Leedom v. Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co.
Leedom v. Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
On the trial below the defendant requested the court to say to the jury that under all the evidence in the case the
There are few facts in controversy in this case, and a careful examination of the record satisfies us that the case was presented to the jury under adequate instructions.
The plaintiff was a regular passenger on a train, consisting of three cars—her destination being a regular station, where the train arrived about seven o’clock, p. m. It had been snowing during the day and turned to rain during the early part of the evening, so as to make the car platform slushy and insecure.
The railroad company had provided a passenger platform at this station constructed of macadam, about 400 feet long, the track edge of which was about four inches from the side of a passenger coach and from six to eight inches below the last step of a car. At the eastern end of this platform an incline about twenty-five feet long connected it with a freight platform, the top of which was about four feet above the level of the passenger platform, and was used for receiving and discharging baggage from the door of the baggage car. The passenger platform was lighted by one small electric light within a storm shelter shed on the passenger platform, and one outside the shed located about twenty feet distant from the scene of the accident.
The plaintiff was familiar with the platform, its approaches, and the place at which this train usually stopped to discharge passengers, as she had frequently ridden on it. When the train arrived at the station it was “raining, misty, slushy and dark.” The stop was announced by a uniformed brakeman, who called out the name of the station, from the front of the middle car in which the plaintiff was riding. She described the accident as follows: “I buttoned up my coat, picked up my suit case in my right
It is undisputed that the train ran past its usual stopping point for discharging passengers, and the place where this plaintiff was discharged was in front of the raised freight platform, which was not intended by the company for the receipt of passengers from its coaches. Under the announcement of the brakeman, and her familiarity with the station platform she had a right to suppose that the train had stopped at the usual or an equally safe place.
It is the duty of the carrier not only to exercise the strictest vigilance in receiving and conveying passengers, but also to set him safely at a station at the end of the journey, and where the car makes its stop beyond the usual or a safe landing place, anouncement should be made of that fact before the passengers attempt to leave the train, and any neglect to do so will be a violation of duty for
The facts in this case are radically different from those in Bland v. Ry. Co., 13 Pa. Superior Ct. 93, on which appellant relies, and the rule to be applied in street railway cases is quite different from that controlling in a steam road platform case, for the reasons stated in Sligo v. Transit Co., 224 Pa. 135, 141, “A street railway company cannot be held to a strict accountability in furnishing the place for a passenger to alight as a railroad company. The former does not have exclusive control over the places where it discharges its passengers.”
Had the train stopped at the usual place for discharging passengers the liability of the defendant would be very different, but having passed that safe place to one of manifest danger, its clear duty was to either return the train to the regular platform, or to caution the passengers of the increased risk in getting off.
The question of the plaintiff’s contributory negligence was fully and clearly left to the jury. No evidence was offered by the defendant and no exception taken to the charge of the court.
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.