70 P. 883 (Kan. 1902), 12,809, Sweet v. The Union Pacific Railroad Company

• Docket Nº: 12,809
• Citation: 70 P. 883, 65 Kan. 812
• Opinion Judge: CUNNINGHAM, J.:
• Party Name: WILLIAM SWEET v. THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY
• Attorney: H. J. Harwi, and W. M. Roberts, for plaintiff in error. N. H. Loomis, R. W. Blair, and H. A. Scandrett, for defendant in error.
• Judge Panel: CUNNINGHAM, J. All the Justices concurring.
• Case Date: December 06, 1902
• Court: Supreme Court of Kansas

Page 883

70 P. 883 (Kan. 1902)

65 Kan. 812

WILLIAM SWEET

v.

THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY

No. 12,809

Supreme Court of Kansas

December 6, 1902

Decided July, 1902.

Error from Graham district court; CHARLES W. SMITH, judge.

Judgment affirmed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

PERSONAL INJURIES -- Knowledge of Danger. One who, knowing all the danger and peril of pursuing a given course and being under no compulsion to encounter the same, freely and voluntarily continues therein, cannot recover damages for injuries he may suffer.

H. J. Harwi, and W. M. Roberts, for plaintiff in error.

N. H. Loomis, R. W. Blair, and H. A. Scandrett, for defendant in error.

CUNNINGHAM, J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

CUNNINGHAM, J.:

This was an action for personal injuries suffered by plaintiff in error, occasioned by his falling from the platform of the railroad company's depot at Bogue, Kan. Plaintiff was at the time, and had been for more than three months, engaged in delivering the United States mail to the mail clerk on the trains of the company. An east-bound mixed train carrying a mail-car passed through Bogue shortly after five o'clock A. M. It was plaintiff's custom to sleep in the depot and get up in time to attend to the mail delivery. He did this on the morning of October 24, 1899, and, lighting his lantern, passed out on the platform. Occasionally the train, instead of stopping so that the mail-car would be in front of the platform, would pass beyond the east end of it. When this was the case, plaintiff would wait until the engineer [65 Kan. 813] had backed the train so that he could put the mail-sack aboard without getting off the platform. The morning in question was very dark and cloudy. The mail-car passed beyond the east end of the platform. In response to the shout of the conductor to hurry and get the mail on, plaintiff set his lantern down about the middle of the platform and walked briskly to the east end. As he approached where he supposed the end to be he slackened his pace, but, being mistaken as to where the end of the platform was, he stepped off the same, fell to the ground, a distance of about eighteen inches, and was injured. The plaintiff was seventy-four years old and his eyesight was very poor. The claimed negligence on the part of the company was that no light was...