Santos v. Fajardo Development Co.
Santos v. Fajardo Development Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion, of the Court.
Francisco Correa died while married to Altagracia Santos, with whom he had several children who were minors when he died. His widow, for herself and on behalf of said children, brought an action against the Fajardo Development Co. to recover damages in the sum of $15,000 for the death of Francisco Correa, claimed to have been caused through the negligence of employees of the defendant. The judgment entered in this action adjudged the defendant to pay $3,000 without costs, and both parties appealed therefrom: the defendant, because it claims that it should not have been adjudged to pay anything; the plaintiffs, because they • maintain that they are entitled to a greater award. Both appeals have been prosecuted and argued jointly. We shall first decide the appeal of the defendant.
The only witness to the accident which caused the death of Francisco Correa is Angel González, who was walking with the deceased that night. The others were brought to •corroborate some of his testimony. Angel González, a man of 32 years of age, testified at the trial that between 10:30 .and 11:00 o’clock in the evening of March 8, 1929, Correa
The witness Carlos Pérez, who is 34 years old, corroborated, as far as he was concerned, the statements of Gonzá-lez, and testified farther that about ten to fifteen minutes after González left with Correa, the former returned with the news of Correa’s death. A medical expert went to the place of the accident the next day and found the head at a distance of one foot from the left track, about ten to twelve meters from the station, and next to it, a bottle containing a liquid, apparently milk; that he had to Walk over 200 meters to find the body which was torn to pieces and lay rather far from the head; that the death was caused by the severance of the head from the body by a heavy, cutting weight.
The Mayor of Rio Grande testified that the road where Correa died is public and crosses the railroad tracks of the defendant, and that he has gone over it many times.
A witness for the defendant, Ramón Alonso, admitted the existence of said road which leads from the highway to the station and continues up to a farm and that the people go over it. That he also uses it.
The conductor of the train testified that they left the Central at Fajardo with several cars, which together with those picked up at San Miguel, amounted to 70 cars, and then began to distribute them at several sidings, continuing thereafter with 33 for Palmarejo; that before reaching this place, they passed by the station in Mameyes at about eleven o’clock in the evening; that the engine 'was in front of the cars, but he afterwards stated that the cars were in front of the engine; that it carried strong lights; that when they went by the Mameyes station it was closed and they did not stop, but did stop so at Colonia Blasina which was at some
Patricio Navarro, the engineer of the train, testified that on that night, the engine had the front lights on; that he did not see any person on the track; that on returning to Fajardo about one o’clock in the morning, he saw an object on the track, and although he applied the brakes, the train ran over it and later it appeared to be a person whose head he did not see.
The station-master at Mameyes testified that no lights are lighted at night, and that at the place where a crossing is claimed to exist, there is a sign forbidding trespassing. Other witnesses did not refer to the fact of Correa’s death. From this evidence it is concluded, among other things, that the death took place near the Mameyes station, on the side nearer to Fajardo, possibly to the east, and that the body was seen by the train’s crew at one o’clock in the morning on the other side, the west.
By the first, second, and third grounds of appeal, the appellant claims that the court below erred in holding as proved by the plaintiffs that at the place of the accident, the
The testimony of the only eyewitness to the accident, believed by the court below, proves that the train arrived at the place of the accident suddenly, without being seen or heard, at great speed, .without sounding the alarm whistle, with 33 cars in front of the engine, and without lights, but although it may have had the front lights on, these could not light-the road in front, as shown by the fact that when cars are placed in front, as is done frequently, a small light is placed on the first car; and that the train did not reduce its speed nor stop at the station in Mameyes. The employees of the defendant did not see Correa on or near the track nor did they see Gonzalez, who was three or, four meters away. These findings of fact convince us that there was negligence on the part of the employees of the defendant, as before crossing the said public road, they should have given some warning of their approach, by sounding the whistle or the bell, inasmuch as they could expect to find travelers on the road, especially since there were no barriers to guard the crossing nor lights to give warning of the approaching train, and they had a large number of cars before the engine. Therefore, the employees of the defendant were negligent. Ferrer & Son v. American Railroad Co., 39 P.R.R. 36.
It is true that Correa knew of the existence of the railroad track at this point, but since no evidence was offered to show how he came upon the tracks, it must be supposed that he did so with due care because he saw no train nor heard its approach as Angel González did, for which reason the holding in the case of Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Co. v. Landrigan, 191 U. S. 461, cited in the Ferrer case,
With respect to the fifth ground, we hold that the evidence of the plaintiffs, together with the testimony of some of the witnesses for the defendant, shows that there is a road used by the public in general at that place.
The sixth and last error is also nonexistent, because, although the place where Correa met his death was owned by the defendant, the truth is that a road exists there which is used by the public, and that it has been shown that the negligence of the employees of the defendant was the cause of Correa’s death.
Let us consider now the appeal of the plaintiffs which is based on two‘grounds, namely: that the award of damages should have been for a larger amount, and that costs should have been imposed qn the defendant. Correa was a man of 34 years of age who earned $9 per week as an ox-driver. In support of the first ground of appeal, the appellants cited several judgments of courts in the United States in which amounts of over $3,000 have been granted in cases similar to the present one, but which cannot serve us as guide because the general tendency of judgments of the insular courts have been very conservative concerning the amount of indemnity, taking into consideration, perhaps, that this is not a rich country. Furthermore, the indemnity allowed seems sufficient to us because when capitalized at the rate of twelve per cent per annum permitted by our laws, it would yield an income of $30 per month, which is almost the amount earned monthly by Correa when he worked. We are of the opinion that the amount granted is not clearly inadequate or contrary to law.
With respect to the error assigned because of the failure to impose costs on the defendant, we are unable to hold that the court below abused the discretion which the law allows it in this connection, since the mere fact that the defendant opposed the complaint, and that judgment was rendered
The judgment appealed from must be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.