Webster v. Pullman Co.

22 Ohio Law. Abs. 670
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 27, 1936
DocketNo 15547
StatusPublished

This text of 22 Ohio Law. Abs. 670 (Webster v. Pullman Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webster v. Pullman Co., 22 Ohio Law. Abs. 670 (Ohio Ct. App. 1936).

Opinions

[671]*671OPINION

By BARNES, PJ.

The above entitled cause was instituted in this court by giving notice of appeal, as provided under the new procedural act, effective January 1, 1936. The final judgment appealed from is dated March 21, 1936.

The plaintiff, Edward Webster, on December 26, 1929, while working at the Terminal Depot in Cleveland installing light conduits along the beams and pillars over and above the railroad tracks and platforms in the depot, fell or was knocked from a ladder on which he was standing to the concrete platfoi’m below, inflicting very severe injuries. On December 12, 1930, plaintiff filed his petition against the Cleveland Union Terminal Company, seeking damages for his claimed injuries in the sum of $100,000.00. The negligence alleged was that one of the defendant’s agents and servants in the course of defendant’s business struck the ladder on which plaintiff was standing, with a hand truck, causing him to fall a distance of approximately thirty feet to the concrete platform.

On December 15, 1931, plaintiff filed an amended petition in which the following additional defendants were named: New York Central Railroad Company, New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad Company and The Pullman Company, a corporation. The historical facts immediately preceding and at the time of the injury are set forth in the amended petition in substantially the same form as in the original petitions.

The claimed negligence of the several defendants is set forth in the following language:

“Plaintiff avers that the contract between said truck and said ladder, the fall of the plaintiff and the aforesaid resultant injuries were caused wholly, solely, directly and proximately by the recklessness, carelessness and negligence of the said defendants, jointly operating, in the following particulars:”

Then follows in six separate paragraphs, the details of said claimed act of negligence.

The amended petition was not attacked by motion or demurrer by any of the defendants. Four of the defendants filed answers in January, 1932, and the remaining defendant filed answer in March, 1932.

The action came on for trial before Honorable Harrison W. Ewing, a judge of the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on July 2, 1934. The several defendants, at the close of the trial statement of counsel for the plaintiff, interposed motion for judgment in their favor, upon the ground that such opening statement did not contain a recital of facts sufficient to constitute or state a cause of action against the defendants. The motions were overruled and thereafter evidence introduced.

At the close of plaintiff’s evidence, the defendants filed separate motions to withdraw evidence from the jury and for dismissal on the ground that the evidence failed to make a prima facie case as to such defendants.

These motions were sustained as to all the defendants except The Pullman Company, and as to the latter the motion was overruled.

Thereafter on the following day The Pullman Company presented its testimony. This company did not renew its motion for a directed verdict at the close of all the testimony.

Following argument and the charge of the court, the jury retired and later returned with a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $42,500.00.

Motion for new trial was filed within statutory time, setting out twelve separate specifications of error, among them being the claim that the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence.

On July 25, 1934, the trial court sustained the motion for new trial on the ground that the verdict was not sustained by sufficient evidence. The very short entry as journalized was in the following language:

“Motion of defendant for new trial heard and granted on the ground that verdict herein is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is manifestly against the weight of the evidence.”

After the motion for new trial was submitted and in the interim pending the announcement of his opinion, the trial court viewed the premises, having with him, on his invitation, a member of the law firm representing The Pullman Company other than any who participated in the trial, and [672]*672also certain employees of tlie defendant company. At the request of the trial court, a ladder was procured and placed in the approximate location of the ladder upon which plaintiff was working at the time of the accident. The court ascended the ladder and viewed the surroundings from that location and at the same time had a truck moved on the cement platform below. He also had pointed out to him the location of certain employees who had given testimony in the trial.

Following the sustaining of the motion for a new trial, the trial court, conveyed to counsel for plaintiff the narrative attending his view of the premises. On the day following the filing of entry sustaining motion for new trial, counsel for plaintiff filed a motion to vacate the entry on the ground of misconduct of the trial court, counsel for defendant and its employees. On July 30 following an amended motion was filed and on August 7, a second amended motion. During the pendency of these motions and prior to the oral hearing had on August 7, depositions of the trial court and others were taken by plaintiff. On August 30, 1934, the trial court overruled plaintiff’s mo\ion. The entry reads as follows:

“On due consideration of all evidence herein submitted in the briefs, said second amended motion by plaintiff to vacate and annul the entry of July 25, 1934, for judgment for plaintiff on the verdict of the jury herein is overruled to which plaintiff excepts.”

On September 21, 1934, plaintiff filed petition in error in the Court of Appeals. The bill of exceptions had previously been filed and within time duly certified. Briefs of plaintiff in error, defendant in error and reply brief of plaintiff in error were filed in order, the latter under date of June 17, 1935.

On June 18, 1935, defendant in error filed motion to dismiss petition in error on the principal ground that the judgment of the trial court sustaining motion for new trial was not a final order.

Counsel for The Pullman Company in support of their motion to dismiss cited the case of Young v Shallenberger, 53 Oh St 291, 300, 301, 302, making the claim that this was a leading case in Ohio; and announcing the rule that the granting or overruling of a motion to set aside a verdict of a jury and granting a new trial is not a final judgment or order from which error could be prosecuted. Among other-cases cited were reported decisions of Ohio courts, the last being the case of Huff v Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 127 Oh St 94. In none of these cases did the court have under consideration the question of misconduct of the trial court.

Brief of counsel for plaintiff urged that the situation in the instant case constituted an exception to the general rule and cites many Ohio cases from which the inference was drawn that misconduct of counsel or the court’s abuse of discretion would warrant the exception to the general rule. None of the Ohio cases is directly in point. The case of Strode, Exr. v Strode, 194 Ky. 665, (240 SW 368), (27 A.L.R. 313) is in point and supports the contention of plaintiff.

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Related

Webster v. Pullman Co.
200 N.E. 188 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1935)
Elston v. McGlauflin
140 P. 396 (Washington Supreme Court, 1914)
Atlantic & Birmingham Railway Co. v. Mayor of Cordele
54 S.E. 155 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1906)
Thompson v. State
75 S.E. 357 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1912)
Adams v. State
158 S.E. 609 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1931)
Strode v. Strode
240 S.W. 368 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1922)

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Bluebook (online)
22 Ohio Law. Abs. 670, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webster-v-pullman-co-ohioctapp-1936.