Illinois Central R. R. v. Jordan
Illinois Central R. R. v. Jordan
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellee’s mare was killed by appellant’s train within the corporate limits of Kosciusko; and just before she was struck the train was running at a greater rate of speed than six miles an hour, in the corporate limits of the town. Under these circumstances, it is no defense that the speed of the train had been checked to some extent, and that it ivas running at a less rate than six miles an hour at the very moment the collision occurred. N. O., etc., R. R. Co. v. Toulme, 59 Miss. 284.
Appellant is liable for the value of the animal, unless the restriction imposed by §' 1047 of the code on the speed of locomotives and cars passing through towns, cities, and villages is limited to the improved and inhabited portions of such localities, and does not apply to the entire passage through their corporate limits. On the face of the statute no such limitation is suggested.
, The statute subordinates the advantages of rapid travel and transportation to the public safety and convenience, in communities where property and population are aggregated. The true view is, as said in V. & M. R. R. Co. v. McGowan, 62 Miss. 682, that the statute was passed for the protection of life and property with reference to the known danger to both in cities, towns, and villages from -the rapid motion of locomotives and ears. Unquestionably, protection from such -danger is more reliable and effectual when the speed of cars and locomotives is regulated by legally defined corporate boundaries, than when left to the irregular and varying lines ©f settlement and improvement. If it can be done, the statute must be construed so as to accomplish the object intended by its framers. It is not inconsistent with the terms, and it comports both with the spirit and object of the statute, to ajiply its provisions to organized, incorporated towns, cities, and villages, including the territory embraced in their limits as fixed by law.
It does not appear from the record that the corporate limits of Kosciusko are so large and disproportionate to its population and the wants and necessities of its citizens, as to seriously affect the interests of commerce passing through, it from delays occasioned by observing the requirements of the statute, nor that the running of locomotives and cars therein is regulated, as in the cases cited for appellant in 7th and 19th Am. & Eng. Railroad Cases, merely by an unreasonable city ordinance, and we are of opinion that the objection to the testimony offered to show the character of that part of the town in which the animal was killed was properly sustained,-and that appellant has no cause to complain of the judgment from which it appeals. Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. De Witt C. Jordan
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Railroad. Injury done whilst running more than six miles per hour. Male of speed, at instant of accident. Section 1047, Code of 1880. Under § 1047, Code of 1880, which provides a right of action in favor of anyone injured by the locomotives or cars of a railroad company “whilst running at a greater rate of speed than six miles an hour, through any city, town, or village,” it is no defense in a suit for damages for the killing of a horse within the corporate limits of a town that the train had been checked up to a rate of speed less than six miles per hout at the very instant of the killing, though just previously running at a greater rate of speed than six miles per hour. 2. Same. Section 1047, Code of 1880, construed. “City, town, or milage”—meaning of. The words “city, town, or village,” as used in the above quotation from $ 1047 of the Code of 1880, must be construed as referring to an incorporated city, town, or village, and the statute applies to all violations of its terms within the legal or corporate limits of such city, town, or village, without regard to the irregular and variable lines of settlement and improvement. 3. Same. Action against, under $ 1047, Code of 18S0. JEoidence of nonAnhahitation of part of town where injury occurred. In an action based upon a violation of the statute referred to, if it be not shown that the corporate limits of the city, town, or village in which the injury is alleged to have occurred is disproportionate to the needs of its citizens, and seriously affects the interests of commerce passing through it from delays occasioned by observing the requirements of the statute, evidence that such violation occurred in an uninhabited part of the town is inadmissible.