Citizens Street Railroad Company v. Hoop
| Decision Date | 14 March 1899 |
| Docket Number | 2,699 |
| Citation | 53 N.E. 244,22 Ind.App. 78 |
| Parties | CITIZENS STREET RAILROAD COMPANY v. HOOP |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
From the Marion Superior Court.
Affirmed.
W. H Latta, for appellant.
Caroline B. Hendricks, A. C. Ayres, A. Q. Jones and J. E. Hollett, for appellee.
Appellant appeals from a judgment awarding damages to appellee for alleged personal injuries. A general verdict was returned and answers to special interrogatories. The only question discussed by appellant's counsel arises on the action of the court in overruling appellant's motion for judgment on the answers to interrogatories notwithstanding the general verdict.
The evidence has not been brought into the record. The general verdict finds all the material averments of the complaint to be true, and that the injury was received as therein charged. If the complaint shows that appellee was injured through appellant's negligence, and that he himself was guiltless of any negligence proximately contributing thereto, he was entitled to recover unless the special answers of the jury and the material averments of the complaint are in irreconcilable conflict.
The complaint shows that at the time of the injury appellee was a passenger on one of appellant's cars, and desired to alight at Lynn street, of which fact he notified the conductor; "that at the time said plaintiff so notified said conductor of his desire to alight therefrom, said car could easily have been stopped in time to allow plaintiff to get off; that as said car approached said crossing the speed of the same was checked and slackened as if to stop; that at the time when plaintiff so notified said conductor of his wish to alight from said car, and at the time when said car was checked and its speed slackened, plaintiff was standing on the rear platform of said car on the left side of said conductor; that when the speed of said car was so checked and slackened by the motorman in charge thereof, as aforesaid, as said car approached said crossing, the said conductor, who was standing on the right side of said plaintiff, invited and notified the plaintiff to alight from said car by stepping to one side and with his hands passing plaintiff by him to allow him to step down and off said car; that plaintiff passed to the side of the platform and took hold of the hand hold on the side of the car, and was in the act of stepping down upon the step to be ready to step off as soon as said car stopped; that while said plaintiff was so in the act of stepping down and off the said car, the motorman in charge thereof suddenly and unexpectedly turned on the electric current so that the car by a quick and sudden jerk threw the plaintiff from said car violently to the ground," causing injuries which are described. It is further averred that appellant was negligent in not stopping the car when notified; in notifying and inviting appellee to get down and off the car in the manner above alleged; in suddenly, and without warning, starting the car after it had been checked, and after appellee had notified the conductor to stop the same, and after appellee had started to alight therefrom.
Whether the speed of the car was changed as it approached Lynn street crossing, the answers of the jury are contradictory. The answers show that the appliances for controlling the electric current that operated the car were such that the motorman turned it on by turning a lever, so that certain notches in the apparatus were successively passed; that from the time the front end of the car was twenty feet east of Lynn street until the rear end was thirty feet west of Lynn street, its speed was from four to five miles per hour; that in running from a point where the front end of the car was twenty feet east of Lynn street until after appellee fell from the car, the electricity was turned on three notches, and while running that distance there was no change in the amount of the electricity used. But they further answered that while running the above distance there was no evidence that the motorman moved the lever by which the electricity was turned on and off in any way, whether if it was moved the electricity was turned on or off, or, if it was moved at all, how many notches. There is no direct finding by the jury in the special answers that the speed of the car was or was not increased in going the particular distance mentioned. These answers must all be considered together, and when so considered they cannot be said to be in irreconcilable conflict with the general verdict, which finds, in effect, that the speed of the car was changed. The speed of the car could have been suddenly increased or diminished in going the distance mentioned, and still have been going at the rate of four to five miles an hour.
The complaint avers that, immediately before he fell, appellee passed to the side of the platform and took hold of the hand hold on the side of the car and was in the act of stepping down upon the step to be ready to step off as soon as the car stopped. It is...
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