Union Traction Co. v. Vatchet

132 N.E. 591, 191 Ind. 324, 1921 Ind. LEXIS 41
Indiana Supreme Court·Decided November 2, 1921·No. No. 23,601·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Ewbank, J.

The appellant sued the appellee for personal injuries sustained when he was struck by one of appellant’s interurban freight-cars in Martindale avenue, near Seventeenth street, in the city of Indianapolis. Appellee was riding a motorcycle east on Seventeenth street when he saw a freight-car coming south in Martindale avenue, and turned his motorcycle south into that avenue, but collided with some part of the car near the rear end. Issue was joined upon the complaint and an answer of denial, and the cause was submitted for [325] trial to a jury which returned a verdict in- favor of the appellee, upon which judgment was rendered. A motion by appellant for a new trial, for the alleged reason, among others, that the court erred in giving to the jury the instruction No. 29, was overruled, and the appellant excepted, and duly filed its bill of exceptions within the time allowed by the court, and perfected an appeal. The only alleged error not waived is overruling the motion for a new trial, and the only specification thereunder not waived is giving instruction No. 29.

Instruction No. 28, given by the court, stated that it was the theory of the second paragraph of appellee’s complaint, among other things, that appellant’s motorman, by the exercise of reasonable care and diligence, could have seen the appellee at all times after the car had reached a point 150 feet north of where appellee was in Seventeenth street, when appellee was twenty-five or thirty feet west of the track, and that appellee was in full view of the motorman while appellee was traveling more than forty feet before the collision, and that appellant, by its employes saw, and by the exercise of reasonable care and diligence could have seen appellee approaching the car track on the crossing when the car was far enough away from the crossing to have stopped it or slowed it down, by the exercise of ordinary care and diligence, and thus to have avoided the collision and resulting injury.

Instruction-No. 29 (our italics) was given as follows:

1,2. “29. Under this theory it becomes the duty of the court to instruct you on the doctrine known in law. as the law of last clear chance, which means this: Notwithstanding the plaintiff may have been negligent in going in dangerous proximity to defendant’s railroad track, upon which there was an approaching car and thereby placed [326] himself in a perilous position, and that when he discovered his perilous position, he used diligence and his best endeavors and efforts to extricate himself, and that while in such perilous position defendant’s motorman saw the plaintiff in said perilous situation, if he were in a perilous situation from which he could not extricate himself, then it was the duty of such motorman to have used ordinary pare and diligence to avoid coming in contact with him and his motorcycle and to avoid injury to him; or if, under the circumstances and facts above stated, by the exercise of ordinary care and diligence said motorman could have seen the plaintiff approaching the said crossing, if he was so approaching the same, and could have seen and realized that plaintiff was in peril from which he was unable to extricate himself, if such were the case, in time to have avoided such contact and injury, by the exercise of ordinary diligence, if there was contact and injury, and that said motorman carelessly and negligently failed to look and see the plaintiff so approaching and failed, under the circumstances, to see plaintiff and his perilous situation, if he was in a perilous situation, such conduct on the part of such motorman in failing to see plaintiff and his said perilous situation would be negligence on the part of said motorman in the discharge of his duties toward plaintiff in failing to do what he could have done by the exercise of reasonable care. And in such case, if you find from the evidence that the motorman’s negligence was negligence at a later time than the negligence of the plaintiff, if plaintiff was negligent, such later negligence by the motorman is in law held to be the proximate cause of the injury, and the prior negligence of the plaintiff is held to be a remote cause only, and for a remote cause, is not chargeable.

“If however^ under the circumstances above named, the motorman could not, by the exercise of reasonable [327] care, have avoided injuring plaintiff, then the doctrine of last clear chance will not apply.” This was erroneous. Terre Haute, etc., Traction Co. v. Stevenson (1919), 189 Ind. 100, 123 N. E. 785, 127 N. E. 3.

The undisputed evidence, together with that part of the controverted evidence tending to support the allegations of the complaint which was most favorable to the appellee, was as follows:

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Union Traction Co. v. Vatchet, 132 N.E. 591, 191 Ind. 324, 1921 Ind. LEXIS 41 (Ind. 1921).

132 N.E. 591 (Union Traction Co. v. Vatchet) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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