220 Pa. 507 | Pa. | 1908
Opinion by
On the morning of November 20, 1905, George Besecker, the plaintiff, purchased a round trip ticket at Henryville over the defendant company’s road to Portland and return. In returning, he took a west bound train leaving East Stroudsburg station at Y: 15 p. m. He entered the smoking car, the rear car of the train, and seated himself on the left hand side and in the third or fourth seat from the front of the car. As the train approached Henryville the rear brakeman, who was seated in the rear end of the smoking car, announced that station twice, having previously announced as the train left the last station, that Henryville was the next stop. The brakeman then opened the front door of the smoking car, passed through the vestibule of that car and the vestibule of the next coach, which was a coach for ladies, and announced Henryville station twice in that car. He then returned to the front end of the smoking car, opened the vestibule door of the smoking car and turned to open the vestibule of the ladies’ coach. The plaintiff arose from his seat, passed out the front door of the car and down the steps through the vestibule, and as the smoking car was about opposite the waiting room door of the station, he alighted. The plaintiff claims that when he alighted the train had stopped and he stepped' off. The defendant claims that the plaintiff alighted while the train was in motion and that he jumped off.
At Henryville the defendant company has two main tracks, east and west bound. The station is on the south side of the east bound track. As Besecker had arrived on a train on the west bound track, he was obliged to cross the east bound track to reach the station. After alighting from the train he started towards the station, and after taking a step or two, was struck and injured by the bumper beam of the engine drawing an east bound coal train, running at the rate of from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. The plaintiff, it is conceded, left the car at the place where passengers for that station usually and ordinarily alight. It is claimed by the defendant company, and its testimony tended to show, that the engineer of the passenger train saw the coal train approaching on the east bound track and realizing that it would cut his passengers off from the Henryville station, he kept his own train moving until the
This is an action by the plaintiff to recover for the injuries he sustained, and the alleged negligence consists in the defendant company running the coal train by the Henry ville station on the east bound track without notice of its approach to the station or other warning while the plaintiff was attempting to cross that track to get to the station. It is properly conceded by the learned counsel of the defendant company that if the passenger train had stopped at the station, it was negligence on the part of the company to allow the coal train to run between the passenger train and the station while the passengers were being discharged. It is contended, however, by the counsel that the plaintiff alighted from the train while it was in motion, that this was negligence, and that his injuries resulted from this negligent act on his part. It is further claimed by the defendant’s counsel that the moving of the passenger train was notice to the passengers that there was danger and that, therefore, they had no right to alight from the train while it was in motion. The court, however, instructed the jury that the bare fact of the plaintiff stepping off the train, even though it were in motion, would not, of itself, be such contributory negligence as would prevent a recovery in the case. It will, therefoi’e, be observed, as suggested by the learned trial court, that the only question before the court and jury was whether the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence. The only question which we need consider is whether it was negligence per se for the plaintiff to alight froxn the train while it was in motion and attempt to cross the east bound track to reach the station. If it was, the instructions of the court just alluded to, were erroneous. There was ample evidence to support the defendant’s contention that the plaintiff did leave the train while it was in motion, and if his act in doing so was negligence of itself, the jury should have been so instructed.
It is well settled that the duty of a carrier of passengers is not fully discharged until it has set the passenger down in a place of safety at his destination. It must not only carry him to His destination in safety, but it must provide a safe place to discharge him when he arrives there. This is conceded to be the law. If instead of discharging its passengers at a station on the
Conceding, therefore, that it was negligence in the defendant company to permit its coal train to be run on the inter
The case of Philadelphia, W. & B. R. R. Co. v. Anderson, 8 L. R. A. 673, decided by the Maryland court of appeals, is in point. The accident occurred upon the defendant company’s road at the city of Chester in this state. The name of the station was announced as the train approached the city, and it stopped at the eastern end of the station platform. Before the plaintiff could alight, the train had started, and while it was moving slowly he stepped from the car and was immediately struck by a train coming from the opposite direction. The court held that his negligence was for the jury. In the opinion it is said (p. 676): “ He made his exit from the car in safety, but was immediately confronted by a great danger. If he had looked forward he might have seen and avoided it. But here we must bear in mind the circumstances attending his exit from the cars. He was getting off at a place which, with the knowledge and permission of the defendant, was habitually used for this purpose; and he knew, moreover, that it was the defendant’s duty to use all possible care to make this place safe for him. And he knew that by a special rule it had declared that when his train was discharging passengers, any approaching train must be stopped and not be allowed to reach it. How, assuming that he supposed that he was to be discharged as a passenger at that place, he would necessarily and unavoidably infer that he would be safe, if the railroad company observed this rule. Undoubtedly he had a right to assume that this rule would be enforced and, relying upon the assurance guaranteed by the rule, he was dispensed from the necessity of using the degree of care ordinarily required of persons who go on or near railroad tracks.” In Chicago, etc., Ry. Co. v. Lowell, 151 U. S. 209, the passenger alighted from
In the case in hand, the plaintiff knew of the existence of a rule of the carrier company similar to the one in the Anderson case, and the remarks of the court in that case apply, therefore, to the plaintiff here. He had a right to assume that the defendant company would observe its own rule : Lyman v. Boston & Maine Railroad Co. (N. H.), 11 L. R. A. 364, and, therefore, although having alighted from the train while in motion he had a right to rely upon the defendant company keeping its intervening track clear at the time for receiving and discharging passengers from its west bound trains at Henry ville. As said in Atlantic City Railroad Co. v. Goodin, 45 L. R. A. 671 : “ Goodin (the passenger) had a right to rely on the assumption that no train would be allowed to come while passengers might properly be crossing the track.” Reasonable care according to the circumstances was required of the plaintiff when he attempted to cross the defendant’s tracks, and whether he exercised that care or not was a question for the jury. The court could not declare as matter of law that in alighting from the train while it was in motion, the plaintiff contributed to the injuries he sustained.
The judgment is affirmed.