St. Louis S. F. R. Co. v. McFall

1917 OK 156, 163 P. 269, 63 Okla. 124, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 501
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 13, 1917
Docket6829
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1917 OK 156 (St. Louis S. F. R. Co. v. McFall) 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
St. Louis S. F. R. Co. v. McFall, 1917 OK 156, 163 P. 269, 63 Okla. 124, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 501 (Okla. 1917).

Opinion

TURNER, J.

On July 28, 1913, A. H. Mc-Fall, defendant in error, in the district court of Garfield county, sued St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, plaintiff in error, in damages for personal injuries, growing out of alleged negligence ■of the defendant. After answer filed, in effect, a general denial and a plea of contributory negligence and assumption of risk, in that as a car driver of the Enid City Railway Company he assumed the risk of crossing the tracks of defendant, there was trial to a jury and judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings the case here.

The evidence shows that on February 15, 1913, plaintiff was in the employ of the Enid City Railway Company as a motorman and conductor, and, at the time he was injured, *125 was operating the power of one of its ears going north on Independence avenue in said city, which is crossed by defendant's tracks at right angles. At 7:15 a. m., as the car neared the tracks, it stopped some 15 or 20 feet short of them to let some passengers off, and, as from that point it is slightly up grade to the tracks, it was customary, and plaintiff approached the tracks at such a high rate of speed as to be able to coast his car over them by its own momentum after cutting off the power. At this crossing it was the custom for defendant to keep a flagman, whose duty it was to warn the public of danger. At the time the car stopped, as aforesaid, there was standing on the nearest track of defendant’s railroad one of its passenger trains with its engine facing east and extending some 10 or 15 feet across the sidewalk and into the street, to within about 15 feet of the crossing; and, receiving no warning from the flagman that it was dangerous to do so, plaintiff proceeded to cross the track with his car as aforesaid when, after the vestibule of his car had crossed the first track, an engine, obscured by the intervening passenger train, backing eastward on the second track’at a speed of about 10 or 12 miles per hour, came in sight about 30 feet away and, without warning of any kind, struck his car as it was crossing the second track and injured him. It is alleged in the petition that defendant was negligent in permitting the passenger engine to be left projecting, as it was, into the street, and thus obscure the view of the other defendant’s tracks to the north and west of the train, in backing the colliding engine at a dangerous rate of speed, without blowing its whistle or otherwise signaling its approach, ‘uid in failing to keep the flagman ar his post of duty, and to warn plaintiff of the danger before he attempted to cross the tracks.

As there was evidence reasonably tending to prove that plaintiff was rendered mi-eonsOious by the impact of the collision, accompanied by a blow on the left temporal region, and has, since that time, suffered, among other things, from a defective vision, an injury to his back, and generally from traumatic neurosis, there is no merit in the contention that the verdict of $2,500 is excessive, or that he was malingering.

It is next contended, not that the evidence was insufficient to take the case to the jury on the question of the primary negligence of defendant, but that the court erred in overruling the demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence for the reason that:

“The mere recital of the foregoing facts shows conclusively that the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injiu-y was his own rash act in driving his ear right in front of an engine that has the right of way over the crossing.”

From which and the argument in support of this assignment we understand the contention to be, not that plaintiff failed to look and listen at the time he stopped short of the crossing to let his passengers debark, but that, as the evidence discloses he failed to stop, look, and listen while between the first and second tracks on his way over the crossing, the court should have held such failure to be contributory negligence per se and the proximate cause of the injury, and sustained the demurrer to the evidence. Not so. In the first place, if fail-lure to stop, look, and listen were contributory negligence per se, which it is not (Chickasha St. R. Co. v. Marshall, 43 Okla. 192, 141 Pac. 1172), as contributory negligence is no longer a question of law, but of fact in this jurisdiction (Const. art. 23, sec. 6), the court did right to overrule the demurrer and leave that question to the jury under proper instruction. And we think the jury did right in finding against the defendant on this issue for, so far as we can see, there is not a scintilla of evidence to show contributory negligence on the part of plaintiff. It would seem, as in the case of an open safety gate (St. L. & S. F. R. Co. v. Hart, 45 Okla. 659, 146 Pac. 436), that the absence of a danger signal from the flagman was an implied invitation for plaintiff to attempt to cross the tracks as he did, and an assurance to him of safety from any passing train, and that he could not be chargeable with contributory negligence in acting upon such invitation.

It is assigned that the court erred in permitting I)r. Ramrell. who testified as a witness for plaintiff, to be asked:

“Q. Assuming that A. H. McFall had been standing in the vestibule of the street car on February 15, 1913, and, in a collision at that time between the street car and a railroad en gine, had received a blow upon the head which rendered him unconscious, and bruised back, could, in your judgment, that blow and collision be the cause of his present condition as you have described it? A. I believe it is the probable cause.”

It is contended that the same is predicated upon the hypothesis that plaintiff’s back was bruised, in the absence of evidence to that effect. But, as plaintiff testified that he was knocked down and rendered unconscious by the .impact of the collision, that he remained in a sálniunconscious condition all that day, and the next day was so sore he could not turn over in bed and through his side, back,1 and head, and the could not sleep for a week, owing to pain *126 physician testified that he found anathesia about the lumbar region, extending from two to three and one-half inches, in which there was no sensation on pricking the skin with a needle, we are of opinion that the evidence tended to disclose an injury to the back, and that the question was proper. The evidence discloses that some time after the injury plaintiff visited the office of Dr. Damrill, and was examined by him, and that the doctor, after qualifying as an expert, testified as follows :

“Q. Just state what you did in the way of examining McFall at that time? A. Well, I took his family and personal history—
“By Mr. Orant: Defendant objects to any opinion of the witness predicated upon statements made to him by the plaintiff, for the reason that the same is hearsay (which objection was overruled and exceptions saved).' A. I examined into his personal and family history and noted his subjective symptoms, and finally made an examination into his physical condition from an objective standpoint.”

And, after testifying that as a result of the examination his opinion was that plaintiff was suffering from nervous trouble or a certain form of neurasthenia, known as “railroad brain or railroad spine,” he further testified:

“Q. Just state what you ascertained to be the cause of McFall’s neurasthenia. A.

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Bluebook (online)
1917 OK 156, 163 P. 269, 63 Okla. 124, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-s-f-r-co-v-mcfall-okla-1917.