Rice v. Wabash Railroad
Rice v. Wabash Railroad
Opinion of the Court
On July 31, 1899, plaintiff was one of a section gang repairing defendant’s track in Montgomery county. A rainstorm had driven the workmen to New Florence for shelter and dry clothing, and after the weather had cleared, they started to resume work on two hand cars, plaintiff being on the leading car and one of three men in the rear, assisting in propelling it. The foreman of defendant in charge of the men was on the forward car and by his directions the cars ran close together. Respondent sustained the injuries complained of, as he averred, by being knocked off by a collision between the two cars, but as asserted, by appellant, by slipping off from his own carelessness, without- any encounter of the ears.
The fourth instruction for plaintiff was in the following words:
“The court instructs the jury that if they believe, from the evidence, that the defendant through and by its agents, servants and employees, whilst operating two disconnected hand cars, on the thirty-first day of July, 1899, were racing, the hand car behind trying to overtake the front car on which plaintiff was standing, and if you further believe and find from the evidence that the rear hand car did overtake and negligently strike the front hand car and that some employee of defendant on the front end of the rear hand car negligently struck the person of the plaintiff, from the rear, whilst plaintiff was riding on the rear end of the front hand car, and whilst plaintiff was exercising ordinary care and prudence, and thereby threw plaintiff off of the hand car causing him thereby to be injured, then your verdict will be for the plaintiff and you are instructed to so find. ’ ’
The language in which this instruction is framed is criticised as projecting into the case and submitting to the jury, an issue not presented by the pleadings nor sustained by the proof. The testimony of defendant tended to show that the two cars were racing, as was the habit, the front car trying to keep ahead of the rear one, and the latter car striving to overtake the one ahead. The language in which the averment of negligence was pleaded, comprehended such character of testimony, especially when elicited by defendant, repeated and not objected to by it, and whether the purpose of defendant’s servants in the operation of the rear car at high speed, was to overtake the forward
“If the jury find from the evidence in this case that the injury to the plaintiff at the time and place in question was caused solely by any want of care on the part of the plaintiff in connection with the other servants of the defendant then and there engaged with plaintiff in operating the hand car on the railroad of defendant, and that the injuries here sued for were the result of such want of care on the part of the plaintiff or of his fellow-servants, or of both, at said time and place, then they are instructed that the plaintiff can not recover in this action, and your verdict must be for the defendant.”
The court modified the instruction by omitting the words, “or of both,” as drafted by defendant and substituting “and” in lieu of the disjunctive “or,” thus declining to instruct that defendant was entitled to the verdict if the injuries suffered were the result of such want of care on the part of plaintiff, or his fellow-servants, or of both, and properly instructing that such injuries, to preclude recovery, must have been the result of such want of care on the part of the plaintiff and of his fellow-servants, as in the original form the defendant would have been relieved of liability for negligence of its own servants not participated in by plaintiff.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CHARLES V. RICE v. WABASH RAILROAD COMPANY
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published