Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Ure
Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Ure
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
: The original action was commenced December 20, 1890, by the parents of George D. Ure, a child two years and one week old, to recover damages for injuries resulting in his death on April 1, 1889. A trial at June term, 1891, resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiffs for $3,000,. and the defendant prosecutes its petition in error in this court for a review of said judgment.
The material facts, either undisputed or found by the jury in answer to questions propounded, may be summarized as follows : The child was killed at Grain-field by a passenger train of the defendant, running east, which struck him on the track. The home of the child was a little north of the railroad, and he was first seen, by some of the witnesses, in the slight depression or ditch north of the track, and creeping toward the rails, about 620 to 650 feet west of the depot and 336 feet east of the switch. The engine was west of the switch and 500 to 600 feet from the child when the engineer first saw him near the track and creeping toward the rails. He was not at any public street or crossing. The engineer discovered the presence of the child in a dangerous situation near the track in time to stop the train and avoid the injury if he had immediately used all the appliances provided on his en
We deem'it unnecessary to decide whether the court was correct, or not, in making a distinction as to the point of time when duty of the railroad company arises toward a conscious and an unconscious trespasser upon its track. No question was propounded to the jury as to the distance at which the child might have been seen if the engineer had been keeping a proper lookout; and these most material questions in the case were directly propounded to the jury in the plainest of terms: “How many feet was George D. Ure east of the engine when engineer Trow first discovered him ? ’ ’ And ‘ ‘ What was the distance ahead of the engine when the engineer first saw the child near the track?” the answer to each question being “From 500 to 600 feet.” It does seem reasonable that the jury understood either of these questions as seeking an answer as to what distance ahead of the engine the child was when he could have been seen by.the engineer, if he had been looking ahead on the track; and in this view, it is immaterial whether the instructions of the. court on this point were correct, or not,
The judgment of the court below will be affirmed.
: In my view, the testimony does not sustain the finding that the engineer discovered that George D. Ure was in a dangerous situation near the track in time to have stopped the train and avoided the injury. It was probably the result of the erroneous charge given to the jury, in holding that the engineer must anticipate the presence of trespassers upon the track, and that, if he could have seen the boy in time to have stopped the train, and by the exercise of proper care have avoided striking him, the company is liable. It is -well settled that the duty of the company toward the-trespasser is to avoid injury to him after his peril is actually discovered. While the boy could not have been guilty of contributory negligence, no duty arose toward him until those in charge of the train discovered that he was in a place of danger. After he was seen, a higher degree of care was required of the trainmen than if he had been an adult, and if they then ran the train upon him without doing all they reasonably could to prevent the injury, the company would be responsible. As the duty toward him did not commence until his presence was discovered, and as there can be no negligence without a breach of duty, the instruction of the court upon this question was erroneous and misleading.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.