58 Ind. App. 461 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1915
Glen Sample, hereinafter referred to as appellee, a child under three years of age, by his next friend, brought this action against the Indianapolis Union Railway Company, The Atlas Engine Works, Booth Furniture Company, Keyless Lock Company and Arthur Jordan for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendants. There were two paragraphs of complaint, to each of which appellant filed a general denial. For the purposes of the questions presented by the appeal, the pleadings filed by the other defendants need not be indicated.
At the conclusion of plaintiff’s evidence, the court sustained the separate motions made by the Booth Furniture Company, Keyless Lock Company and Arthur Jordan, re
Under the first error assigned, appellant very earnestly insists that the verdiet is not sustained by sufficient evidence, is contrary to law, and that the trial court erred in giving certain instructions and in refusing to give other instructions which it is claimed were proper and applicable to the issues and the evidence. It will be necessary to an Intelligent presentation and disposition of the questions presented, that we indicate enough of the averments of the complaint and evidence to show where and how appellee received his injury, and appellant’s connection therewith.
The complaint alleges in substance that the appellant is a corporation engaged in the operation of a railway system in Indianapolis; that its right of way runs in an easterly and westerly direction across Sheldon Street, which street.
As affecting the question of the ownership and control of the right of way and tracks thereon which crossed Sheldon Street, the following stipulation was entered into by the parties to the action in the trial court, viz.,
“On November 4, 1909, and thereafter Indianapolis Union Railway Company, Atlas Engine Works and Booth Furniture Company were each corporations un*466 der the laws of Indiana. On said * * * day * * *, prior thereto and since * * * (the) Indianapolis Union Railway Company was the lessee from the Belt Railroad & Stock Yards Company of a railroad right of way extending (for the purposes of this ease) from a .connection with the C. C. C. &. St. L. Railway Company’s railroad in what was formerly the town of Brightwood in a generally westerly direction to a connection with the L. E. & W. Railway Company’s track west of Columbia avenue in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, and north of 22nd street in said city, and that such right of way crosses all intervening streets and alleys between Roosevelt avenue on the east and Columbia avenue on the west (including Sheldon street). Said lease has a term of 999 years from 1884, and said lease had statutory authorization and is a valid lease. Said Belt Railroad & Stock Yards Company acquired its title to so much of said right of way as lies between Columbia avenue on the west and eastward (across Sheldon street), a distance of a quarter of a mile, from Stoughton A. Fletcher by deed of conveyance in fee simple made in 1884. On the 13th day of January, 1902, the Indianapolis Union Railway Company and the Atlas Engine Works executed an agreement as follows: (We set out only that part affecting the questions presented by this appeal.) This agreement, made this 13th day of January * * * 1902, between the Indianapolis Union Railway Company, operating the Belt Railroad, as First Party, and Atlas Engine Works * * * as Second Party, Witnesseth: Whereas, the second party desires the construction of a side track beginning about twenty-three feet east of the east line of Martindale avenue-at Atlas Station on the Belt Railroad Division of the Indianapolis Union Railway Company * * * said side track to be connected with the main track of the division aforesaid, on the south side thereof, extending eastwardly about ten hundred and twenty-five feet, including seventy-five feet of connection with Atlas Engine Works yard tracks, of which about 800 feet shall be on the land of the first party- and balance on land owned and controlled by the second party. Now, therefore, it is agreed between the parties that the first party will construct said side track as above indicated, upon the following terms and conditions: The first party to furnish all material for said track, unless otherwise specified, using old steel rail and other materials, which, in the opinion of said first party,*467 is suitable for said track; also furnish labor for laying the same. For said material, including switch, switch stand, frog and other attachments, and labor, said second party is to pay to said first party the value of the same, as per current market prices. * * * It is further understood that said first party may, when deemed necessary disconnect and remove that portion of the track situated on the property of the first party * * * It is also understood that the first party may, at its option, change the location of the switch and frog connection and the grades of any existing and future tracks and any expense such grade changes may necessitate in changing road bed and location of this side track the second party hereby agrees .to assume. Exhibit ‘A’ herewith attached shows location of said side track. Said side track shall be maintained by the second party, and the cost thereof shall be borne by the second party; this agreement of maintenance includes repairs to switch frog, switch stand and switch ties and any necessary drainage or street crossings. . The second party agrees to protect and save harmless the first party from any and all damages or expenses of whatsoever kind, incurred or caused by the neglect of the second party to at all times keep said side track in safe and proper condition. The ownership of said track shall be vested as follows: All in second party except the. eighty feet lead in the main track of first party, which shall be vested in said first party, and each party hereby disclaims ownership in any other portion of said side