Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railroad v. Mask
Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railroad v. Mask
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The juror Hartgroves, being in the employment of appellant was subject to challenge, for that cause. He was not omni exceptions major. He would have been disqualified at common law, and we have no statute removing such disqualification. It does not matter that he had the self-confidence to swear that he could try the cause impartially. It was not for him to determine his competency on that point. When the fact was developed that he was in the employment of appellant, the law adjudged him incompetent. The law does not lead jurors into the temptations of a position where they may secure advantage to themselves by doing wrong, nor permit the possibility of the wavering balance being shaken by self-interest. Hubbard v. Rutledge, 57 Miss. 7; 3 Black. Com. 363; Thompson & Merriam on Juries, § 185.
The cause assigned for the challenge of the juror Young was without merit. That part of § 1661 of the code which furnishes cause of challenge to tales jurors did not apply to him. He was not a tales juror, but a member of the regular panel for the week. A tales juror is one added to a deficient panel so as to supply the deficiency. Bouvier’s Dictionary.
No principles of law are better settled than that a railroad company carrying passengers, in order to afford them opportunity to leave the train at their places of destination, is bound to have the names of different stations announced upon the arrival of the train, and then to stop the train for a sufficient length of time for passengers to get off with safety, and that a railroad company is liable for the doss or injury which may result to a passenger for a violation of this duty. Thompson on Car. of Passengers 226; Railroad Co. v. Scurr, 59 Miss. 456; Southern Railroad Co. v. Hendricks, 40 Ib. 374.
It is not pretended that the name of the station at which Mask was to get off was announced when the train arrived at that point. Some of the witnesses say that the train was stopped, while others say it was not, and there is no explanation why Mask, who left his seat and went to the platform to get off, did not do so if the train was in fact stopped. In this conflict of testimony, it was for the
The circumstances that as the train approached the station and its speed was reduced, Mask, with the view of getting off, left his seat and went to the rear platform of the passenger car and closed the door after him, and that the conductor afterward went to the front door or into the coach, and, not seeing Mask or his companion, supposed they had left the train, and thereupon ordered the train to move on, do not relieve the company from liability. 3t was the duty of the conductor to know that he had passengers for that station, to have the name of the station announced, and to stop the train. He had no right to assume, because he did not see Mask and his companion in the passenger coach, that they had leaped in the dark from the moving train. Such risk is not generally taken. Sane and prudent people do no such thing.
The facts in evidence did not warrant exemplary damages, and they were not asked or awarded. Whether the injury complained of, resulted from the failure of the company to stop its train, and what actual damages were proved, were questions for the jury, and not for this court to decide. The testimony produced by appellee, on these points, was competent, and we are unable to say, that it was not sufficient to justify and support the verdict.
The action of the court in regard to the instructions, is free from error. The instructions given could not well have been more favorable to appellant. The modification of its second instruction, in reference to the measure of damages, by inserting “ actual ” in place of “ nominal,” was proper. If appellee was entitled to recover anything, it was more than nominal damages.
Affirmed,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad Company v. Jessie O. Mask, Administratrix
- Cited By
- 15 cases
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- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Juror. Competency of. Employee of party. An employee of one of the parties to an action is incompetent to sit as a juror in the trial thereof, and should be rejected upon a peremptory challenge. Hubbard v. Rutledge, 57 Miss. 7, cited. 2. Same. Competency of. Tales juror. Section 1661, Code of 1880, construed. Section 1661, Code of 1880, which provides that “it shall be a good cause to challenge any tales juror, that he has served as such in the trial of as many as three cases at that or the last preceding term of the court,” does not apply to a juror who is a member of the regular panel for the week, but only to a juror called to supply a deficiency in such panel. 3. Railroad Company. Failure to slop at station. Liability for. A railroad.company carrying passengers is liable in damages for any injury resulting to a passenger on its train, from the failure of its employees to call out the name of the station and stop sufficiently long for such passenger to get off the train, at his destination. R. R. Co. v. Scurr, 59 Miss. 456, cited. 4. Same, Failure _ to stop train at station. Mistake of conductor. Case in judgment. And, in case of such failure on the part of a railroad company, it is not relieved from liability by the fact that, after the train had begun to slow Up at the station where a passenger wished to get off, the conductor looked into the train and failing to see the passenger, who had gone on the rear platform of the coach, signaled the train to go ahead, because he thought such passenger had gotten off. 5. Same. Injury from failure to stop train at station. Evidence of. Case in judgment. In an action for damages resulting from the failure of a railroad company to stop its train for a passenger to get off at the station of his destination, it is competent for the plaintiff to show that the train was not stopped at the station, but was only stopped after having passed the station and several hundred yards from it, where the passenger got off the train, and by reason of having been carried by the station missed his conveyance and was compelled to walk to his home, three-quarters of a mile, over a wet and muddy road at twelve o’clock at night, and that, being old and feeble, the walk and exposure caused him to contract a sickness from which he never recovered, and which rendered him unfit for attending to his business up to the time of his death. 6. Same. Failure to stop train. Measure of damages. Upon the state of case above set forth the plaintiff should not be limited in his recovery to nominal damages, but should be allowed actual damages, if anything.