Southern Pacific Railroad v. Svendsen

108 P. 262, 13 Ariz. 111, 1910 Ariz. LEXIS 70
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedApril 2, 1910
DocketCivil No. 1108
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 108 P. 262 (Southern Pacific Railroad v. Svendsen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Pacific Railroad v. Svendsen, 108 P. 262, 13 Ariz. 111, 1910 Ariz. LEXIS 70 (Ark. 1910).

Opinion

DOE, J.

This is an action brought to recover damages for injuries resulting to plaintiff through his forcible ejectment from a moving freight train of defendant, by its train crew. To which defendant interposed a general demurrer, a general denial, and a plea of contributory negligence. The general demurrer being overruled, the cause was tried by a jury, which returned a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $2,000, in accordance with which verdict judgment was rendered. From the order overruling a motion for a new trial, and from the judgment, defendant prosecutes this appeal.

The overruling of the demurrer, the overruling of defendant’s objections to the introduction of evidence on the grounds set up by the demurrer, the refusal of the court to give eer[114]*114tain, instructions asked by defendant, the giving of others, that the verdict is unsupported by and contrary to the evidence, and the overruling of the motion, constitute the assignments of error.

Had plaintiff been upon the cars of the defendant by virtue of any contractual relation, either express or implied, it was incumbent on him to set it up in his complaint, and, in the absence of such averment, he must be assumed to have been a trespasser whom defendant’s conductor and brakeman might lawfully eject, using a reasonable degree of force to accomplish such purpose. In the absence of any contrary showing, the conductor and brakeman will be presumed to have acted within the scope of their employment, and, if they are shown to have exceeded their right to the extent of inflicting wanton or willful injury, the defendant is liable therefor.

While counsel for appellant, in their opening brief, apparently assert that the complaint is insufficient, in that it fails to allege in express terms that the injury complained of was wantonly or willfully inflicted, yet in their reply brief they concede that it is sufficient if facts are pleaded from which wantonness or willfulness is necessarily implied, but insist that the allegations of the complaint are insufficient to show either wantonness or willfulness. The allegations of the complaint in this regard are as follows: ‘ ‘ That while plaintiff was riding on said train, and while said train was moving at a high rate of speed, Ben Finn, one of the brakemen on said train, without cause or provocation, acting under orders and instructions from the said conductor of said train, and acting under orders and instructions from said defendant company, assaulted plaintiff, and by threats, intimidations, and force compelled plaintiff to jump from said train to the ground. That when the plaintiff struck the ground he was thrown violently off his feet, striking the ground with his face and then rolled and tumbled with great force.” And that in said fall plaintiff was thrown under the wheels of said train while it was in rapid motion, and one of his legs was cut off between the knee and the hip, and various other injuries named inflicted.

This, we think, constitutes a sufficient allegation of ultimate facts to state a cause of action. It was unnecessary for [115]*115plaintiff to allege or prove youth, or inexperience in jumping from moving trains. In the absence of specific allegations with respect thereto, the plaintiff must be presumed to have been a person possessed of neither more nor less than ordinary skill and experience. It is a matter of common knowledge of which the brakeman, by reason of his occupation, could not have been ignorant, that for a person possessed of ordinary skill and experience to jump from a rapidly moving train will naturally and probably result in injury. The alleged acts of the brakeman show, at the least, a reckless disregard for the safety of the plaintiff and an indifference to results such as to establish wantonness and were clearly wanton and willful, as we have defined those words in Conchin v. El Paso & Southwestern Railroad Co., post, p. 259, 108 Pac. 260.

The fourth and fifth assignments of error are based upon the refusal of the court to give the following instructions asked by appellant:

“I further instruct you, gentlemen, as a matter of law, that from the fact that this plaintiff boarded the moving train of defendant, without any right or authority whatever, he was a trespasser, and that fact alone was contributory negligence. The plaintiff, having wrongfully boarded the defendant company’s train, defendant owed him no duty except not to willfully and wantonly injure him; and I instruct you as a matter of law that, if he voluntarily jumped from said train on the direction of the brakeman that he would have to get off, he was guilty of contributory negligence, and, if you believe from the evidence that this is the fact, you will -find for the defendant.
“By wanton or willful injury is meant an injury deliberately and intentionally inflicted, or that the person or persons inflicting the injury acted with such utter disregard of the plaintiff’s safety that such an intention to injure him may be inferred therefrom.”

And the sixth and seventh assignments upon the giving of the following instructions:

“If the jury believe from the evidence that the plaintiff was ordered to jump from said train by the brakeman, and was threatened with violence if he did not so jump, while the train was in motion, and the appearance at the time was such as to lead an ordinarily prudent and careful man to [116]*116the conclusion that violence would be used by said brakeman of said company on said train, and the brakeman was acting within the general scope of his duties, then the plaintiff was not required to wait until actually forced from said train by violence, and it can make no difference, under this set of circumstances, whether he was ejected by actual force or by threats, if he jumped from said train at the command of an employee of said company, when he saw a brakeman coming toward him, and threatening to throw him off, if he did believe that force would immediately be used to eject him.
“It is the right of the employee of a railroad company, in charge of a train, on discovering a trespasser thereon, to remove him from the train, and if, in doing so, they use no more force than is reasonably necessary to effect such removal, and use ordinary care, the railroad company is not liable to the trespasser for any injuries resulting from such removal. ’ ’

The word “voluntarily,” as used in the first of these requested instructions, was liable to mislead the jury, and the definition of the word “wanton” in the second is too narrow in its scope. In any event, the law on the point attempted to be covered by these requested instructions is fully and correctly stated by the court in other portions of its charge. The first instruction given that is complained of is unobjectionable, and while the second, standing alone, might be subject to the criticism that, by the use of the words “and use ordinary care,” the jury might have been led to believe that the defendant would necessarily be liable for the want of ordinary care, the jury could not have been misled by the language complained of because the court further charged that the plaintiff was a trespasser upon the train, and that the defendant owed him no duty except not to wantonly or willfully injure him.

The court further charged in defendant’s behalf that:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 P. 262, 13 Ariz. 111, 1910 Ariz. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-pacific-railroad-v-svendsen-ariz-1910.