track than as above designated, but the first party shall have the right to use, without cost, the whole or any part of said siding in connection with other business than that of the second party when the same is not occupied by the second party, provided such use of the siding will not interfere with the business of the second party. The second party agrees that without the written consent of the first party, it will not direct or authorize the use of said track by or for the benefit of any other party not one of the parties hereto. The second party further agrees to pay to the first party all amounts that may accrue for trackage and car service, in accordance with the established rates thereof and the rules governing such service, for all ears to be loaded or unloaded on the side track herein described. * * * The second party agrees that the first party, its successors or assigns, shall have the right any time, after six months’ notice in writing to the second party, to discontinue the*468 use of said side track, to remove the connections, switches and frogs upon the property of the first party, and to enter upon the property of the second party, and take up and remove so much of said side track belonging to the first party as may be located thereon * * * The second party further agrees to execute a tenancy at will lease for land of first party occupied by said side track at a rental of sixty dollars per annum * * * "
The tenancy-at-will lease referred to in such agreement is in part as follows:
“This agreement made this 13th day of January in the year nineteen hundred and two (1902) between the Indianapolis Union Railway Company * * * as first party and Atlas Engine Works * * * Witnesseth, That the first party hereby demises and leases to the second party a certain strip of land, being part of the right of way of the Belt Railroad in the City of Indianapolis, County of Marion, State of Indiana, described as follows, to wit: (here follows description) To hold the same unto the second party as tenant at will of the first party, and for the rent or sum of sixty (60) dollars per annum to commence on the first day of January, 1902, and to be paid semi-annually in advance -during said tenancy. That said first party hereby reserves the right to terminate this agreement and the said tenancy, and to- take possession of and re-enter upon said premises at any time hereafter, after having given to the second party, or left upon said premises six months’ notice, in writing, of its intention so to do, and requiring said second party to quit and deliver up possession of said premises upon return to it of the proportion of the semi-annual rent for such part of the six months as is unexpired upon the maturity of said six months’ notice. That said second party hereby agrees to become and continue to be the tenant at will of the first party, under the conditions hereof, to pay said rent, as above provided, and to keep said premises in good order and condition, and to quit and deliver up possession of said premises to said first party upon the expiration of the time mentioned in any notice to quit given as aforesaid; and that upon the expiration of such time, the said tenancy shall cease and said first party shall have the right forthwith to re-enter upon and occupy said premises without any further or other*469 notice, proceeding or process whatsoever. That said second party hereby agrees not to nse or occupy said premises for any other purpose than for a side track as provided for in accompanying side track agreement and not to assign or transfer this agreement, nor under-let the said premises, without the written consent of the first party being first obtained. * * *. ’ ’
The parties further stipulated in the trial court as follows:
(1) “It is stipulated that in the month of May, 1902, the Board of Public Works of the City of Indianápolis, adopted a preliminary resolution for the opening of Sheldon street across the original Belt Railroad right of way and subsequently acquired right of way- contiguous thereto, and that the confirmatory resolution was adopted in the month of September, 1902, and that the dedication of the street so opened by such resolution included the locality or site identified by the evidence in this case as the place where the plaintiff alleges that he received an injury as alleged in the complaint and that the street has never been vacated and has never been improved. * * *” (2) “It is stipulated that by ordinance effective in October, 1876, the City of Indianapolis guaranteed bonds of the railroad company now known as the Belt Railroad & Stock Yards Company, lessor of the Indianapolis Union Railway Company as aforesaid and by the fourth section of said ordinance it is provided as follows: ‘The Belt Railroad & Stock Yards Company shall extend to all persons doing business on or along the line of said railroad full facility to connect switches at rates per car not exceeding that charged by said company for transporting through freight of like class and character over said road;’ and continuously forward from the date said ordinance became effective down to the present time the provisions of said section four have been in full force. ’ ’
Appellant insists that, under this state of facts, it never owed to the public the duty of keeping and maintaining in safe condition the crossing over the switch tracks on such leased land. This claim of appellant lies at the bottom of its discussion of those grounds of its motion for new trial, which charge the verdict as being contrary to law and not sustained by sufficient evidence, and also furnishes a controlling reason for its objections to several of the instructions given and for its contention that several of the refused instructions should have been given, and hence presents an important, if not the controlling, question presented by the appeal. Putting this claim or contention in appellant’s own words, it is as follows: “If the question here under discussion arose upon a lease between natural persons or between private corporations, the situation would be this: The Atlas Engine Works being in possession as tenant of land abutting upon both the east side and the west side of Sheldon Street, would also, subject to the public easement, be in possession of the strip of land in Sheldon Street joining its leased land on the east side with its leased land on the west side of Sheldon Street and inasmuch as the street was opened over its railroad track and there was no order-to remove or in any way to change this track, normally that track was not a nuisance, and by its written agreement the Atlas Engine Works stipulated to maintain the track in safe and proper condition, and if by reason of something
