Powers v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co.
Powers v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
On the evening of November 29, 1907, at about eight o’clock, the plaintiff was a passenger on the defendant’s passenger train from Wabasha to Lake City. When the train was within two blocks of the station at Lake City, and while it was moving, the plaintiff, believing that it had stopped, was injured while alighting therefrom by being thrown to the ground. This action was brought in the district court of the county of Wabasha to recover damages for her injuries. At the close of the evidence the court, on motion of the defendant, directed a verdict for the defendant, 'and the plaintiff appealed from an order denying her motion for a new trial.
The basis of the plaintiff’s cause of action as alleged in her complaint is that the defendant negligently directed her to alight from the moving train, which by reason of such direction she believed had stopped, and in attempting so tó do she was injured. The only question for our consideration is whether the evidence, taking the most favorable view of it for the plaintiff, fairly tends to establish the allegation of the complaint that defendant directed the plaintiff to get off the train when it was moving.
The most favorable evidence for the plaintiff is her own testimony, which, so far as it related to the issue whether the defendant directed her to get off the train when it was in motion, was as follows: “Q.‘ What did he [the porter] do, if anything? A. Well, he walked down the aisle past us and opened the door, and I thought the train had stopped, and I walked down to the door and asked him— Q. No; what did he do after he opened the door, or say? A. Well, he called ‘Lake City.’ * * * Q. And he opened that door
It is the claim of plaintiff’s counsel that it was the province of the jury to determine whether the words and acts of the porter imported a direction to get off the train before it stopped. Such would be the case, if his words and acts were fairly susceptible of moré than one meaning; but it is clear from her testimony that the porter did not direct her to then get off the moving car. To the specific question of her counsel, “How did he direct you?” she answered, “Well, he motioned with his hand which side I should get off at.” This, answer makes it clear that by the word “directed,” in her previous answer, she meant that he motioned to her the side to get off. The acts and words of the porter in answering the plaintiff cannot reasonably be construed as a direction or suggestion, express or implied, to her to get off the train when it was in motion.
The case of Larson v. Minneapolis & St. L. R. Co., 85 Minn. 387, 88 N. W. 994, is not here in point. In that case the doors of
We are of the opinion that the evidence in this case was clearly insufficient to sustain a finding that the defendant was guilty of negligence as charged in the complaint, and that the trial court correctly directed a verdict for the defendant.
Order affirmed.
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