Southern Ry. Co. v. Walters

47 F.2d 3, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3367
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 14, 1931
DocketNo. 8879
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 47 F.2d 3 (Southern Ry. Co. v. Walters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Ry. Co. v. Walters, 47 F.2d 3, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3367 (8th Cir. 1931).

Opinion

GARDNER, Circuit Judge.

This is an action in which the appellee, a minor, brought suit against the appellant to recover damages for personal injuries. The parties will be referred to as they appeared in the lower court.

At the time of receiving his injuries, the plaintiff was a boy about six years old, attending the public schools in East St. Louis, III. The sehoolhouse at which he was attending was located on the south side of what is referred to as Bond avenue, a street running east and west. At a point about one hundred feet east of the sehoolhouse Bond avenue is intersected at right angles by two tracks of the defendant company, passing north and south. It was alleged in plaintiff’s petition that on the 3d day of March, 1927, he was walking from the sehoolhouse in an easterly direction across the tracks of the defendant company where they cross Bond avenue, and that while so doing the defendant ran a northbound train over and along its tracks and across Bond avenue, striking him as he was in the act of crossing these tracks, and so injuring him that it was necessary to amputate his right leg and part of his left foot. It was alleged that these injuries resulted from the carelessness of the defendant, in that it ran and operated its train on the tracks across Bond avenue at the time in question without sounding any warning bell or signal of the approach of the train, and that it ran and operated its train over said tracks at this crossing without coming to-a stop and flagging the crossing, as required by an order entered by the Illinois Commerce Commission requiring it to protect this crossing by stopping all trains before passing over it, and requiring one of the crew of the train to flag the crossing and warn all persons attempting to cross the crossing of the approach of the train. There were other allegations of negligence, but, in view of the instructions of the court, they are not material. The answer was a general denial.

At the close of all the evidence, the defendant interposed a motion for a directed verdict, which the court overruled, and the jury' returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $43,000. On motion for a new trial, the court held this verdict excessive, and announced that the motion for new trial would be sustained, unless within ten days the plaintiff should enter a remittitur of $15,000. The plaintiff elected to remit the $15,000, and thereupon judgment was entered for $28,000, and the motion for new trial was overruled.

On this appeal it is urged: (1) That the court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a directed verdict interposed at the close of all the testimony; (2) that the court erred in not granting its motion for a new trial; (3) that the verdict, even after remittitur, was excessive; and (4) that the court erred in certain rulings as to the admissibility of evidence.

The court, in its charge to the jury, withdrew from the consideration of the jury all the allegations of negligence charged in the petition, except the allegation with reference to the order of the Illinois Commerce Commission under date of August 20, 1926, requiring trains, upon passing over this crossing, to come to a stop, and requiring one of [5]*5the crew to flag the crossing and to warn all persons attempting to cross of the approach of the train.

Accepting the defendant’s request for a directed verdict as a sufficient challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, the question presented to the court on appeal is whether or not there was substantial evidence to sustain the verdict. Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Condos (C. C. A.) 30 F.(2d) 669; Flannery v. Willcuts (C. C. A.) 25 F.(2d) 951; Concordia Fire Ins. Co. v. Commercial Bank (C. C. A.) 39 F.(2d) 826; Hardy-Burlingham Mining Co. v. Baker (C. C. A.) 10 F.(2d) 277; Security Life Ins. Co. v. Brimmer (C. C. A.) 36 F.(2d) 176; Michigan Central R. R. Co. v. Mix, 278 U. S. 492, 49 S. Ct. 207, 73 L. Ed. 470; Slocum v. New York Life Ins. Co., 228 U. S. 364, 33 S. Ct. 523, 57 L. Ed. 879.

In its instructions, which are not excepted to by the appellant, the court advised the jury that:

“If the defendant stopped that train, and flagged it across, you ought to find for defendant. If defendant did not stop it and flag it across, you ought to find for the plaintiff. You cannot, of course, find for plaintiff unless defendant was guilty of that act of negligence. Whatever else it may have omitted to do, or whatever else it may have done, would not warrant you in finding for plaintiff. You can only find for plaintiff if you find that defendant was guilty of the single act of negligence that I have called your attention to. If it was, then, I repeat, you ought to find for plaintiff; if it was not, you ought to find for defendant.”

In other portions of the instructions the court told the jury in effect that the order made by the Illinois Commerce Commission required the stopping of the train and the flagging of this crossing, and specifically told the jury t-hat-the question of the compliance with this order by the defendant was decisive of the case, saying: “Did it comply? If it did, find for the.defendant; if it did not, find for the plaintiff.”

It is observed that the court by these instructions took from the jury all allegations of negligence with reference to the speed of the train and the alleged failure to blow a whistle, and, on the other hand, in effect told the jury that the plaintiff had in fact been struek by the train and injured at this crossing ; thus limiting the issue to a single question. It will therefore serve no useful purpose to review the evidence whieh tends to prove that the plaintiff was struck and injured by this train.

It appears from substantial evidence that the accident occurred about 3 o’clock p. m. on March 3, 1927. The plaintiff, with four other boys, started to cross the tracks of the defendant at this crossing. The other four boys ran across the track ahead of the engine without mishap, but the plaintiff, in attempting to pass in front of the engine, was. struck by some part of it and seriously injured.

Going directly to the evidence on the issue submitted to the jury, we need refer, of course, only to the testimony produced by the plaintiff, or that tended to sustain the verdict, and we must assume, in view of the verdict, that it was believed by the jury. We are not here concerned with the question of the credibility of the witnesses nor the weight of the testimony.

John Luseomb, the engineer in charge of the train, testified that it would require from three to five minutes running time in order to build up a speed of from five to six miles an hour from a dead stop.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 F.2d 3, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-ry-co-v-walters-ca8-1931.