Smith v. Pennsylvania Railroad

99 N.E.2d 501, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 282, 47 Ohio Op. 49, 1950 Ohio App. LEXIS 767
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 2, 1950
DocketNo. 4465
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 99 N.E.2d 501 (Smith v. Pennsylvania Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Pennsylvania Railroad, 99 N.E.2d 501, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 282, 47 Ohio Op. 49, 1950 Ohio App. LEXIS 767 (Ohio Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

OPINION

By THE COURT.

This is an appeal on questions of law from the Common Pleas Court of Franklin County, Ohio. The action is for damages for wrongful death of a railroad yard conductor, and was brought under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. The case was tried to a jury which rendered a special verdict in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. A motion for judgment non obstante veredicto was filed and overruled. Judgment was entered on the verdict. A motion for new trial was filed and overruled.

Seventeen assignments of error have been filed, which appellant has grouped and discussed under seven separate headings. The Court will briefly discuss in the same sequence the principal questions raised by appellant under these seven headings.

I.

Appellant contends that the form of the verdict submitted by the plaintiff and the instructions to the jury failed to fairly, properly and correctly present to the jury the issues of fact in the case; that the jury did not return findings of fact upon all issues presented by the pleadings and in dispute under the evidence; that the special verdict contains conclusions from the facts and conclusions of law which must be disregarded; that the special verdict is indefinite, uncertain and defective and contains findings and conclusions with re[284]*284spect to matters not complained of in the petition and the court erred in failing and refusing to require the jury to find the facts only with respect to all issues which the case presents as established by the evidence.

With respect to the issues involved the court charged the jury as follows:

“The issues of fact upon which the determination of the right of the plaintiff to recover or fail to recover depends are as follows:
“1. Did or did not the defendant, The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, exercise ordinary care, that is such care as an ordinarily prudent employer would have exercised or employed to provide the deceased, Robert P. Smith, who was a switching yard conductor, a reasonably safe place to work under all the conditions and surrounding circumstances existing at the time the decedent, Robert P. Smith, was killed, and if the defendant did not exercise such care did the same cause or contribute to cause the death of Robert P. Smith, the decedent.
“2. Did or did not the decedent, Robert P. Smith, who at the time just prior to his death was a yard conductor and was a member of and in charge of the switching crew engaged in switching cars in Yard C, exercise ordinary care, that is such care as a reasonably prudent person in his position would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances for his own safety, and if he did not exercise such care was the lack thereof the direct cause or a direct contributing cause of his death.
“3. What was the value in money of what the widow and the three minor children of the decedent, Robert P. Smith, could reasonably expect to receive from him had he lived considering the elements to be included and excluding those to be excluded as hereafter stated in this charge of the court.
“4. A finding by the jury of the amount by which the above total is to be diminished in proportion to the percentage by which the failure of the decedent, Robert P. Smith, to exercise ordinary care for his own safety contributed to cause his death, if the jury should find that there was any such failure on the part of the decedent, Robert P. Smith, to exercise such ordinary care and that such failure did contribute to cause his death, together with the amount remaining after making such deduction.”

While the trial court should have been more specific in its charge, we are of the opinion that the charge is not open to [285]*285the same critisicm as was the charge in B. and O. Railroad Co. v. Lockwood, 72 Oh St 586, 74 N. E. 1071. A special verdict is defined in §11420-14 GC, as follows:

“A special verdict is one by which the jury finds facts only as established by the evidence; and it must so present such facts, but not the evidence to prove them, that nothing remains for the court but to draw from the facts found, conclusions of law.”

Sec. 11420-16 GC, provides that:

“When requested by either party, the court shall direct the jury to give a special verdict in writing, upon any or all issues which the case presents.”

In the instant case the defendant-appellant requested the court to direct the jury to return a special verdict in writing upon all the issues presented. The special verdict returned by the jury is as follows:

“We, nine or more of the jury in the above entitled cause, do find as follows:
“On February 21, 1948, at or about 10:15 P. M., the decedent, Robert P. Smith, an employee of the defendant Pennsylvania Railroad Company, while acting in the scope and course of his employment as a yard conductor in Yard C of the defendant company, and while said decedent and defendant were engaged in interstate commerce, the decedent was ordred and required to comply with a rush order to obtain three cars located on Tracks 12, 21, and 22, respectively; that decedent for the purpose of obtaining the car on Track 22 caused through himself and the members' of his crew to attach an engine and tender on to a cut of four cars located in said Track 22 in order to reach said car contained in said rush order; that in so doing decedent was required to work between said cars located on Tracks 21 and 22, and that:
“(1) There were ten or eleven cars parked on Track 21, which was designed by the defendant railroad company to accommodate twelve cars;
“(2) That the front end of the extreme northeasterly car located on Track 21 was parked approximately 64.5 feet southwest of the frog between Tracks 21 and 22, at which point the space was not sufficient to give reasonably adequate and safe clearance to the decedent while working between said tracks.
[286]*286“(3) That the defendant railroad company, without notice to the decedent, Robert P. Smith, caused to be inserted among the cars on Track 22 a new type of car of more than sixty feet in length, when it knew that Tracks 21 and 22 were not designed to handle safely a box car of such length;
“(4) That the defendant railroad company failed to post any warning signs of the unsafe clearances between said tracks;
“(5) That the defendant railroad company failed to provide lights at the time and place of the accident, which in the exercise of ordinary care it should have done, thereby creating an unsafe and dangerous place in which decedent was required to work;
“(6) That the decedent at the time of the accident was in the exercise of ordinary care for his own safety;
“(7) That the foregoing acts and conduct of the defendant roalroad company was the direct cause of the death of the decedent, Robert P. Smith;

“(8) That the decedent, Robert P.

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Bluebook (online)
99 N.E.2d 501, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 282, 47 Ohio Op. 49, 1950 Ohio App. LEXIS 767, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-pennsylvania-railroad-ohioctapp-1950.