Parker v. Southern Railway Co.
Parker v. Southern Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an appeal from the circuit court of Leflore county by Mrs. Cordelia Parker, who was plaintiff in the trial court, and the Southern Railway Company in Mississippi was defendant there and appellee here.
Plaintiff alleged in her declaration that she was a resident of the city of Greenwood, and was residing on the north side of defendant’s main line, and that on the 24th day of December, 1913, plaintiff left the depot of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, where she had been to meet her brother, about twelve o’clock at night, and was endeavoring to- reach her home, and to do so it was necessary to cross defendant’s railroad, and that a freight train of defendant was blocking all the crossings in .said city in this immediate vicinity, and it was impossible for her to cross said railroad track and reach her home. She charged that it was a very cold, disagreeable night, and was raining very hard. In trying to cross at the Main street crossing she found it blocked, and appealed to a brakeman on defendant’s train and asked him to have the crossing “cut” so that she could cross the tracks of
In support of this declaration the plaintiff testified that, in company with her husband, on the 24th day of December, 1913, she went to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley depot in the city of Greenwood for the purpose of meeting her brother, that the train was late, and did not reach there’until about twelve o’clock, and that it was necessary for her to cross the Southern Railroad tracks to reach her home. Leaving the depot that night, she tried to cross at three different crossings, the Church street crossing, the Walthall street crossing, and the Main street crossing, and that all these crossings were blocked by the cars of the appellee, that after she had tried to cross at both t]ie Church street and Walthall street crossings she tried at the Main street crossing, and, finding this blocked, she requested a brakeman in
The granting of the peremptory instruction in this case was error. The testimony for the plaintiff in this case showed a most willful disregard of plaintiff’s rights, resulting in considerable injury to her. Southern Railway Co. v. Floyd, 99 Miss. 519, 55 So. 287; Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. Engle, 102 Miss. 878, 60 So. 1; Terry v. New Orleans Great Northern R. R. Co., 103 Miss. 679, 60 So. 729, 44 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1069; Anderson v. Railroad Co., 81 Miss. 587, 33 So. 840; Railroad Co. v. Alexander, 62 Miss. 496; Railroad Co. v. Durfree, 69 Miss. 439, 13 So. 697.
It was error also to exclude the minute book showing the ordinance of the city of Greenwood prohibiting a railroad train to block a public crossing for a longer period of time than five minutes. The minute book was the original of the ordinance in question and was competent testimony, and material to plaintiff’s case:
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Parker v. Southern Railway Company in Mississippi
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- 1 case
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- Syllabus
- 1. Raiiboad. Operation. Obstruction of crossing. Evidence. Documentary evidence. Certified copies. In a suit for damages caused by the blocking of a street by a railroad train; where the evidence showed that defendant’s train blocked the street for one-half hour at midnight, preventing plaintiff from reaching her home from the depot of another railroad, and compelling her to stand out in a- cold rain, thereby causing sickness, and ruining her wearing apparel, a peremptory instruction for the defendant was error. 2. Same. In such case, it was error to exclude the minute book showing an ordinance of the city in which the injury occured, prohibiting a railroad train to block a public crossing for a longer period of time than five minutes. The minute book was the original of the ordinance in question and was conpetent testimony, and material to plaintiffs case.