Malone v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie R. R.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Malone v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie R. R., 152 Pa. 390 (Pa. 1893)
25 A. 638
Green, Heydrick, McCollum, Mitchell, Paxson, Sterrett, Williams

Malone v. Pittsburgh & Lake Erie R. R.

Opinion of the Court

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Mitchell,

The first assignment, that the verdict should have been directed for the defendant, was not seriously pressed, as in fact it could not be except by totally ignoring the plaintiff’s evidence.

The main stress of the defence rests upon two propositions, that the plaintiff should not have undertaken to return to Alequippa, and that having done so, she was herself responsible for all the injury she received on the way. Neither proposition can be maintained without disregarding the evidence. Indeed the real burden of appellant’s complaint is that the jury rendered a wrong verdict. This however is not for us to consider. We start with the fact established by the verdict that plaintiff was wrongfully put off the train, at a regular station to be sure, but one where she was a stranger and where there was at the time no regular station house. She was in no fault herself, and being thus put in a position of embarrassment and difficulty, she was not bound to use the best judgment, but only to good faith and reasonable prudence: R. R. Co. v. Werner, 89 Pa. 59. She had been told that her ticket was not good on that train, and she had not enough money to pay the fare from that point to Pittsburgh. After consultation with her. companion and asking some questions of the station agent, she started to walk back to Alequippa where she had been that morning and also the previous day, and where she must have been to some extent known, as she had that morning paid five dollars to get back her watch which she had lost the day before. For the judge to have directed the jury as matter of law that *394this action was improper and negligent, and that plaintiff should have waited where she was for the next train, would have been plain error. It was a matter for the jury and was properly left to them.

The same view applies to the other proposition. If returning to Alequippa on foot was a natural and reasonable thing for plaintiff to do under all the circumstances, then it was a course of action which the defendant should have.foreseen, and the consequences which attended the effort were not too remote to enter into the computation of damages. The condition of the weather and the risk of getting wet by an approaching storm, were facts bearing directly on the prudence and reasonableness of plaintiff’s conduct. It is said that she walked right into the storm within ten minutes after leaving Shannopin, and that it was plain negligence not to stay where she was and take the next train. But her evidence is that she did not know she could do that, and if the storm was imminent it might properly be regarded as the duty of the agent to inform her that she could have shelter in the box car that was serving temporarily for a station house. There were too many elements and uncertainties in the situation as disclosed by the evidence for the court to decide and the whole question was properly left to the jury.

The evidence in regard to the effect of the occurrence on plaintiff as to taking charge of her boarding house was not an effort to show loss of profits, but loss of earning capacity in her business or occupation. Such evidence is entirely competent. In fact it is an important part of every accident case that is tried.

Judgment affirmed.

Reference

Cited By
20 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Railroads — Passengers—Expulsion from train — Position of doubt — Contributory negligence. Where one is put in a position of embarrassment and difficulty by the negligence of a railroad company, he is not bound to use the best judgment, but only good faith and reasonable prudence. A woman was wrongfully ejected from a train upon which she was a passenger, at a regular stopping place where there was no station house, but only a box ear used temporarily as a station. A storm was approaching but she was not informed that she could find shelter in the box car, nor did she know that she would have been permitted to take the next train. She started to walk back to the station from which she had started, and on the way was overtaken by a heavy rain storm, and suffered in health therefrom. Held, that it was proper to leave the whole case to the jury, as the court could not say as a matter of law that plaintiff’s conduct under the circumstances was improper and negligent. Damages — Evidence—Loss of earning power. • Where a boarding house keeper is injured by the negligent conduct of another, it is proper to permit her to show that on account of the disability caused by the injury she had been deprived of carrying on her business of keeping a boarding house. Such evidence is not an effort to show loss of profits, but loss of earning power in her business or occupation.