104 Pa. 306 | Pa. | 1883
delivered the opinion of the court, January 7th 1884.
In the court below, the plaintiff claimed damages from the Pittsburgh Southern Railway Company, for personal injuries to himself and wife consequent upon the alleged negligence of the company in allowing two of- its cars to remain off the track an unreasonable length of time at the crossing of a public highway, thereby causing plaintiff’s horse to take fright and run off, breaking his carriage and harness, and inflicting serious personal injuries upon his wife and himself.
It appears that on Sunday night, December 15th 1879, a train of defendant company’s empty flat cars was being backed down its road to the Enterprise Coal Works, some three miles distant. It was a dark, stormy night, and when the train reached the place where the Pittsburgh & Washington Turnpike road crosses the railroad, three of the cars ran off the track and were overturned. An effort was made by the train hands to get the cars back on the track, but they only succeeded with one of them. The other two were not removed, until the following Saturday. There was a fill of several .feet in the turnpike road, to enable it to cross the railroad, and up the slope, caused by the fill, the carriage-way was narrow, say ten to twelve feet in width. The two cars left were overturned mostly outside of the limits of the turnpike road, and wholly outside the traveled portion of it. The plaintiff was a farmer, living about half a mile from this crossing. The morning after the occurrence he started with his wife to drive over this road in a wagon with one horse. He had. previously been informed of the accident by Mr. Hughes, a neighbor, as will appear by the following extract from plaintiff’s own testimony: “ He (Hughes) told me there was some cars off the track, and that his horse had frightened at them, but I did not pay much atten
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff. Seventeen assignments of error were filed to the rulings of the court below. The questions involved in said assignments will now be considered.
We think it was error to permit the plaintiff to show that the cars were not removed for several days after they were overturned. The plaintiff was injured about noon on the day
It was also error to admit evidence in regard to the character of the crossing.. The defendant company were not responsible for the condition of the turnpike road, and if the fact were that at the point where it crossed the track it was dangerous, “ if a horse would scare at an obstruction,” it was a matter with which the company had no concern. Further, the condition of the turnpike road had nothing to do with the injury to plaintiff. The evidence was not only irrelevant, but hurtful. A jury would naturally infer that.it was important because the court admitted it against the objection of the defendant. Too much care cannot bo exercised in the trial of a cause before a jury to exclude all outside issues from their consideration.
There was manifest error in the answer of the leárned judge to the plaintiff’s second point. The effect of this ruling was to instruct the jury “ that the said company was in law bound to be possessed of the proper ajapliances by which they could at once remove them, if their position was .an obstruction to the highway, or dangerous to persons passing by,” and also “that if the company suffered their cars to remain in that upturned position they were guilty of culpable negligence.” This severe rule was affirmed without qualification. The obstruction must be removed “ at once if the upturned cars are suffered to remain for never so short a time, the company were guilty of culpable negligence. The point should have been refused and the jury instructed that the defendants were entitled to a reasonable time under all the circumstances of the case to remove the obstruction.
I have examined the evidence with some care, and I have failed to find even a scintilla to show that the cars ran off the track by reason of the negligence of the defendant company. The only testimony upon this subject was offered by defendant, and tends to prove that the cars jumped the track by reason of the frozen mud. It was not contradicted. It is true the plaintiff proved the locomotive was leaking, and the train in charge of a green hand, but there was no evidence that either of these facts had any connection with the cars being overturned. The train approached the highway at an admittedly slow rate of speed, and it was not shown that any cause other than the frozen mud produced the accident. lienee it was clear error to say to the jury that if there wore green hands on the train, “ and this jumping of the track occurred,” the company would be liable, in the absence of a word of testimony connecting the two events.
The defendant’s seventh point raised the question of contributory negligence, and the learned judge was asked to say: “ That if the jury find from the evidence in the case that plaintiff knew that the cars were off the track at or near the crossing ; that the cars as placed were calculated to frighten ordinarily quiet or gentle horses ; that as plaintiff approached the crossing his horse showed that he was afraid of the cars; that plaintiff had another road, which was safe and convenient, by which he could have pursued his journey, it was contributory negligence on his part to persist- in attempting to pass, and lie cannot recover in this action. This point the learned judge refused, saying, “ The plaintiff had a legal right to pass over the highway, and if he used due precaution in passing the defendant’s cars in order to prevent an accident, he was not guilty of contributory negligence.”
The abstract right of the plaintiff to pass along the highway
In the later case of the city of Erie v. Magill, 5 Out. 616, the same doctrine was re-asserted. There, a foot passenger
The plaintiff knew when he started for this crossing that the cars were overturned by the roadside. He further knew that a neighbor’s horse had taken fright at the cars that morning. By crossing one of his own fields he could have avoided the danger wichout-inconvenience to himself. Why did he not do so ? The answer is plain from his own testimony already cited. He trusted to his horse ; he did not believe there was any danger. “I did not think there was any danger at all; I thought the horse was. so very quiet, I was surprised as much at the horse scaring as any person.” . So that it appears from the plaintiff’s own statement that although he knew the overturned cars were likely to frighten horses, and had, in point of fact, done so that morning, yet he did not. regard the running away of his horse, the destruction of his wagon and the injuries to himself and wife as the natural and probable consequences to be apprehended from the-obstruction. How then can he allege that the defendant company should have known it ? For unless he can establish this he cannot recover. In determining what is proximate cause the true rule is, that the injury must be the natural and probable consequence of the negligence, such a consequence as under the surrounding circumstances of the case might and ought to have been foreseen by the-wrongdoer-.as
This was throwing a question of fact into the jury box which by no possibility could bo determined by them except by a guess. The horse had passed the obstruction in safety, and according to the plaintiff’s own statement, without being seriously alarmed. Ho then saw the carriage top or something else, and commenced jumping. How was it possible for the jury to ascertain the mental operation of the mind of the horse, whether we call it instinct or reason ? There is no method for
There was no dispute as to any of the facts contained in the defendant’s seventh point. The learned judge ruled that they did not amount to contributory negligence. In this we think he was mistaken. The point should have been affirmed.
The jury should have been limited to compensatory damages. The learned judge admitted there was not evidence to justify vindictive damages, yet left that question to the jury. This was error.
It was also error to permit the jury to allow interest from the date of the accident to the time of trial upon the amount they might ascertain plaintiff’s damages to have been. This was ruled in Weir v. The County of Allegheny, 14 Norris 413.
By the defendant’s ninth point the court was asked to instruct the jury: “That under all the evidence in the case the plaintiff is not entitled to recover in this action.”
This point was refused. For the reasons already given we are of opinion it should have been affirmed.
Judgment reversed.