152 F. 624 | 8th Cir. | 1907
This was an action to recover for injuries sustained by the plaintiff below while he was in the act of entering a passenger train of the railway company at Keevil, Ark., with the purpose of becoming a passenger. The negligence charged against the defendant was that freight was piled upon the station platform too near the track, that the train was not stopped long enough to permit intending passengers to enter in safety, and that after the plaintiff had placed one foot upon the steps to the car, and when he was lifting the other thereto, the train was suddenly started, and he was quickly carried against the freight upon the platform, and was thereby pulled off the steps and thrown under the train. In its answer the defendant denied that the plaintiff intended to become a passenger, and that it was guilty of any of the negligence charged, and alleged that the plaintiff’s injuries were occasioned by-his own negligence. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff.
Complaint is made of the court’s refusal to direct a verdict for the defendant. The evidence was conflicting, and, in one view, tended persuasively to show these facts: The train in question was a vestibule passenger train and stopped at Keevil to let off and take on passengers. There was no depot or agent there, and a portion of the platform had become incumbered by freight which was piled thereon to within 17
Complaint is also made of the denial of a motion for a new trial, but it has long been settled that in the federal courts such a motion is addressed to the sound discretion of the court, and that the ruling thereon cannot be assigned as error. Southern Pacific Ry. Co. v. Maloney, 69 C. C. A. 83, 136 Fed. 171; City of Manning v. German Ins. Co., 46 C. C. A. 144, 107 Fed. 52; Van Stone v. Stilwell & Bierce
No error being disclosed by the record, the judgment is affirmed.