While there is the diversity of opinion on this question indicated by Judge Elliott, there seems to be a unanimity of opinion in the decided cases that a railroad company can not escape the performance of any duty imposed by its charter or by statute by a voluntary lease of its road. On this subject Justice Davis in the ease of Washington R. Co. v. Brown (1873), 17 Wall. 445, 450, 21 L. Ed. 675, laid it down as “the accepted doctrine in this country, that a rail
The supreme court of California in the case of Lee v. Southern, etc., R. Co. (1897), 116 Cal. 97, 105, 47 Pac. 932, 58 Am. St. 140, 38 L. R. A. 71, said: “ ‘Herein, as we think, lies the true distinction which marks the dividing line of the lessor’s responsibility. In other words, an authorized lease without any exemption clause absolves the lessor from the torts of the lessee resulting from the negligent operation and handling of its trains, and the general management of the leased road over which the lessor could have no control. But for an injury resulting from the negligent omission of some duty owed to the public, such as the proper construction of its roads, station-houses, etc., the chartered company can not, in the absence of statutory exemption discharge itself of legal responsibility.’ [Nugent v. Boston, etc., R. Co. (1888), 80 Me. 62 (12 Atl. 797), 6 Am. St. 151.] In
We recognize that the eases cited and quoted from differ from the instant case in that they are eases in which the lessors had leased their entire right of way and tracks, while in the instant case, appellant leased only a part of its right,of way for track purposes, hut we can see no reason or ground for the application of any different rule or principle to the. two cases. If such a company can not by lease of its entire right of way and road relieve itself of a duty which it owes to the public as to such right of way and road, we can see no reason for holding that it might lease a part of such right of way and thereby relieve itself of the same duty as to the part so leased. It seems to us, therefore, that under the authorities cited it is clear that, though the lease in question was authorized by law, it could not have the effect of relieving appellant of its statutory duty to keep the crossing in question in a reasonably safe condition for travel; but there is an additional reason why the contract in question should not be so' construed. This contract does not purport to give to the lessee absolute and unlimited possession and control of the leased premises or of the track located thereon. Under this -agreement and lease, the track of the Atlas Engine Works was to be connected with appellant’s main track by an 80-foot lead which was to be appellant’s. The appellant was to furnish the material and construct the track and expressly retained the right to disconnect and remove that portion of the track situated on the right of way whenever it deemed it necessary so to do. It also retained the right to exercise its option to change the location of the switch and frog connections and the grades of any existing or future tracks and retained its right to use without cost the whole or any part of such siding in
The agreement provided for a tenancy-at-will lease and this lease contained the provision that the Atlas Engine Works was "not to use or occupy said premises for any other purpose than a side track as provided for in said side track agreement, and not to assign or transfer this agreement nor under-let said premises without the written consent of first party being first obtained.” By this agreement, appellant never completely surrendered its right to possession and control of the part of its right of way leased to the Atlas Engine Works, nor did it surrender to its lessee that complete possession, control and management of the side track located thereon necessary to bring it within the operation of the general rule before referred to or within those cases which lend most support to appellant’s contention.
On this subject, Judge Elliott (1 Elliott, Railroads [2d ed.] §470) says: "Where the lessor company, in an authorized lease, retains control of the road, there is reason for holding it liable for the negligence of the lessee in operating the road. The fact that exclusive control is not transferred to the -lessee is an influential factor, and may well be held to constitute the basis of an exception to what we conceive to be the general rule. If the lessor company does retain
Our disposition of this question disposes of the most serious objections made to the giving and refusal to give instructions, but some instructions remain to which additional or different objections are urged.
Finding no reversible error in the record, the judgment below is affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 108 N. E. 400. As to proximate and remote causes of injury from negligence, see 50 Am. Rep. 569; 36 Am. St. 807. Proximate cause and intervening condition, see 1 Ann. Cas. 230. As to the liability of lessor of a railroad for injuries caused by negligence of another using the road under a lease or other contract, see 44 L. R. A. 737. See, also, under (1) 2 Cyc. 691; (2) 33 Cyc. 408, 706; (3) 24 Cyc. 1125; (4) 33 Cyc. 391, 410, 38; (5) 33 Cyc. 273, 271, 280; (6) 33 Cyc. 365, 373; (7) 38 Cyc. 1778; 29 Cyc. 647; (8) 29 Cyc. 750.