87 P. 149 | Or. | 1906
delivered the opinion.
We are of the opinion that the court was right in directing the verdict. The negligence charged is that the catch for the car door was insufficient and out of repair, and that the train was being operated at a high and dangerous rate of speed, which caused the door to become disengaged from the catch by the lurching of the train. The proof does not, in our opinion, sustain either of these allegations. The plaintiff, who is a contractor and had frequently traveled on defendant’s trains between Kalama and the Sound and was familiar with its cars and road, testified that at the time he tried the toilet door the car door was opened back and fastened to a hook or catch on the floor, which was of the kind ordinarily used in railway coaches; that the train was running quite fast, he thinks about 50 miles an hour, and was passing around a curve at the time of his injury, and that, in his opinion, the raising of one side of the car while going around the curve was the cause of the door becoming unfastened and shutting against his finger; that he made no examination of the catch to ascertain whether it
It is doubtful, therefore, whether the rule can be applied in the case at bar. The car door which caused the injury to the plaintiff was not imdér the exclusive control of the defendant, but was being constantly used by passengers boarding and alight
Judgment affirmed. Aeeirmed.