Craighead v. Brooklyn City R. Co.

• Decision Date: 28 October 1890
• Citation: 123 N.Y. 391,25 N.E. 387
• Parties: CRAIGHEAD v. BROOKLYN CITY R. CO.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

123 N.Y. 391

25 N.E. 387

CRAIGHEAD

v.BROOKLYN CITY R. CO.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Oct. 28, 1890.

Appeal from city court of Brooklyn, general term.

Action by John P. Craighead against the Brooklyn City Railroad Company for damages for personal injuries. Verdict of $1,000 for plaintiff, which was affirmed by the general term. Defendant appeals.

Samuel B. Morris, for appellant.

Wm. J. Lynch, for respondent.

PECKHAM, J.

Upon the undisputed evidence we are of the opinion that the plaintiff failed to make out a case of negligence against the defendant. The evidence of the sister of the plaintiff is as favorable as that of any witness called on his part. She says when the plaintiff finished speaking with the conductor of the open car on which they all were, he stepped down from the rear platform to the outside step of the car, which runs its entire length, and she saw the other car coming along on the down track, and it struck the plaintiff while he was still on the step, turned him around, and knocked him off the car. The witness was looking directly at the plaintiff at this time, and he was looking at her, and was moving along the step from the rear towards the front part of the car where she was sitting facing the rear. She saw the car strike his head, and she stated positively that he did not slip off the side of the car and fall against the other car. This was when the plaintiff was standing either at the first or second stanchion from the rear of the car. It appeared that the smallest space between the tracks at or near this spot was such that these cars had a space between the outside step of the open car and the body of the closed car of at least 17 inches. The place where the accident happened was a crowded street, and horse-cars were continually there passing each other. The company had some open cars that were seven inches wider than the one upon which the plaintiff was riding. Open cars had been in use daily during the summer months for 20 years. All the closed cars were of a uniform width. Thousands of persons during this long period had been seen riding at or near this spot on the outside steps of the open cars at times when they met cars coming from the opposite direction, and the cars had passed each other, and no one had ever been hurt, nor had any accident ever before happened there, or at any other portion of the road, from any such cause. The space between the tracks was about uniform along the length of the...