Union Traction Co. v. Grohs

142 N.E. 389, 81 Ind. App. 481, 1924 Ind. App. LEXIS 70
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 18, 1924
DocketNo. 11,684
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 142 N.E. 389 (Union Traction Co. v. Grohs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Union Traction Co. v. Grohs, 142 N.E. 389, 81 Ind. App. 481, 1924 Ind. App. LEXIS 70 (Ind. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

Nichols, J.

Action by appellee for damages resulting from injuries suffered by appellee because of the alleged negligence of appellant in failing to maintain a guard rail on its freight platform and steps thereto, at its station in the city of Kokomo, Indiana, from which platform of steps appellee fell and was thereby injured.

There was an answer in denial, a trial by jury, which resulted in a verdict in favor of appellee for $1,000, on which, after appellant’s motion for a new trial was overruled, there was judgment for appellee. The only error assigned in this court is the action of the court in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial, the reasons, for which are hereinafter considered.

The undisputed facts as established by the evidence [483]*483are that appellant in connection with its line of railroad owned and maintained a freight and passenger depot, waiting room, station and ticket office in the city of Kokomo. The building used for the purposes above mentioned, faced the west, and there was a street on the west of the building. There were four doors on the west side of the building used for a passenger station, waiting room and ticket office, through which passengers and prospective passengers entered the waiting room. They were double doors and the ticket office was about directly to the east of them. There was a door in the waiting room on the south side that led outside of the building, which door was about ten feet from the ticket office. The waiting room was about forty feet square. There was cement outside of the waiting room on the south side and south of the door on the south side, and there was a platform for handling freight, and a spur of the track, and a place south of the door on the south side, provided for trunks and for the handling of baggage and express. The platform extended east along the south side of the building and with the building, which was twelve feet wide at the east and so continued up to within about fourteen feet of the west end, where there was a jog in the building, so that the platform from that point to the west end thereof was six feet wide. It was about five feet high all the way back and was a board platform. There were steps at the west end leading from the surface up to the top of the platform. These steps, five in number, were located about fifteen feet east of the door on the south side of the waiting room, were made of wood and were three feet wide, and the platform extended south of the steps about three feet. Said plat-. form was used for the storage of freight and for loading and unloading freight and for no other purpose, and the steps before mentioned were used for the purpose [484]*484only of ascending said platform for the purpose of storing freight thereon and loading and unloading freight, and said steps and platform were never used for passengers or by passengers, or for or by prospective passengers. Appellee, on the morning of October 15, 1919, was in the city of Kokomo, in connection with a vaudeville, doing a dancing act, and desired to become a passenger over appellant’s line on the morning of October 16, 1919, from Kokomo to Ft. Wayne. Some time in the forenoon on said October 15, appellee went to the station of appellant, entered the waiting room .through one of the west doors, went to the ticket office and interviewed the ticket agent in reference to the purchase of a ticket to become a passenger on the next morning. He was informed by the ticket agent that if he would come to the station between eleven and twelve o’clock that night, he would be furnished a ticket and that his baggage would be checked. When appellee came to the station that night at the time mentioned, he went to the ticket window but found no one in the ticket office. Thereupon, he left the ticket window, went out of the waiting room through the south door, and ascended the steps to the freight platform, upon which he walked about seventy-five feet to near the east end thereof, where he inquired of some men who were handling freight as to where he might find the ticket agent. These men informed him that he might find such agent at the ticket office. He then walked back over the platform and at the west end walked off the same, falling to the surface on the cement and was thereby injured. Appellee knew that the steps were there, having ascended them in going on to the freight platform. There were electric lights on the platform extending along the center of the same from one end to the other and there were lights in the waiting room. Appellee testified that as he ascended the steps to the [485]*485platform, he felt his way very carefully with his hands. He also testified that he saw the lights along the center of the platform. The ticket agent was only absent from the office about five minutes, being upon business in the basement. Upon his return, appellee came to the ticket window and purchased his ticket, and, as soon as the baggage arrived, had it checked.

In order that appellee may recover in this action, it must appear by the evidence that there was a duty upon the part of appellant to protect him from the injury of which he complains, at the place where he received the same, that appellant failed to perform its duty in that regard, and, as a result of such failure, appellant was injured. The question is not whether appellant owed a duty to some one to place a guard rail upon the platform or steps, but whether it owed such duty to appellee. Unless it owed such duty to appellee, there can be no recovery. 1 Thompson, Negligence p. 2, §2; Salem-Bedford Stone Co. v. O’Brien (1895), 12 Ind. App. 217; South Bend Iron Works v. Larger (1894), 11 Ind. App. 367; Evansville, etc., R. Co. v. Griffin (1885), 100 Ind. 221. The last case states the rule to be that: “The owner of premises is under no legal duty to keep them free from pitfalls or obstructions for the accommodation of persons who go upon them or over them merely for their own convenience or pleasure, even where this is done with his permission. In such case the licensee goes there at his own risk, and, as has often before been said, enjoys the license with its concomitant perils.” The rule is well settled that it is the duty of a railroad company to keep its depot and platforms safe for those persons who have occasion to use the same, and, failing so to do, it is liable to persons who may be injured because of its negligence, but such a rule does not extend to such portions of the premises as are obviously not adapted to, or used for, [486]*486or necessary for, the transaction of the business for which such person is on the premises; and if he goes to such place, he puts himself outside the protection of his invitation, and the company is not responsible for injuries he may receive, unless it inflicts them wantonly and purposely. Price v. Pecos Valley, etc., R. Co. (1910), 15 N. M. 348, 110 Pac. 565, L. R. A. 1915B 827; Masteller v. Chicago, etc., R. Co. (1921), 192 Iowa 465, 185 N. W. 107; Burbank v. Illinois Central R. Co. (1890), 42 La. Ann. 1156, 8 So. 580, 11 L. R. A. 720; Louthian v. Ft. Worth, etc., R. Co. (1908), 50 Tex. Civ. App. 613, 111 S. W. 665.

In the Burbank case, supra, there were platforms on all sides of the building, the one on the south side being used exclusively for freight. The floor of this platform had been taken up. There was a lamp on the north side which threw a light along the west platform intended for the use of passengers but this light did not reach the freight platform.

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Bluebook (online)
142 N.E. 389, 81 Ind. App. 481, 1924 Ind. App. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-traction-co-v-grohs-indctapp-1924.