Alabama G.S.R. Co. v. Crocker

• Decision Date: 28 November 1901
• Citation: 131 Ala. 584,31 So. 561
• Parties: ALABAMA G. S. R. CO. v. CROCKER.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

31 So. 561

131 Ala. 584

ALABAMA G. S. R. CO. v. CROCKER.

Supreme Court of Alabama

November 28, 1901

Appeal from law and equity court, Tuscaloosa county; J. J. Mayfield Judge.

Action by Robert Crocker, an infant, by his next friend, against the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

This was an action brought by the appellee, Robert Crocker, a minor, by his next friend, against the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Company, to recover damages for personal injuries. The complaint, as amended, contained three counts. In the first count the plaintiff sued for $2,000 as damages for that on February 6, 1898, the said Robert Crocker, being then "six years of age, went upon the turntable kept by the defendant at its depot and yards in the city of Tuscaloosa Alabama, and, while playing upon it with companions who were of like tender years, had his hip and back caught in or under the same, and badly mashed, lacerated, and bruised, to his damage as aforesaid; and plaintiff avers that the said turntable was attractive to children of tender years, who did not know its dangerous character, but that the same was dangerous for children to play upon, because it was easily turned, and, on account of its construction and great weight a person being upon it while it was turning was liable to be caught under the framework thereof, and crushed or otherwise injured; and plaintiff avers that said turntable was kept in a public, open place, where many people were constantly passing and repassing, and many children resorted to play and the defendant, well knowing these facts, carelessly and negligently left said turntable unlocked, uninclosed, or otherwise guarded, wherefore plaintiff sues." The second count of the complaint was as follows: "The plaintiff claims of the defendant the further sum of two thousand dollars as damages, for that heretofore, on, to wit, the 6th day of February, 1898, the defendant owned and kept a turntable at or near its depot in the city of Tuscaloosa, in an open and accessible place, where many children resorted to play, and the defendant, knowing or having reason to believe that children resorted to, or would resort to, its said turntable to play, and that it was a machine or structure dangerous for children to play on, negligently allowed or suffered the said turntable to remain unattended, uninclosed and unguarded, so that children could easily gain access to and move or turn the same, and on said day the plaintiff being a child of tender years, of the age of, to wit, 6 years, while playing on said turntable," received the injuries complained of. The third count of the complaint alleged that the defendant, at the time of the accident complained of, owned and kept a turntable near its depot in Tuscaloosa, in an open and accessible place, where children resorted to play, and "the defendant, well knowing that many children resorted there to play on its turntable, that said turntable was a dangerous structure or machine for children, and that several children had been in recent times past dangerously crushed, lacerated, and bruised by playing thereon, nevertheless negligently allowed said turntable to be and remain unfastened, uninclosed, and unguarded, so that children could easily gain access to and play upon and turn the same." This count of the complaint then averred that the plaintiff, being a child of tender years, was injured while playing on said turntable in the manner averred in the other counts of the complaint, and then averred as follows: "That said injury was caused by the negligence of the defendant in leaving said turntable unfastened and unguarded, although it knew that many children resorted there to play upon the same, that it was a dangerous structure or machine for children to play on, and that several children, by reason of playing thereon, had been...