State ex rel. Lilley v. Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad
State ex rel. Lilley v. Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This suit was brought, in the name of the State, for the benefit of the equitable plaintiff, for damages for the killing of his infant daughter by one of the trains of the appellee -company at a public crossing of its tracks.
At the close of all the testimony, in the trial of the ease "below, the Court granted the prayer of the defendant in•structing the jury to find a verdict in its favor for want of ■evidence legally sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to recover. 'The Court had refused to grant that prayer when offered at dhe close of the plaintiff’s testimony.
The plaintiff offered two prayers both of which were rejected. The first of these prayers predicated the plaintiff’s right to recover upon the finding by the jury that his daughter’s death had been caused by the negligence of the defendant’s servants in charge of the railway crossing; and the second asserted that, even though the plaintiff’s daughter had ’been guilty of contributory negligence, if the jury found that after the railway’s servants became aware of her perilous ■situation they “failed to make proper and reasonable exertions whereby her life could have been saved,” he was entitled to recover.
The jury in obedience to the Court’s instruction found for the defendant and from the judgment entered on the verdict in its favor the plaintiff took the present appeal.
The only exception appearing in the record was taken to the Court’s action upon the prayers offered at the close of the case. As the granting of the defendant’s prayer taking the case from the jury necessarily involved the rejection of those of the plaintiff, they need not be separately considered by us, but all of the prayers can be disposed of together as presenting the opposing views of a single contention.
The material facts testified to on behalf of the plaintiff, which for the purposes of this inquiry must be taken to be true, are as follows: On Hay 5th, 1909, the appellant’s daughter Ellen, then a little over twelve years old, and her half sister Mary Humphreys, then sixteen years old, were going together northerly along Main street in the town of Northeast, in Cecil County, with the intention of crossing the railway tracks of the appellee, at their intersection with that street, where there was a public crossing provided with a safety gate on each side of the tracks. When they reached the crossing they found an engine shifting cars across the street on one of the tracks and the safety gates lowered on both sides of the tracks. They stood on the street outside of the gate on the south side of the railroad until the shifting of the cars ceased. At that time the shifting engine was at rest with its front portion on a part of the crossing. Without waiting to be assured of clear tracks by the raising of the safety gate in front of them, the two girls went under or around the end of the lowered gate and attempted to cross the railway. There were four parallel tracks at that point. The
The same witness testified that while she and her companion were attempting to cross the tracks McDowell, the railway servant in charge of the safety gates, stood at the watch box at the gate, on the side of the railroad toward which they were going, with his arms crossed leaning on the, lowered gate looking toward them all of the time and that he did not call to them. She further said that, she and her companion who was killed were familiar with the locality of the accident and had frequently gone over the tracks at that crossing.
Fpon that state of facts it is insisted on behalf of the appellant that, although his daughter Arms culpably negligent at the time of the fatal accident; the failure of the gate keeper To give other and further Avarning to the tAAro girls, Avhen he suav them approaching the track on which the train Avas coming, than that of keeping doAvn the safety gate in their plain view, brings the case Avithin the operation of what is knoAvn as “the last- clear chance” rule, and renders the defendant liable for his daughter’s death. That claim is made upon the authority of Kehoe’s Case, 83 Md. 434; Neubeur’s Case, 62 Md. 391; Kean’s Case, 61 Md. 154; McNab’s Case, 94 Md. 719; Tolson’s Case, 139 U. S. 551; Ives’ Case, 144 U. S. 408, and others.
Tn those cases it Avas held that if the setwants of a railway com] muy avIio are in charge of a moAung train or car become
Here the only negligence with which the defendant is charged is that of which the gate keeper is alleged to have been guilty in failing to call out to or otherwise warn the appellant’s daughter of the coming train when he is said to have seen her and her companion actually crossing .the tracks. But was he guilty of any negligence in the discharge of his duty toward them ? He had warned them of danger as they approached the crossing by lowering the safety gate in their faces. He had continued to warn them of further danger, after the shifting had been suspended or completed, by maintaining the gates in a lowered position in their plain sight. That was the most appropriate warning he could give them. "With the gates still lowered, the danger signal in full sight, the two girls deliberately disregarded the warning provided by law for their protection and fully displayed by the gate keeper. Even when they had passed the shifting engine and were going toward the track on which the train was approaching he. continued to warn them of their danger by keeping the gate lowered in their full view, and, in accordance with the testimony of the survivor of them, showing by leaning on it with folded arms that the time had not arrived when it could with propriety be raised. If they acted upon the mistaken belief that the gates were dowm solely because of
Even when the gate keeper saw the two girls approaching the track on which the train was coming it was not his duty to anticipate that, in spite of the danger signal of the lowered gate plainly visible to them, they would attempt to cross in-advance of the coming train On the contrary, as we held in Neubeur’s Case, 62 Md. 401; Savington’s Case, 71 Md. 590; McNab’s Case, 94 Md. 729, and McMahon’s Case, 97 Md. 487, the gateman “would have been fully justified in supposing that they would not venture to cross until after the passage of the train.” If we so held in those cases, in none of which was the person, approaching or upon the railway track,, warned of impending danger by a lowered safety gate, how much more strongly does the principle there announced apply to a case like the present one, where the persons approaching-the track had open to their view at every step they took a positive warning to halt before they reached it ? As the evidence on behalf of the plaintiff shows that his daughter was employed in a shirt factory and was able to earn seventy-five cents a day, if she worked industriously, it must be presumed that she had sufficient intelligence to appreciate the significance of the position and movement of the safety gates at the railway crossing with which she was so familiar.
In view of the facts of this case to which we have referred we do not regard it as falling within the operation of the last clear chance rule, but we are of opinion that the learned Judge below was correct in his rulings upon the prayers, and will therefore affirm the judgment appealed from.
Judgment affirmed with costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE OF MARYLAND, USE OF CECIL F. LILLEY v. THE PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON RAIROAD COMPANY
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Accident at Railroad Crossing—Going Under Lowered Safety Gates. Two girls, one twelve and tlie other sixteen years of age, walking along a street in a town, came to a railroad crossing where there were, four parallel tracks. They found the safety gates lowered and a shifting engine was moving in front. When that engine stopped at the end of the crossing, the gates wore not raised, but the watchman in charge stood leaning on them. The girls looked to see if a train was coming, but their view of the tracks in one direction Avas obstructed by the standing engine and cars attached to it. They then went under the lowered gates and crossed the first two tracks, but. as they reached the. third track a rapidly running train came along from the direction in Aidiich they had not been able 'to see. The older girl jumped back in time to avoid' injury, but the younger one was struck and killed by the-train. There aauis no evidence that those in charge of the-train could have, avoided the collision after seeing the. girls. Tn an action to recover damages for the death so occasioned, held, that the jury Avas properly instructed t.o return a A'erdict for the defendant railway company, since it Avas not the duty of the watchman, after loAvering the safety gates, also to Avarn the girls by word of mouth not to -craAAd under them, nor was he bound to anticipate that they aatuiM attempt to cross the tracks in the face of the. danger signal of the loAvered gates, and the. injury was caused solely by the negligence of the deceased, who Avas acquainted Avit.h the crossing and of sufficient intelligence to knoAv the meaning of the lowered safety gates.