Louisville City Ry. Co. v. Weams
| Decision Date | 05 October 1882 |
| Citation | 80 Ky. 420,4 Ky.L.Rptr. 287 |
| Parties | Louisville City Railway v. Weams. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
1. An instruction that " the defendant, as a carrier of passengers for hire, was bound, as far as human foresight and care would enable it, to carry the plaintiff with safety, and that its obligation to the plaintiff did not cease until she had alighted and freed herself from defendant's car, or until she had alighted and had reasonable time to free herself," & c., & c., is erroneous.
2. It requires the utmost care and largest foresight belonging to mankind as the measure of care which appellants, by their agent, was bound to exercise.
3. The rule is that a carrier of passengers for hire must use the utmost care and skill which prudent men are accustomed to use under like circumstances.
4. The first and second rejected interrogatories are immaterial, but the court might properly have put the third and fourth to the jury.
5. The rule, under section 327, Civil Code, that when an answer to the interrogatory proposed would be inconsistent with, and destructive of, a general verdict, is imperative that the court shall direct the jury to find upon such issues as are embraced by the motion or interrogatory, but the court may reject the form proposed by counsel.
APPEAL FROM JEFFERSON COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.
MARC MUNDAY FOR APPELLANT.
1. The first instruction given for the plaintiff is error. It makes no provision for contributory negligence of appellee, and makes no exception by which the appellants might have been relieved from liability. It does not provide for a careless delay of appellee in getting off the car. It makes appellants absolutely liable for the accident, with or without their fault.
2. The court erred in refusing to put interrogatories one, two three, and four to the jury. (5 Duer., 193; 2 Frost & F 730; Sherman & Redfield, secs. 265, 266; Civil Code, secs 326, 327, and 328; 47 Penn., 300; Quisenberry v. Quisenberry 14 B. Mon., 386; 2 Ala. 571; 5 Ib., 698; 3 Dessau, 165; Griffith v. Dickens, 2 B. Mon., 24; 2 Met., 566; Patterson v. Hansell, 4 Bush, 661.)
SIMRALL & BODLEY AND WM. LINDSAY FOR APPELLEE.
1. We know no proposition plainer than that a common carrier of passengers for hire is bound, as far as human foresight and care will enable it to carry its passengers with safety.
2. Appellee was entitled to receive the highest degree of care possible on the part of the driver.
3. Carriers of passengers are held to the strictest responsibility for care, vigilance, and skill on the part of themselves and those employed by them.
4. Interrogatories one and two are wholly immaterial. The third and fourth were properly refused. (L. & P. R. R. Co. v. Smith, 2 Duv., 588, and authorities therein cited; Sherley v. Billings, 8 Bush, 151.)
The appellee, an old lady of about seventy-five years, while attempting to alight from a street-car propelled by horse-power, was thrown down and injured.
She brought this action to recover damages for the injuries she sustained, alleging in effect that the driver of the car was guilty of negligence in starting it before she had a reasonable opportunity of alighting, which resulted in her being thrown down and greatly bruised.
The neglect was denied by the appellant, and her contributing fault was relied on in avoidance.
A trial was had, and appellee recovered a verdict and judgment for the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars as compensatory damages.
The appellant prosecutes this appeal from the judgment, insisting on a number of errors, none of which will be considered except that relating to the instructions, and the questions which appellant's counsel moved the court to propound to the jury.
The instructions given, save the first, were unobjectionable.
By it the court told the jury that by law " the defendant, as a carrier of passengers for hire, was bound, as far as human foresight and care would enable it, to carry the plaintiff with safety, and that its obligation to...
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