120 Ala. 147 | Ala. | 1897
Appellant was a passenger on a train operated by appellee on its “East Lake Dummy Lime” between East Lake and Birmingham’; haying boarded the train at Woodlawn to ride to Twenty-fourth street in Birmingham. At the time he paid his fare he told the conductor he desired to get off at Twenty-fourth street, and ■. when the train was between Twenty-fifth and Twenty-fourth streets he left his seat in the rear car and, went out to the back platform, and as .the train slowed up for the west crossing, which was the proper side of the street on which to stop, and after the engine and front car had passed over the crossing, and while the rear car was passing over it at a speed of about three miles an hour, he got on the lower step on the south side of the platform preparatory to stepping off, when the speed of the train was suddenly increased, and he fell to the ground, sustaining the injuries complained of, and for which he seeks to recover in this action,
While there are some cases which hold that the act of a passenger in voluntarily leaving a car while it is in
There were no exceptional circumstances attendant upon appellant's attempt to alight from the car, or upon his taking a position on the step preparatory to alighting, that rendered his conduct so obviously dangerous as to justify the court in declaring it negligent as matter of law, and withdrawing from the jury tbe issue of negligence on the part of the plaintiff. He had notified the conductor that he desired to get off at Twenty-fourth street, and when the train slowed up on approaching the crossing, he had a right to assume that it was being slowed up for the pux-pose of enabling him to get off, and that its speed would be gradually lessened until it stopped at the crossing, rather than increased with a sudden jexxk. He assumed-, of course, the risk of the ordinary movement of the train slowing up at a street
It results from what has been said that charges 1, 4, 5, and 7, given at the request of the defendant, were improperly given and should have been refused. Charges 3 and 6 are predicated on the hypothesis that plaintiff attempted to leave the car in a negligent manner, and were properly given because, as we have seen, the jury might have inferred from the testimony of Peacock that plaintiff attempted to step from the car backwards, and found that such attempt was negligence and contributed proximately to his injuries. Charge 1, requested by
The evidence, as presented in the record, does not show that, at the time of the injury, there was in this particular car any placards forbidding passengers to ride on,the platform. The testimony is, “there were placards nailed up in defendant’s cars and over the platforms of its cars,” etc., which is not equivalent to proof that such placards were in this particular car at this particular time. The testimony offered by plaintiff as to “the custom and practice of passengers to resort to and ride on the platform of defendant’s dummy cars to smoke,” was, we think, properly excluded. It was not contended that plaintiff was riding on the platform when injured, but that he was on the step for the purpose of alighting; and the evidence shows that he was not riding on the platform within the meaning of the defendant’s regulations, but was merely using it as a means of egress.—Cent. R. R. ,& B. Co. v. Miles, 88 Ala. 263.
Reversed and remanded..