Williams v. Southern Pacific Railroad

9 P. 152, 2 Cal. Unrep. 613, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 885
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 28, 1885
DocketNo. 9272
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 9 P. 152 (Williams v. Southern Pacific Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 9 P. 152, 2 Cal. Unrep. 613, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 885 (Cal. 1885).

Opinion

SEARLS, C.

This is an action to recover damages for an injury received by the plaintiff from defendant’s railroad ears. [615]*615Plaintiff had judgment for fifteen thousand dollars, from which judgment, and from an order denying a motion for new trial, defendant appeals.

The material averments of the complaint are that defendant is a corporation, the owner and manager of a certain railroad extending southerly from the town of Castroville, in the county of Monterey, to the city of Salinas, in the same county, and of the rolling stock on such road; that on the twenty-third day of July, 1882, the defendant was running a train, composed of a locomotive engine and cars, on said road; and that, through the negligence, carelessness and fault of the defendant in running and operating such train, the same struck and ran over the plaintiff, the wheels thereof passing over and crushing the right foot of plaintiff, so that it had to be, and was on the same day, amputated above the ankle-joint. The answer denies all negligence, carelessness or fault by or on the part of defendant, and avers that whatever injuries or damages were received, suffered or sustained by said plaintiff were in consequence solely of the negligence and culpable carelessness of the plaintiff, without any fault on the part of defendant.

It is urged by counsel for respondent that the statement on motion for new trial cannot be considered by this court, because, as is contended, there is nothing in the record showing that the statement was used on the motion. The statement was settled by the superior judge, and duly certified as true and correct on the third day of September, 1883, and thereafter, on the seventeenth day of September, the motion for a new trial was by the court denied. The record on appeal is properly certified by the clerk of the county of Monterey and ex officio clerk of the superior court in and for said county. We are referred to Nash v. Harris, 57 Cal. 242, and Simpson v. Ogg, 18 Nev. 28, 1 Pac. 827, in support of respondent’s contention.

In Nash v. Harris, which was a motion to set aside a judgment, certain affidavits and papers were on file, but which were not embodied in any statement or bill of exceptions, or in any way authenticated, and the court, after holding that they were in no way identified as having been used on the motion, proceeds as follows: “We cannot indulge in presumptions of papers which were used in the court below on the [616]*616hearing of a motion. To he considered, they must he made part of the record of the case, by a bill of exceptions, or be authenticated by the judge who tried the case, in such a way as to leave no doubt, when found in the transcript, that they are the papers which were before him when he acted, and upon which he decided. Unauthenticated papers in a transcript in which there is no bill of exceptions constitute no part of a record which can be considered upon appeal.”

In Simpson v. Og'g the supreme court of Nevada held that a statement on motion for new trial, based upon a statement not agreed to by the parties or their attorneys, and not certified as correct by the judge, in accordance with the statute, could not be considered on appeal.

The object of a statement or bill of exceptions is to make that record which before was not record, but rested only in the recollection of the court or counsel, or the minutes of the clerk: De Johnson v. Sepulbeda, '5 Cal. 149. And when a statement on motion for new trial is certified by the judge of the court in the manner provided by law, and filed with the clerk, it becomes a part of the record. It is not the filing of a document, like that under consideration, which gives to it its character as a record, but the certificate of the judge as provided by section 659 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and the filing thereof, which impresses it with that character.

The notice of motion for a new trial in this ease specified, among other things, that the motion would be based on “a statement of the case.” The statement was prepared, settled and authenticated by the judge, and filed in due time. Thus prepared, settled and filed, it will be presumed it was used on the hearing of the motion for new trial; and, coming here as a part of the record on appeal under section 661 of the Code of Civil Procedure, duly certified by the clerk, it is entitled to consideration, without further identification or proof that it was used on the motion for a new trial: Towdy v. Ellis, 22 Cal. 651. It occupies a different position from affidavits and papers having no official sanction, and which, although filed, require official designation to identify them as having been used.

Plaintiff, being intoxicated, laid down alongside defendant’s railroad, and fell asleep, with his feet so near the rail that a passing passenger train struck and crushed his right foot, [617]*617rendering amputation necessary. The place of the accident was near a private crossing of the railroad, known as “Kelleher’s Crossing,” between Castroville and Salinas, and from one mile to one and a half miles from the latter place. The injury was caused by the engine of defendant’s regular passenger train, bound south, and running from eighteen to twenty miles per hour, over a straight road and level track. Defendant’s engineer, in charge of the train, saw plaintiff alongside the track, and stopped his train, but not until the engine had struck him, and passed nearly or quite its length beyond the point where he lay. The case depends largely upon the question of contributory negligence by plaintiff.

He who is injured by the mere negligence of another cannot recover compensation therefor, if, by his own ordinary negligence or willful wrong, he proximately contributed to produce the injury of which he complains, so that but for his concurring and co-operating fault the injury would not have happened to him; except where the more proximate cause of the injury is the omission of the other party, after becoming aware of the danger to which the former is exposed, to use a proper degree of care to avoid injuring him. The rule, as thus stated, is that laid down by Shearman & Redfield on Negligence (section 25), and is amply supported by authority.

When plaintiff laid down upon the line of defendant’s railroad, over which, as he knew, trains were running, and in such proximity to its track that he was liable to injury from such passing trains, that he was guilty of negligence cannot be doubted. He was a trespasser upon the roadway—was at a point thereon where he had no right to be. It is true, he had been expelled from defendant’s cars for alleged nonpayment of fare some three hours previously, at or near the point where he was injured, and, for a reasonable time thereafter, may be deemed to have had a license to be upon the line of the road; but the evidence tends to show that he visited a house near at hand and returned to the place of his injury. Such expulsion from the cars could give him no permanent right to locate and remain upon the road.

A man may contribute to his injury without affecting his right to recover. In order to defeat his right to recover, he must have not only contributed to the injury, but must have contributed to it under circumstances showing negligence on [618]*618Ms part. He must have heen in fault, must have failed to use ordinary care for his own protection, and the want of such care must not only have contributed, but have contributed proximately, to the injury.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Pickett
1934 OK 487 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1934)
Corrigan v. Oklahoma Coal Co.
1918 OK 51 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1918)
Missouri, O. & G. Ry. Co. v. Miller
1915 OK 3 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1915)
Basler v. Sacramento Gas & Elec. Co.
111 P. 530 (California Supreme Court, 1910)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 P. 152, 2 Cal. Unrep. 613, 1885 Cal. LEXIS 885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-southern-pacific-railroad-cal-1885.