Costa v. Illinois Cent. R.
Costa v. Illinois Cent. R.
Opinion of the Court
For entering New Orleans the railroad of the Illinois Central Railroad Company passes through a gap left open for that purpose in the upper protection levee of the city. In 1912, at the time when the river was at a very high stage, prudence dictated that this gap should be reduced as far as possible without interfering with the passing of the trains, and the earth with which this was done was held up by fascines, or what plaintiff in his petition calls a fence. Plaintiff alleges that one of the planks of this “fence” projected horizontally to within 10 or 12 inches of the side of passing trains,
An exception of no cause of action was filed, and was sustained.
Plaintiff likens the case to those in which the owners of dangerous machines attractive to children have been held culpably negligent for leaving them so exposed as to tempt children to come and play with them, to the injury of the children.
Suffice it to say that this analogy is purely imaginary on the part of the plaintiff’s learned counsel. Evidently the defendant railroad company and board of commissioners owed no duty to the children of the neighborhood or to the parents of these children to leave enough space in this gap for the children stealing rides by hanging to- the outside of freight trains to pass safely through.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COSTA v. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.) Levees 36 — Railroads Where defendant railroad, in entering a city, passed through a gap left for the purpose in a levee, which gap during an unusually high stage of the river, was filled up as much as possible while yet allowing the passage of trains, and plaintiff’s child was killed while stealing a ride on a train by being- carried against a plank which projected to within a foot of the side of the train in the gap, plaintiff had no cause of action for the death against the railroad or the board of levee .commissioners. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Levees, Cent. Dig. § 11; Dec. Dig.