Richmond Street & Interurban Railway Co. v. Beverley

84 N.E. 558, 43 Ind. App. 105, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 227
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 1, 1908
DocketNo. 6,207
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 84 N.E. 558 (Richmond Street & Interurban Railway Co. v. Beverley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richmond Street & Interurban Railway Co. v. Beverley, 84 N.E. 558, 43 Ind. App. 105, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 227 (Ind. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinions

Rabb, J.

Appellee sued appellant to recover for a personal injury alleged to have been caused by the appellant’s negligence. Her complaint was in two paragraphs. The cause was put at issue, jury trial had, resulting in a general verdict in appellee’s favor, and with the general verdict answers to interrogatories returned by the jury. Motion was made by appellant for a judgment in its favor on the answers to interrogatories, which motion was overruled, and judgment rendered for the appellee on the general verdict.

The only error urged by the appellant in this court is the action of the court below in overruling its motion for judgment in its favor on the answers to interrogatories.

1. The answers to interrogatories clearly show that the verdict rests solely upon the second paragraph of the complaint, thus eliminating from consideration the first paragraph.

[108]*108The material averments of the second paragraph of the complaint are that the appellant operates a street railroad in the city of Richmond, Indiana; that appellee was a passenger upon one of its street-cars; that the ear upon which she was riding was an open car; that she notified the conductor of said car of her desire to get off at a certain point, which was a usual stopping place for appellant’s cars; that appellant’s servants, the conductor and motorman in charge of the car, neglected to stop the same at the point where she desired to get off, but ran the car at the rate of twelve miles per hour past said point; that when site observed that the ear was not going to stop at said place she immediately notified the conductor of her desire to get off, and the conductor, instead of stopping the car in the usual way in which such cars are stopped for the purpose of allowing passengers to alight, and which it is alleged could easily have been done, negligently gave the motorman what was known as the emergency signal, which required the motorman to bring the ear to a sudden stop, whereupon the motorman, by his manipulation of the machinery running the car, brought the same to a sudden stop while it was running at the rate of twelve miles per hour, causing a violent lurch and backward motion to be given the ear; that as soon as appellee observed the conductor reach for the rope to give the signal to the motorman, divining that the car would stop, she got up from her seat preparatory to getting off the car, and Avhile she was in this state of readiness to alight from said car she was thrown to the street by the sudden stopping and violent jar and lurch given the car, as aforesaid, and was injured.

The following interrogatories were submitted to the jury, and answered by them as indicated. “(4) Did plaintiff’s accident occur while the ear was in the act of stopping? A. Yes. (5) Was a signal given by the conductor of said car after the car had passed the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chi[109]*109cago & St. Louis Railway Company’s depot for the car to stop? A. Yes.” “(7) When the signal to stop was given, if you find it was given, was plaintiff sitting in the seat she had been occupying in the car? A. Yes. (8) Did the plaintiff hear said signal when it was so given? A. Yes. (9) Did plaintiff know that said signal was sounded for the purpose of having the car brought to a standstill? A. Yes. (10) Did plaintiff after said signal was given, and before the ear stopped, arise from her seat and stand near the edge of said car? A. Yes. (11) If plaintiff, after the giving of the signal to stop, had remained seated until the ear stopped, would she have been injured by any motion made by the car in stopping? A. No evidence.” “(14) Was the position assumed by plaintiff when she arose from her seat a position which involved danger to her? A. No.” “(20) How many feet did the ear move from the time it began to slow up in response to said signal before it came to a complete standstill ? A. Stopped suddenly.” “(22) When the car slowed up and stopped, at the time alleged in the complaint, did it do so in the usual and ordinary manner? A. No. (23) Was it reasonably probable at the time and place, and under the circumstances of this cause, that plaintiff would, after said signal to stop was given, if you find it was given, arise from her seat and take a position that would be rendered perilous by the stopping of the car in the manner in which it was stopped on this occasion? A. No.”

Appellant insists that the answer to the twenty-third interrogatory propounded to the jury establishes appellant’s freedom from negligence proximately causing appellee’s injuries complained of; that it shows that appellant’s conductor in charge of the car upon which appellee was riding at the time of her injury, and who was charged in the complaint with the negligent fault causing the same, could not reasonably have anticipated that an injury would have re-[110]*110suited, from his act in causing the car to be stopped as it was.

2. It is the office of each interrogatory submitted to a jury to elicit a finding upon some single, primary fact within the issues, and not the ultimate fact involved in the trial. Town of Albion v. Hetrick (1883), 90 Ind. 545, 46 Am. Rep. 230.

Ordinarily the jury by the special verdict or answers to interrogatories should return only primary facts, leaving the court to draw proper inferences therefrom. Citizens St. R. Co. v. Reed (1898), 151 Ind. 396; Sutherland v. Cleveland, etc., R. Co. (1897), 148 Ind. 308; Oleson v. Lake Shore, etc., R. Co. (1896), 143 Ind. 405, 32 L. R. A. 149; Conner v. Citizens St. R. Co. (1886), 105 Ind. 62, 55 Am. Rep. 177; Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Adams (1886), 105 Ind. 151; Board, etc., v. Boncbrake (1896), 146 Ind. 311.

3. It is such a well-recognized rule that the general verdict will stand as against answers to interrogatories unless it appears that answers to material questions of fact and the general verdict are so inconsistent and repugnant that both cannot be true, that citation of authorities is needless.

It is said by the Supreme Court in Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Charman (1903), 161 Ind. 95, that in an effort to reconcile the answers to interrogatories with the general verdict the court will indulge all reasonable presumptions arising within the issues against the special answers, and in favor of the general verdict. It will assume as proved all issuable facts necessary to sustain the verdict that are not specifically found to the contrary.

4. If the answers to interrogatories are inconsistent with each other, contradictory or uncertain, they will not control the general verdict. 2 Burns’ Digest, p. 2336, §194, and cases cited.

[111]*1115. [110]*110In actionable negligence the act or omission charged must [111]*111have been the proximate cause of the injury complained of. It is such proximate cause if a person of ordinary intelligence should foresee that the act would probably result in the injury complained of, or some like injurious consequence. Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Charman, supra, and cases cited.

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Related

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183 N.E. 326 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1932)
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98 N.E. 123 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
84 N.E. 558, 43 Ind. App. 105, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richmond-street-interurban-railway-co-v-beverley-indctapp-1908.