SAND SPRINGS RAILWAY COMPANY v. Cole

1955 OK 9, 279 P.2d 938, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 377
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 18, 1955
Docket36256
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1955 OK 9 (SAND SPRINGS RAILWAY COMPANY v. Cole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SAND SPRINGS RAILWAY COMPANY v. Cole, 1955 OK 9, 279 P.2d 938, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 377 (Okla. 1955).

Opinions

WILLIAMS, Vice Chief Justice.

This action was brought by Hazel Cole-, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, against Sand Springs Railway Company, a Corporation, hereinafter referred to as defendant, to recover damages for injuries suffered as the result of a. fall while she was áttempting to alight from one of defendant’s- trolley cars. Upon trial of the case to a jury, a verdict and judgment were rendered for plaintiff in the amount of $4,535. Defendant’s motion for new trial was overruled and it appeals.

Defendant’s first proposition alleges error of the court in overruling defendant’s demurrer to the evidence and in not directing a verdict for'the defendant. In support of- such proposition defendant argues that the cause of plaintiff’s alleged injuries was the sudden and impulsive act of a fellow passenger, which was not reasonably foreseeable to the operator of defendant’s car, and for which act the defendant is not responsible.

The evidence reveals that plaintiff' was riding as a passenger on one of defendant’s-trolley cars, which she had boarded in the city of Tulsa for the purpose of being transported to Home Garden Station, likewise in the city of Tulsa. The car in which plaintiff was riding was an old one and the metal strip on the edge of the front vestibule floor had become rounded and smooth by the wear to which it had been subj ected. At the time of the accident complained of it had been raining and snowing and in addition to being worn smooth, the metal strip just referred to was wet from rain and'snow.- Some.of defendant’s cars have rubber matting or other non-skid material over the edge of the vestibule floor, but this particular car did not. When the car in which plaintiff was riding reached Home Garden Station, she deposited her fare in the fare-box and prepared to alight from the car. Plaintiff, at the time, was a rather fleshy woman, 51 years of age and weighing about 190 pounds. As plaintiff started to leave the car she was standing with- her left foot on the metal strip on the edge of the vestibule floor, previously referred to,, and.was .starting"to step down with her right foot to the step below. Just as she started to step down, the passenger who' preceded her to the door of the car said “Oh, I forgot my fare” and turned about, apparently for the purpose of returning to deposit her fare. In so doing she brushed against plaintiff, who was poised on one foot preparing to step down, and plaintiff’s foot slipped off of the metal -strip on the edge of the vestibule floor causing her to fall and injure her hip and leg.

Plaintiff relied upon four separate acts of negligence on the part of defendant to establish liability to-wit:

1. Permitting the metal strip at the edge of the vestibule floor to become dangerously slippery from wear and from rain, and failing to provide said step with a suitable non-slippery covering.
2. Failing to warn plaintiff of the dangerous condition of said metal strip.
- 3. Failing to assist plaintiff to alight from the trolley car in view of the condition of said strip.
4. Permitting the passenger ahead of plaintiff to pass the fare-box without depositing her fare, so that when said passenger turned back toward the fare-box, she brushed against the plaintiff and contributed to the cause of her fall.

There is some evidence in the record to support each'of these contentions. We think this evidence was sufficient to take to the jury the question of whether the negligence of both defendant and the unidentified fellow passenger concurred in causing plaintiff’s injury, and also the question of whether or not the worn and slick condition of the metal strip on which plaintiff slipped was the proximate cause of her injury. We have previously held that concurrent causes were causes acting contemporaneously, and which together caused the-injury, which injury would not have resulted in the absence of either. City of Okmul-gee v. Hemphill, 183 Okl. 450, 83 P.2d 189. And we are committed to the rule that in such case the question of whether or not [941]*941the defendant’s negligence was the proximate cause of the injury is a question for the jury. National Valve & Mfg. Co. v. Wright, 205 Okl. 565, 240 P.2d 769. Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. v. Courtney, 182 Okl. 582, 79 P.2d 235. In- these cases we announced the rule applicable here, that where the evidence was conflicting, or where men of ordinary intelligence might differ on the question of proximate cause, it was for the jury to determine.

Defendant next urges error of the trial court in refusing to give defendant’s Requested Instruction No. 4, which is as follows:

“The jury are instructed that the defendant cannot be held guilty of negligence, and liable to the plaintiff as a matter of law, if the accident which the plaintiff alleges in her petition, and injuries which she alleges arose therefrom, were caused by the act of fellow passenger; and in this connection you are instructed that if you find and believe, from a preponderance of the evidence, that the plaintiff’s agent stopped the car and opened the door in order to let the plaintiff alight, as shown by the evidence, but that subsequent independent action of a fellow passenger intervened to proximately cause an injury to the plaintiff, if any you so find, your verdict must be for the defendant.”

In the first place, the requested instruction is erroneous in that it assumes that there is evidence from which it might be found that plaintiff’s agent stopped the car and opened the door, whereas the evidence conclusively shows that defendant’s agent stopped the car and opened the door. In the second place, the record reveals that the court gave the substance of the requested instruction in a more correct form in its instruction No. 11, which is as follows:

“You are instructed that the defendant cannot be held guilty of negligence and liable to the plaintiff, as a matter of law, if the accident which the plaintiff alleges in her petition and the injuries which she alleges arose therefrom, , was solely and proximately caused by the act of a fellow passenger; and in'this connection, you are -instructed that if you- find and believe : from a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant’s motorman stopped the car and opened the door in order to let plaintiff alight but that a subsequent-independent action of a fellow passenger intervened as the sole proximate cause of the accident and injury, if any, to the plaintiff, then and in such event, your verdict must be for the defendant unless you further find from a preponderance of the evidence that the motorman of defendant, at the time of the accident, should have foreseen or anticipated that such action on the part of a fellow passenger might take place and in this connection you áre to consider all the facts and circumstances surrounding the accident and the conditions existing at the time thereof.”

The only material difference between the requested instruction and the instruction given by the court is the addition in the instruction given by the court of the exception or proviso covering the situation in case the jury should find that the defendant employee should have foreseen or anticipated the intervening, independent action of the fellow passenger. It is this addition, of course, to which defendant takes exception. We are of the opinion, however, that the court’s instruction correctly states the law. As we stated in the third paragraph of the syllabus in City of Altus v. Wise, 193 Okl. 288, 143 P.2d 128, 129:

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SAND SPRINGS RAILWAY COMPANY v. Cole
1955 OK 9 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1955)

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Bluebook (online)
1955 OK 9, 279 P.2d 938, 1955 Okla. LEXIS 377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sand-springs-railway-company-v-cole-okla-1955.