Great Falls & Old Dominion Railroad v. Hammerly
Great Falls & Old Dominion Railroad v. Hammerly
Opinion of the Court
In the present case the evidence is to the effect that the signal was given in ample time to have permitted the stopping of the car. The plaintiff was in a position of safety, had the ear either stopped or passed at a reasonable rate of speed. AVhen the ear was within 50 or 100 feet of her, she realized it would not stop because “it was running too fast.” It is urged that she was negligent in failing immediately to step back. Assuming that the car was going 50 miles an hour, and we think the jury would have been warranted in finding that to have been its speed, it was going 73-J- feet a second. Plaintiff fixed the distance of the car from her when she realized it would not stop at about 50 or 100 feet. It is apparent, therefore, that only about a second of time interposed between her realization that the car would not stop and the accident. To say that a woman weighing nearly 200 pounds, situated as she was, startled as she may have been,—indeed as she says she was,—• was guilty of contributory negligence because she permitted a second to elapse without getting out of the way, would be to usurp the functions of the jury. Clearly it was for them to
The second assignment of error is based upon the refusal of the court to permit an answer to the question whether it would be reasonable or likely that a person weighing 180 or 100 pounds, standing 3 or 4 feet from a car going at 30 or 40 miles an hour passing a station, would be whirled around and taken up by the gust of air. Plaintiff made no such contention, either in her declaration or in her proofs. As previously pointed out, her contention was that the excessive rate of speed of the car “so unsteadied her that she fell.” The difference between the contention and evidence of the plaintiff and the question propounded by the defendant is so apparent that we forbear further discussion of the question. The court had already permitted the defendant to introduce evidence tending to show the effect upon the plaintiff of the current of air from the car. The proposed question had no hearing upon any issue of the case, and was properly excluded.
Finding no error in the record, the judgment is affirmed, with costs. Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GREAT FALLS & OLD DOMINION RAILROAD COMPANY v. HAMMERLY
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Carriers; Stations; Passengers; Negligence; Contributors-; Witnesses. 1. A person who stands upon the station platform of a suburban electric railway, and signals an approaching car to stop in order that she may take passage, is in the railway company’s constructive care, and sustains to it the relation of passenger. 2. It is for the jury to determine questions as to the negligence of a carrier in disregarding the signal of an intending passenger, and running its ear at high speed past the station, and as to the contributory negligence of the passenger in standing in such proximity to the track as to be unsteadied and caused to fall “by the rush of air.” 3. The speed of a suburban electric car may be found to have caused the fall of an intending passenger who, expecting it to stop in obedience to her signal, stood near the edge of the platform, but not near enough to be struck by the car. 4. A suburban electric railway company which impliedly invites passengers to assemble upon its platform, and gives them reason to believe that its ears will be stopped upon tbeir signal, is charged with the duty, in running its cars past such point, to take such reasonable precautions as will in the circumstances properly insure their protection. 5. A woman weighing nearly 200 pounds who, intending to board an approaching suburban electric car, signals it in the expectation that it will stop, is not guilty of contributory negligence in law, for failure to ’ step back from the zone of “rushing air” upon first discovering, when the car, going at the rate of 50 miles an hour, is but 50 or 100 feet away, that it is not going to stop. 6. The contention by the plaintiff in an action against a carrier for injuries, based upon the ground that the defendant’s car passed a station on which the plaintiff was standing, so fast that “the rush of air” caught the plaintiff, an intending passenger, and “so unsteadied her that she fell,” does not entitle the defendant to elicit an answer to the question whether a person of plaintiff’s size Would be “whirled around and taken up by the gust of air,” especially where the defendant had already been permitted to introduce evidence tending to show the effect upon the plaintiff of the current of air from the car.