Werlein v. Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transport Co.

66 N.W.2d 185, 267 Wis. 392, 46 A.L.R. 2d 1091, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 311
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 5, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 66 N.W.2d 185 (Werlein v. Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transport Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Werlein v. Milwaukee Electric Railway & Transport Co., 66 N.W.2d 185, 267 Wis. 392, 46 A.L.R. 2d 1091, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 311 (Wis. 1954).

Opinion

Cuerie, J.

The only claim of negligence asserted by plaintiff against the defendant was the latter’s failure to equip the trackless trolley bus with windows of safety glass instead of plate glass. It is the contention of the defendant that there was no duty imposed upon it to equip the windows of its trackless trolley bus with safety glass either at common law or by statute.

We will first consider the issue of defendant’s liability at common law. The degree of care imposed upon common carriers of passengers at common law is well stated in the opinion of this court by Mr. Justice Owen in Ormond v. Wisconsin Power & Light Co. (1927), 194 Wis. 305, 307, 216 N. W. 489, and we quote therefrom as follows:

“The rule which prevails in this state was deliberately framed and stated in Ferguson v. Truax, 136 Wis. 637, 643, 118 N. W. 251, as follows:
“ ‘For the safety of their passengers, common carriers are required to exercise the highest degree of care reasonably to be expected from human vigilance and foresight, in view of the mode and character of the conveyance adopted and consistent with the practical prosecution of their business.’
“This rule has been strictly adhered to in Merton v. Michigan Central R. Co. 150 Wis. 540, 137 N. W. 767; Anderson v. Yellow Cab Co. 179 Wis. 300, 191 N. W. 748; Carson v. Green Cab Co. 186 Wis. 566, 203 N. W. 394. In Ferguson v. Truax, 136 Wis. 637, at p. 643 (118 N. W. 251), commenting on the rule, the court said:
“ ‘Expressing the elements of this rule in other terms, it imposes on carriers of passengers the highest degree of care that men of reasonable vigilance and foresight ordinarily exercise in the practical conduct of such business under the same or similar circumstances.’
“Whether the conduct of the common carrier in a given particular accords with its legal duty in the premises is to be tested by comparing its conduct with that generally exercised by those engaged in the same business under the same or similar circumstances.1’ (Emphasis supplied.)

[396]*396In the instant case there was no testimony or evidence adduced that it was customary for other common carriers operating trackless trolley buses in Wisconsin to equip such buses with safety glass rather than plate glass. The only testimony relating to this point was the stipulated fact that other transport companies did operate streetcars and trackless trolley buses with the same type double-strength plate-glass windows with which the trackless trolley bus was equipped in which plaintiff sustained her injuries.

In the opinion in Ormond v. Wisconsin Power & Light Co., supra, this court quoted with approval the following statement from its decision in Jensen v. Wisconsin Central R. Co. (1911), 145 Wis. 326, 335, 128 N. W. 982, as follows:

“The proper standard of defendant’s duty was the care which the great mass of mankind ordinarily exercise under the same or similar circumstances. Now and then it appears that the customary way of doing things is utterly disregardful of personal safety, where it is said, the mere fact that the way adopted was the customary way, is not a defense against the claim of liability. They are very extreme cases, quite different from one where men of judgment and experience commonly for a long time have been accustomed to arrange premises and instrumentalities for an ordinary business enterprise' like a railroad, in a particular way, found by experience to be reasonably safe and convenient.”

In the case of Williams v. New Jersey-New York Transit Co. (2d Cir. 1940), 113 Fed. (2d) 649 (certiorari denied, 311 U. S. 712, 61 Sup. Ct. 393, 85 L. Ed. 463), plaintiff was injured while riding in the bus of the defendant as a result of a brief case belonging to another passenger falling out of the overhead luggage rack and striking the plaintiff on the head. The plaintiff contended that the defendant was negligent in the manner in which such overhead luggage rack was constructed. There 'was no evidence introduced as to whether there was in existence any prevalent standard for [397]*397the construction of such overhead luggage racks. The circuit court of appeals reversed the judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon the jury’s verdict and directed dismissal of the complaint. In the opinion written by Judge Learned Hand the court stated (p. 651) :

“From these decisions we do not see how we can avoid concluding that in New Jersey a passenger in order to recover because of a defect in the equipment of a common carrier— though not because of a defect in its operation — must show that the carrier diverged from some standard which has been in general use in equipment of the kind or at least that the construction is unusual. When the evidence leaves both issues at large, the carrier apparently may provide what if thinks best, and a jury is not allowed to fix another standard.” (Emphasis supplied.)

A case in which the facts are nearly “on all fours” with those in the case at bar is that of Sengel v. Columbus & Southern Ohio Electric Co. (1941), 69 Ohio App. 402, 40 N. E. (2d) 170. The plaintiff in that case was injured while riding as a passenger in the electric trolley bus of the defendant as the result of the shattering of a plate-glass window due to a snowball being thrown against the same by a person unknown to the parties. The same contention was advanced in behalf of the plaintiff therein, as in the instant case, that the defendant, in the exercise of the degree of care owing to her, had the obligation to place safety glass in.the window of its coach. The trial court directed a verdict in favor of the defendant and the appellate court affirmed. In its opinion the court stated (69 Ohio App. 405, 40 N. E. (2d) 171):

“There is no allegation nor any observation in the opening' statement of counsel to the jury to the effect that.it is the general practice of carriers operating trolley buses to equip such buses with-safety glass. Until this situation appears, to hold that the defendant may be charged with the obligation to equip the windows of its buses with safety glass would be [398]*398enjoining upon it the observance of a higher degree of care than is placed upon other carriers in the prudent operation of their cars.”

Plaintiff relies upon Fisher v. Waupaca E. L. & R. Co. (1910), 141 Wis. 515, 124 N. W. 1005. That case involved an action for the wrongful death of a woman who was thrown from the buckboard in which she was riding onto defendant's streetcar tracks as a result of the horse drawing the vehicle running away, and an approaching streetcar ran over her body. The plaintiff alleged, as a ground of negligence against the defendant carrier, the fact that the front of the streetcar was not equipped with a fender, the purpose of which being to pick up any object in the path of the car in danger of being run over. Prior to the accident the legislature had enacted a statute requiring streetcars to be equipped with such fenders but the effective date of the enactment was subsequent to that of the accident. A divided court affirmed a judgment for the plaintiff rendered upon a jury verdict.

However, the Fisher Case

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66 N.W.2d 185, 267 Wis. 392, 46 A.L.R. 2d 1091, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/werlein-v-milwaukee-electric-railway-transport-co-wis-1954.