Ruberté v. American Railroad
Ruberté v. American Railroad
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Central Fortuna owns a railway track which connects with the tracks of the American Railroad Company. Both the Central Fortuna and the American Railroad Company do other business over the track belonging to the Central. Fortuna. This track crosses the highroad between Santa Isabel and Ponce and the accident, or the facts leading up to the accident in this case, all happened around the intersection of the said track with the highway between Santa Isabel and Ponce.
On the day of the accident, the American Railroad had sent a railway automobile over the track for some purpose
Almost instantly with- the stopping of the railway automobile it was struck by a Ford truck coming from Santa Isabel to Ponce. The impact of the truck was strong enough to carry the railway automobile off the track, a short distance toward Ponce. This collision or the possibility of this collision, the driver of the Graham truck saw when he was about ten meters or so away from the railway track. The testimony differs as to the speed at which the Graham truck was traveling, but the court below thought it was traveling at a high rate of speed. The driver of the Graham Paige truck thought that he would incur an accident if he continued on his way, therefore, he veered off sharply to his right to a side road, the truck turned over on its left side and killed'Justo Ruberté, whose heirs and his father have brought the several actions before us. The suit brought is against the American Railroad Company and the District Court of Ponce rendered judgment for the defendant.
One of the assignments of error was that the defendant, the American Railroad Company, was bound to
At this present writing we are not fully aware of the nature of the track held by the Central Fortuna. It probably makes no great difference as to the character in which the railway automobile belonging to the American Railroad occupied the tracks of the Central Fortuna. All over this Island there are tracks owned by corporations and private persons ..that are practically never used except in harvest time or the times immediately preceding or following it. A person traveling along a highway in a motor vehicle is not ordinarily obliged to take the same care when passing over one of these tracks as he would in crossing the regular tracks of the American Railroad Company. ■ Travelers along the highroad are always bound to take a certain amount of care, but we do not think that they are bound to stop, look, and listen every time they approach a track, especially one not belonging to a public service corporation, apt to use its tracks at any moment. The intersection was a grade crossing. In other words, that travelers on the highroad, and of course those coming from Ponce, could see straight ahead for quite a distance.
The question arose whether the driver of the Graham truck acted in an emergency. Counsel for appellants conceded at the hearing that if the driver had kept on his way he probably could have passed over the track without anything happening to him. Nevertheless, we agree with the appellants that he had a right to believe that if he went on his way he might encounter serious difficulties, • if not an actual collision. The appellee is not mistaken when it maintains that the American Bailroad would be totally exonerated if without justification the driver of the Graham truck had turned to his right.
The evidence, as we have said, does not convince us that the driver of the Ford Truck was going at an excessive rate of speed. We are not convinced that he could have seen the railway automobile or even have heard its horn, assuming as we do, that the horn was sounded. We have had different impressions in this case, but in the final analysis we can not agree with the court that the actions of the two trucks, as separately analyzed by the court, were negligent.
Now, of course, the physical cause of the death of Justo Buberté was the action of the Graham Paige truck, but the action of the driver of the Graham Paige was as innocent as the last man who pushed off the lighted squib in the famous case of Scott v. Shepherd, 2 W. Bl. 892. The accident was therefore necessarily due to the conduct of the Ford truck or the railway company, and we have exonerated the Ford truck.
Therefore, the question principally arises whether the railway automobile under the control of the American Bail-road was guilty of negligence , and we think it was. Under
The judgment should be reversed and instead thereof another rendered holding good the complaint and ordering the American Railroad Company to pay to the complainants jointly (mancomunadamente) the sum of $4,000.00 as damages, all without costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.