Rice v. Michigan Railway Co.

175 N.W. 454, 208 Mich. 123, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 554
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 22, 1919
DocketDocket No. 57
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 175 N.W. 454 (Rice v. Michigan Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rice v. Michigan Railway Co., 175 N.W. 454, 208 Mich. 123, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 554 (Mich. 1919).

Opinion

Sharpe, J.

The plaintiff, a practicing physician residing in Owosso, took defendant’s car on the evening of February 16, 1917, to visit a patient several miles distant. About eight o’clock, he returned to the point where defendant’s road crosses the highway known as the Grand River road, where a small waiting room, with platform in front, had been theretofore constructed. He knew that a through car on defendant’s line would pass there about that hour, and that it would' stop for passengers on being signaled. It is his claim that as the car approached the crossing from the south, and when about 85 rods distant, he signaled it to stop by waving his arm; that the car did not stop, but passed by at a speed of .from 50 to 60 miles per hour; that, expecting it to slacken and stop, he stood near the edge of the platform and [127]*127was caught in some way by the suction of air, thrown against the building and then the car, and badly injured.

The defendant moved for a directed verdict at the close of the plaintiff’s case and also at the conclusion of the testimony. These motions were denied. The plaintiff had verdict and judgment for $13,800, and the defendant appeals. While there are 92 assignments of error, the defendant’s counsel discuss them under the following heads:

(1) No negligence on the part of the defendant was proven and a verdict should have been directed in its favor.

(2) The plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence.

(3) Error in the charge of the court.

(4) Error in the argument of plaintiff’s counsel.

(5) Defendant’s motion for a new trial should have been granted.

These will be considered in the order stated.

1. The claim of negligence as submitted by the court in its charge to the jury was as follows:

“3. Plaintiff further claims that while he was standing on the platform he noticed the headlight of a car coming from the south towards Owosso, and that when the car was some thirty-five or forty rods south of the station building, he signaled it by waving his hand, and that thereupon, the motorman of the car responded by blowing two short blasts of the whistle on the car. That the car did not stop at the station, but passed by at a high rate of speed, coming so close to the plaintiff that the suction and the wind caused by the passing of the car, caught the overcoat and clothing of the plaintiff, and threw him from the position where he stood, over to and against the car, and by reason thereof, he was seriously injured. And he further claims that at the time of such accident, he was guilty of no negligence which contributed to the injury, but was acting with due care and reasonable precaution. * * *
[128]*128“9. I further charge you in this case that if you should find upon the night in question that the plaintiff signaled for the car to stop and that the motorman answered such signal with the usual answer of two short blasts of the whistle, then I charge you it was the duty of the defendant to have slowed down the car and brought it to a stop at the platform of the station so that'plaintiff could have safely had access thereto; and if you should find that defendant did not do this, then it would be guilty of negligence and plaintiff would be entitled to recover; if you should further find that defendant’s failure to slow down the# car was the proximate cause of the accident and that” plaintiff himself was free from any negligence that contributed to the injury.”

He also gave plaintiff’s request to charge as follows:

“14. In this case, I charge you that if you believe from the evidence that on the 16th of February, 1917, the plaintiff in good faith came to the depot of the defendant and upon the platform of the defendant for the purpose of taking said car for passage to the city of Owosso; that at that time and place that he signaled the defendant’s trainman when about four hundred feet or more away, and that said trainman answered said plaintiff’s signal for the purpose of accepting him as a passenger, then I charge you that plaintiff then and there became a passenger and it was the duty of the defendant in all ways to exercise a very high degree of care for his safety or protection in the operation of the car and the maintenance of its road, and in deciding whether or not the defendant performed that duty you have a right to consider the lighting of the platform, the rate of speed the car was running at the time of the accident and all the surroundings at the place of the accident, and if you find that the defendant violated its duty to render that high degree of care for the plaintiff that an ordinarily prudent person engaged in the same kind of business would have done under the same or similar circumstances and conditions, then I charge you that the defendant is guilty of negligence and the plaintiff is entitled to recover.”

[129]*129It is conceded that the car in question should have stopped at this way station if signaled to do so; that no particular kind of signal was required; that anything which apprised the motorman that a person was waiting to take the car was sufficient, and that two short blasts of the whistle was the customary way in which notice would be given that the signal had been observed and that the car would stop. The waiting room was a small frame building, about 9 by 10 feet, and between it and the tracks of defendant was a platform about 5 feet wide, the outer edge of which was about 3 feet from the nearest rail of defendant’s track. There is a step leading to the platform from the south end. On the night in question, there was no light in the waiting room or on the platform. Plaintiff testified that the night was cold and he was wearing a heavy fur overcoat; that he had his medicine case under his right arm; that he was familiar with the surroundings, having often taken a car there; that after he had given the signal by waving his left arm, and heard the answer thereto, he stood near the edge of the platform, expecting the car to stop; that when it passed it was going at the rate of 50 or 60 miles per hour; that—

“the wind or the suction or whatever you call it, made a regular top of me. I was facing the south there, and it whirled me right into that car, into the side of the car, towards the latter end of it. Now, that is just what took place.”

He was asked: “Q. To what extent was there a suction from that car when it went by there?” and answered, “A. Why, it was terrific, I call it.” His shoe was torn from his left foot and the heel partly ground up. Defendant’s motorman denied that he saw any signal given or that he answered it, as claimed by plaintiff, and he testified that when the car was about [130]*13020 feet from the plaintiff he saw a man’s hand, go up, that the car hit it, and that he stopped as soon as he could do so and within 800 or 900 feet. He says the car was traveling at about 45 miles per hour. The conflict in the testimony of the plaintiff and the motorman as to the giving of the signal and the answer thereto presented questions of fact for the jury, and under the instructions given, in view of the verdict rendered, must be considered as having been determined in plaintiff’s favor. In the further consideration of the errors assigned, we may therefore treat these facts as established by the proofs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
175 N.W. 454, 208 Mich. 123, 1919 Mich. LEXIS 554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rice-v-michigan-railway-co-mich-1919.