Rosengarten v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad
Rosengarten v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This appeal brings up a judgment of nonsuit. The plaintiff, an infant, sued by her next friend to recover damages for an injury caused by the falling of a car window in a car in which she was sitting while riding as a passenger upon the defendant’s railroad. The negligence charged in the state of demand is the failure of the defendant to inspect and keep in order and repair the window fastenings and appliances that would prevent the window from falling.
The mother of the plaintiff, with the plaintiff and another daughter, Rose, boarded the train of the defendant at Highland avenue. They seated themselves in a double seat—Ethel, the plaintiff, sitting next to an open window. Rose sat opposite, facing Ethel, and next to a closed window, and the mother sat on the seat with Rose next to the aisle.
The mother testified on the trial that she opened the window next to Rose by pressing upon the lever on the window-
Ethel, the plaintiff, had her elbow resting on the windowsill, under the open sash, and when the train was going fast around a curve just west of Orange station both windows fell, the one where Ethel was sitting striking her on the arm near the elbow. The mother testifies that the conductor was told of the accident, and he asked her if she wished to have the window raised again, and being told “yes” he raised both windows, and had to exert some strength to make the plunger in the catch come out and rest upon a projection to hold up the window next to Ethel. The windows remained open the rest of the journey.
It is perceived that the window that injured Ethel was already up when she took her seat. Who raised this window does not appear. That the window was not on the catch is quite obvious. When raised the only protection against the window closing by the jarring of the train is the catch which fastens the window when opened to its full extent.
If there was negligence of the defendant, it must have existed in one of two ways—in failing to provide an effective catch, or in a neglect of duty in permitting a window to remain partly open, unfastened by the catch. There is no proof that the catch on the window, by which the plaintiff sat, was defective; therefore the only ground for imputed negligence to the defendant would be that it was the duty of its servants to see if the window was raised at all, that it was raised until secured by the catch. Now, if the windows were under the entire control of its servants, if no one was permitted to raise them but some one of the train crew, then the responsibility for the accident might well be put upon the railroad company. The windows of a car, however, are designed to be
The fall of this window, which, so far as appears, was left unsecured by some previous passenger, presents a question quite different from the fall of a lamp or a rack in a car, over which the company’s agents have entire control, and with which the passengers have no right or duty to interfere.
1'nless it was actually shown that some one of the railroad crew had left the falling window in the position from which it fell, the inference that it was left in that position by a passenger would be much stronger than that it was left by a servant of the defendant. In this situation no negligence can be imputed to the defendant.
The cases of Stremble v. Brooklyn Heights Railroad Co., 110 App. Div. 23 (N. Y.), and Faulkner v. Boston and Maine Railroad, 187 Mass. 254, deal pertinently with similar situations.
The judgment should be affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ETHEL ROSENGARTEN, &c., AND v. THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY, AND
- Status
- Published