe v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.
197 S.E. 97 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1938)
Dyson v. Commonwealth Life Ins. Co.
180 S.E. 475 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1935)
Ford v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.
168 S.E. 143 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1932)
Ford v. Atlantic Coast Line R.
168 S.E. 143 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1932)
McBride v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
138 S.E. 803 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1927)
Miller, Administrator v. A.C.L.R. Co.
138 S.E. 675 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1926)
Miller v. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
138 S.E. 675 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1926)
Yazoo M.V.R. Co. v. Barringer
103 So. 86 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1925)
Pressley v. Incorporated Town of Sallisaw
1916 OK 75 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1916)
State v. Rogers
85 S.E. 636 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1915)
Edgeley v. Appleyard
86 A. 244 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1913)
Rochester v. Seattle, Renton & Southern Railway Co.
122 P. 23 (Washington Supreme Court, 1912)
McCall v. Alexander
65 S.E. 1021 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 S.E. 515, 29 S.C. 303, 1888 S.C. LEXIS 144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petrie-v-columbia-greenville-railroad-sc-1888.