Burns v. Pennsylvania Railroad
Burns v. Pennsylvania Railroad
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The negligence charged in the present case was that the appellant railroad company permitted baggage to be placed in the aisle of the car in which appellee was a passenger, so as to obstruct the passageway, thus making it dangerous for passengers. It was also alleged that the car was not sufficiently lighted. Appellee boarded the car at Johnstown en route for Pittsburg. He paid his fare and took a seat in the rear end of a day coach. He was therefore entitled to the privileges and protection afforded passengers generally, no more and no less. At a point west of Greensburg he testified that he had occasion to go to the water-closet, located in the front end of the car, and started to do so. When he had proceeded part way the train entered a tunnel, thus shutting out the natural light and leaving the car dimly lighted by a lamp in the rear. The testimony is conflicting as to whether one or two lamps were burning. The tunnel is 2,100 feet in length and it required the train over half a minute to run through it. Appellee did not stop when the car was darkened by the entrance into the tunnel but proceeded on his way to the water-closet. Near the front of the car a fellow passenger had placed a dress suit case in the aisle at the end of his seat and there was some testimony indicating that some other small baggage was near it. As appellee proceeded on his way he stumbled and fell over the baggage in the aisle and received the injuries for which he seeks to recover damages in this action. In explanation of his mishap he testified that he did not see the obstruction in the aisle until he was in the act of falling. He accounts for his failure to notice the baggage in the aisle on two grounds, first, that he did not know it was there, not having seen it before entering the tunnel, and, second, that the dimly lighted car made it impossible to see distinctly. He was traveling on a fast express train which left Johnstown at 4.05 p. m. and made no stop until it reached East Liberty. He had been aboard the train a little more than an hour and had traveled about forty-
We do not agree with the contention of appellant that the appellee was so clearly guilty of contributory negligence as to warrant the court in so declaring as a matter of law. If the accident had occurred before the train reached the tunnel and while the car was well lighted the situation would be different. The passenger was bound to look where he was going and to use his senses for his own protection. If he saw the suit case and stumbled over it,
There is no assignment of error relating to the charge of the trial judge on the question of damages, but inasmuch as the case is to be again tried, it is only proper to suggest that the true measure of damages should be more clearly defined. It is the duty of the trial judge of his own motion and without request to correctly instruct the jury as to the proper measure of damages: Wilkinson v. North East Boro., 215 Pa. 486. The true measure of damages in such cases is very clearly stated in Goodhart v. Railroad Co., 177 Pa. 1, and this rule should be followed.
Judgment reversed and a venire facias de novo awarded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Burns v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company
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- Syllabus
- Negligence — Railroads—Passenger—Obstruction in aisle of car — Notice — Presumption. 1. Where a passenger is injured by anything done or left undone by the carrier, or its employees, in connection with the appliances of transportation, or in the conduct and management of the business relating to the same, the burden of proof is upon the carrier to show' that such injury did not result from its negligence. To cast this burden upon the carrier, it must first be shown that the injury complained of resulted from something improper or unsafe in the conduct of the business or in the appliances of transportation; appliances of transportation meaning the roadbed, tracks, cars, engines and all other machinery and equipment furnished by the railroad company and used in connection with the conduct and management of its business. Property belonging to and taken by a passenger into a car is not such an appliance. 2. While it is the duty of the employees of a railroad company to remove the personal baggage of passengers from the aisles of cars, they must, in order to make it their duty to act, have notice that such obstructions are in the aisle, or the obstruction must have remained there for so long a time before the accident that, in the exercise of due care, they would have discovered it before the accident occurred. The mere fact that a piece of baggage is in an aisle and a passenger stumbles over it does not of itself raise any presumption of negligence on the part of the railroad company.. 3. In an action by a passenger against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries resulting from stumbling over a dress suit case placed by another passenger in an aisle of a passenger car, the questions of the defendant’s negligence and the plaintiff’s contributory negligence are for the jury, where the evidence tends to show that immediately before the accident plaintiff started to go to a closet in the front of the car; that after he had proceeded part of the way the train entered a tunnel 2,100 feet long; that the car was dimly lighted; that the plaintiff did not stop when the car entered the tunnel, but in his progress stumbled over a dress suit case placed by another passenger in the aisle; that the train was a fast express train which had not stopped for forty-eight miles; that the conductor and porter had passed through the train while the baggage was standing in the aisle, and that plaintiff, according to his own testimony, had not seen the baggage, and the car was so dimly lighted he could not see it. Negligence — Damages—Charge—Duty of court. 4. It is the duty of a trial judge of his own motion and without request to correctly instruct the jury as to the proper measure of damages.