Sweany v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.
Sweany v. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff was injured by stepping or falling between one of defendant’s freight box cars and its depot platform, while attempting to pass from the car to the platform at a little village called Tebbetts, after night. The negligence charged is not having the station building lighted, heated and open, and not having the platform lighted. Defendant’s demurrer to the evidence was overruled and the verdict and judgment were for plaintiff.
Plaintiff went on a train from Jefferson City to Tebbetts. He was acquainted with Eeifsteck, who lived in the village, about 300 feet from, the depot, and he and a man named Davis, engaged a conveyance from Eeifsteck’s boys and, taking two of them along, the four started into the country. It was in March and while the roads were quite muddy, yet some of the witnesses thought it was freezing a little; at any rate the weather was stated to be “ cool and damp. ’ ’ While on the trip there was a mist or possibly little flurries
Defendant’s demurrer to the evidence should have been. sustained. Defendant, ordinarily, was not lia
Our statute (Sec. 3094, R. S. 1909) specifically requires that stations at crossings with other roads shall be kept lighted and heated a reasonable time before departure of trains. The first part of the section requires that railway carriers ‘ ‘ shall furnish sufficient accommodations for the'transportation of all passengers . ... as shall, within a reasonable time previous thereto, be offered for transportation,” etc. Whether this provision refers to waiting rooms, we need not enquire, since it is manifestly the duty of the carrier, aside from a statute, to keep its stations open, lighted and heated such reasonable length of time before the arrival of trains, as we have above indicated. [Sargent v. Ry. Co., 114 Mo. l. c. 355; Draper v. Railroad, 165 Ind. 117, 120.] In some states a penalty is provided if they are not opened and lighted one half
Plaintiff, though knowing there was no light or heat at the station at night, went to it two full hours before the train was due. He got into the freight car from his free choice and not from necessity. He had the Riefsteck boys with him and if he did not wish to arouse the hotel man, he could have remained in the nearby bam where the horses had been put away, until a few moments of train time. [Sandifer’s Admr. v. Ry. Co., 28 Ky. Law, 464.] Besides knowing the depot was not lighted when he went into the freight car, he knew it would not be when he would come out, for he stated he had taken a train there at other times.
So, conceding that it was defendant’s general duty to have had its depot building open and lighted a reasonable time before the train was due, plaintiff is in no position to complain. His injury did not result from lack of light in his approaching the station in the regular and proper way. It came from his having voluntarily placed himself in what turned out to be a hazardous place. He went into that place without defendant’s invitation or fault, and he got out at his own risk.
The judgment is reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.