42 Ind. App. 127 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1907
Appellee recovered judgment against appellants for damages for personal injuries sustained by her
The complaint is in one paragraph, and alleges that the defendants were on August 14 duly organized corporations and doing business as common carriers for hire; that the city of Bushville is a station upon the lines of said defendants; that said roads within the-city of Bushville intersect each other nearly at right angles; that there is no interlocking switch at said crossing; that a few feet east of the point of intersection, said Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Bailway Company has its station building erected, which it maintains and uses for the accommodation of its passengers and their baggage; that said building has waiting-rooms provided for passengers awaiting the arrival of trains upon which they desire to take passage for points east and west of said city of Bushville; that plaintiff took her baggage to said depot on said August 15, 1905, and intended to take passage upon the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Bailway Company’s train; that she was in the waiting-room of said company, provided for its passengers, as aforesaid, waiting for the arrival of said company’s train, upon which she desired to take passage; that while waiting in said waiting-room of said station, said Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Bailway Company negligently ran one of its locomotives toward said crossing at a high and dangerous rate of speed, to wit, forty-five miles an hour, without first stopping and ascertaining whether a train was approaching or about to pass over said crossing on defendant Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Bailway Company’s track, and ran against said defendant’s locomotive, and shoved and carried the same over and against said building and crushed the same; that at said time many pas
And plaintiff says tnat the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company was guilty of negligence which was the proximate cause of her injuries as aforesaid, in this, to wit: (charging the circumstances of the collision and the acts of negligence, with the resulting injuries to appellee, as alleged, against the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Company, except as to the rate of speed of the engine and the time and direction of the roads and moving engines).
The cause was put at issue by general denial. The trial was by jury, and a general verdict returned against both defendants in favor of plaintiff. With the general verdict answers were returned to interrogatories. The appeal of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Company was, upon motion of plaintiff, dismissed. Cincinnati, etc., R. Co. v. Acrea (1907), 40 Ind. App. 150.
The assignment of errors questions the action of the court in overruling appellant Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company’s'demurrer to the complaint, in overruling its motion for judgment on the answers to interrogatories, and in overruling its motion for a new trial.
Against the complaint it is argued that there was no relation of any kind existing between appellee and appellant Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company imposing any duty upon it making it liable to appellee for negligence.
“It is a general rule, both in this State and elsewhere, 'that in complaints or declarations for negligence it is competent, after showing the existence of said duty by appropriate allegations, to predicate negligence, charged in general terms, upon any act or omission whereby it is claimed that that duty was violated.” Baltimore, etc., R. Co. v. Slaughter (1906), 167 Ind. 330, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 597.
It was the duty of appellant Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company to attempt to ascertain if a train was approaching before going upon the crossing. The substance of the complaint is, that said railway
' For the reasons that such other persons sustained no relations with appellants, were not under their control, nor were their actions induced by any negligence of ’the appellants, nor could they have been reasonably anticipated by those in charge of appellants’ trains, it is contended that the intervening cause must be held to be the proximate cause of appellee’s injury.
Stated more particularly, the jury found specially that appellee at the time of the collision was in the women’s waiting-room at the passenger station of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Company, waiting to take passage on one of said company’s trains.
The following interrogatories were propounded and answered: “(32) Was the serious injury, of which plaintiff
And they found that she was so injured because of a collision, as charged in the complaint.
Proximate cause has been further defined to be the efficient cause, one that necessarily sets the other causes in operation. Pennsylvania Co. v. Congdon (1893), 134 Ind. 226, 230, 39 Am. St. 251.
Appellant Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company objects that said instruction improperly requires the highest degree of care, when there was no relation of passenger and carrier existing between appellee and said appellant. We understand the instruction to deal only with the subject of concurring negligence. It does not define negligence by the degree of negligence concurrent with the negligence of another defendant.
The plaintiff describes the situation as follows: ‘ ‘ The passengers had just started out to take passage on the train, when they turned around and ran back; said there was a wreck. The thought struck me, of course, we will all be killed right here. I heard the crash, and the people holloing that the boiler was going to explode. The house was full of steam, and I thought it was on fire, and I was so frightened. I saw people begin to rush for the windows, some trying to get in and some trying to get out, and of course I started for a window, but was pushed and shoved around. I got out some way, I hardly know how, but I was pushed down. I got out of the women’s waiting-room through a window, and as I was trying to get out through the window everybody was excited to death; they were pushing and shoving, and everybody was trying to get out first. ’ ’
Whether appellee was guilty of contributory negligence, and whether the independent force would have been applied, were questions for the jury, and have been answered against appellants. The joint negligence of 'the appellants caused appellee’s injury, and both are liable to her.
Judgment affirmed.