260 Pa. 430 | Pa. | 1918
Opinion by
The appellant was a passenger in a Pullman car which formed part of a train operated by the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company on one of its lines. In attempting to alight from the car at ten o’clock at night, after the train had come to a full stop at a regular station, he fell, and, in this action for compensation for the injuries sustained, he charges them to the negligence of the Pullman car porter in failing to have a stool at the .foot of the .car steps to enable him to get off in safety. He testified that the night was quite dark; that after the train had stopped he followed the porter, out to the platform of the car; that he put out a foot to step on what
That the appellant’s injuries resulted from the negligence of the Pullman car porter does not seem to be questioned, and that the defendant company is answerable for the consequence of his negligence, in the absence of any knowledge by the appellant that the Pullman car was not under the management of the defendant company, is not an open question. The well-settled and universally recognized rule as to the liability of a railroad company for the negligence of a conductor or porter on a Pullman car, forming a part of one of the company’s regular trains, is thus stated in - Moore on Carriers, edition of 1914, page 67: “The business of running drawing room, or palace or sleeping cars in connection with ordinary passenger cars has become one of the common incidents of passenger traffic on the leading railroads of the country. These cars are mingled with the other cars of the company, and are open to all who desire to enter them, and who are willing to pay a sum in addition to the ordinary fare, for the special accommodation afforded by them. They are owned in most instances, though not always, by corporations other than those operating the trains, such corporations making a business of the ownership and management of such cars. But they form a part of the train and are put on presumably in the interest of the railroad company, and the railroad company,
In granting the motion for a nonsuit the court below did not pass upon the question of the appellant’s contributory negligence. We need only say of it, as it is renewed here, that on the case as developed, it was for a jury to say whether the appellant had not exercised due care under the circumstances.
The third assignment of error is sustained and the judgment is reversed with a procedendo.