52 Ind. App. 403 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1912
Appellee recovered a judgment in the court below for $5,000 for injuries which she alleged she received by being thrown from one of appellant’s trains when a passenger thereon. The cause was tried by a jury which, returned a general verdict for appellee in the above amount, with answers to interrogatories.
Appellant’s demurrer to the complaint, its motion for judgment on the answers to interrogatories and for a new trial were each overruled, and these rulings present the alleged errors assigned and relied on.
That part of the complaint necessary to present the objection made thereto and other questions presented by the appeal is, in substance, as follows: That when said train was about half a mile east of Trevlae, said defendant, by its agents in charge of said train, sounded the whistle for
The objection urged to the complaint is that (we quote from appellant’s brief) “there is no charge of bad track, defective equipment, incompetent servants, or of any mishap to the train, the car, the crew, or the passengers. There is no allegation of a collision, derailment, break, or any accident to the train or to any part thereof, or to a single passenger of the train, or to any one operating it, or to
Appellant either misconstrues the cases cited and relied on in support of its contention, or fails to give proper force and effect to the averments of the complaint.
The negligent operation of the train by appellant’s servants, the manner of such negligent operation, and appellee’s injury, resulting as a consequence, are averred. These general averments of negligence and their causal connection
The specific acts pleaded, above indicated, tend to support rather than overthrow the general averment that the train was negligently jerked, and therefore furnish no ground or reason for the court to say as a matter of law that such jerking was not negligent. The complaint is not open to the objections made against it.
Instruction No. 6 is as follows: “While the plaintiff here has the burden of proving the negligence charged, and all other material facts which constitute the cause of action alleged in her complaint, yet, if she has proven by a fair preponderance of the evidence that she was a passenger, tliat she had paid her fare and was admitted as a passenger on defendant’s train, and that she was jerhed or thrown therefrom and injured as charged in her complaint, without any fault on her part, then I instruct you that such facts would raise a presumption of negligence on the part of the defendant railroad company, and would place upon said defendant the burden of proving, in order to rebut the presumption of negligence, that the injury could not have
"We do not think the instruction open to the objection urged against it. It will be observed that instruction No. 6 contains, as an express condition necessary to raise the presumption of negligence against appellant, the following provision: “And that she was jerked or thrown therefrom and injured as charged in her complaint without any fault on her part.” Under this instruction the jury was not told that proof of the injury alone created a presumption of negligence, but that such injury, in connection with proof that it resulted in the manner charged in the complaint and without appellee’s fault, would give rise to such presumption. We think that, under the authorities', the instruction might have told, and was probably intended by its author to tell, the jury, in effect, that proof of the relation of carrier and passenger between appellant and appellee, together with proof of appellant’s negligence as charged, and appellee’s injury, would create a presumption that the injury resulted from such negligence, and, subject to the condition that appellee was herself without fault, would impose on appellant, in order to avoid liability, the necessity of proving that the injury could not have been avoided by the exercise of the highest practical care and diligence, but the instruction as worded falls far short of being thus favorable to appellee. This instruction, considered in connection with the averments of the complaint, was certainly as favorable to appellant in this regard as the authorities warrant. Kentucky, etc., Bridge Co. v. Quinkert, supra, 252; Memphis, etc., Packet Co. v. McCool (1882), 83 Ind. 392, 397, 398, 43 Am. Rep. 71; Terre Haute, etc., R. Co. v. Buck, supra; Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Snyder, supra; Louisville, etc., R. Co. v. Thompson, supra; Consolidated Traction Co. v. Thalheimer, supra; Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Hadley,
In the ease last cited the court said: “It is further claimed that instruction eleven, quoted in the statement, is erroneous because it uses the word ‘child’ instead of ‘person’ but we are of opinion that the jury could not have been misled by the instruction for that reason. We think, however, that the instruction is subject to' criticism in that it omits the element of the intelligence of the child. The instruction instead of the phrase ‘for one of his age and experience’ should have been ‘for one of his age, capacity and experience.’ R. R. Co. [Illinois Cent. R. Co.] v. Slater [1889], 129 Ill. 91-99 [21 N. E. 575, 6 L. R. A. 418, 16 Am. St. 242]; City of Chicago v. Keefe [1885], 114 Ill. 222, 229 [2 N. E. 267, 55 Am. Rep. 860].”
In the case of Consolidated Traction Co. v. Scott, supra, the court said: “And when a. child has reached the age of discretion, and is considered sui juris as a matter of law, the degree of care and caution required of him will be no higher than such as is usually exercised by persons of similar age, 'judgment and experience. And whether that degree of care and caution has been exercised by the child in a given case, is usually, if not always., a question of fact
Instruction No. 3, tendered by appellant and refused, is completely covered in all its parts by other instructions.
This instruction clearly invaded the province of the jury. Whether or not appellee voluntarily left her seat; whether the train was at such time in “rapid” or “slow motion”; whether it was a “considerable” or a short “distance” from the station when she left her seat, and whether there was or was not “necessity” for her leaving when she did, were, under the conflicting evidence in this ease, all questions- of fact to he determined by the jury.
It is urged that the verdict is contrary to law. In support of this ground of the motion for a new trial it is insisted in effect that the trial court instructed the jury that if the plaintiff was lawfully on the train, there would arise in her favor a presumption that her injury was caused by defendant’s negligence and that such presumption could only be removed by defendant’s proving by a preponderance of the evidence that “it could not have been avoided by the exercise of the highest possible degree of care.”
We have already indicated in the discussion of the instructions that neither of them is open to the criticism so assumed against them, but on the contrary they separately
The insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict is urged, but we think we have already, in this opinion, indicated enough of the evidence to show that there was some evidence on each fact essential to its support.
The only question we are called on to. determine is whether there was any evidence on said question, and we cannot say that there was no evidence on this or any other fact necessary to be proven under the issues.
We find no error in the record, and the judgment below is therefore affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 98 N. E. 895. See, also, under (2) 6 Cyc. 591; (3) 6 Cyc. 624; (4) 6 Cyc. 626; (5, 6) 6 Cyc. 628; (7) 6 Cyc. 637; (9) 38 Cyc. 1598, 1599, 1602; (10) 38 Cyc. 1657; (11) 38 Cyc. 1711; (14) 38 Cyc. 1927; (15) 3 Cyc. 648; (17) 6 Cyc. 628 — New Anno. On the question of the liability of a carrier for injuries to passenger inside car from sudden starting or stopping of car or train, see 34 L. R. A. (N. S.) 225. On the presumption of negligence from sudden start, stop, jolt, or jerk of ear, see 13 L. R. A. (N. S.) 611.