258 Mass. 315 | Mass. | 1927
The plaintiff was injured while on the main passenger platform of the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, at Pittsfield, by a cylinder, five feet in length and weighing about one hundred fifty pounds, which fell from a truck of the defendant as it was being moved along the platform by its servants or agents. At the close of the evidence the judge directed a verdict for the defendant. The only question raised is, whether the case should have been submitted to the jury on the second count, which alleges that the plaintiff was an invitee and while in the exercise of dué care was injured by negligence of the defendant’s servants or agents.
It appeared that the defendant paid the Boston and Albany Railroad Company for the use of office, station and express buildings, and that in transporting merchandise over the platform it used four-wheeled trucks. At the time of the accident the cylinder which fell was loaded in an
The contention of the defendant is not that the plaintiff was careless, but that when injured he did not have the rights of an invitee of the railroad company. It appeared that it was the plaintiff’s intention to buy a ticket at the station and take a train that was due soon after he arrived at the platform. There are tracks on each side of the platform, and the only method provided by the railroad company for reaching it is through the lower story of the station and then up a stairway to a place near the center of the platform. The plaintiff, however, instead of coming to the platform through the railroad station, followed directions given by some one on the street in response to his inquiries, and came upon its extreme easterly end after walking several hundred feet on the railroad location and crossing the rails of two tracks. Before he was injured, he had reached the platform in safety and proceeded on it about one hundred and fifteen feet toward the station. After his injury he went to the ticket office, bought a ticket to Springfield, returned to the platform and took the train which he had come to take.
The plaintiff was injured upon a platform apparently intended to be used by persons taking or leaving trains of the railroad company, and for other purposes connected
In Burk v. Walsh, 118 Iowa, 397, the plaintiff who had entered the defendant’s store in an unauthorized way, but was there for an authorized purpose, was held to have the rights of an invitee.
Issues of the plaintiff’s due care and of the defendant’s negligence should have been submitted to the jury. See McGrath v. American Express Co. 219 Mass. 314.
Exceptions sustained.