Crawford v. Chi. G. W. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 20 October 1899
• Parties: CRAWFORD v. CHICAGO G. W. RY. CO.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

109 Iowa 433

80 N.W. 519

CRAWFORD

v.CHICAGO G. W. RY. CO.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Oct. 20, 1899.

Appeal from district court, Tama county; Obed Caswell, Judge.

Action at law to recover for injuries to personal property alleged to have been caused by negligence on the part of the defendant. A verdict for the defendant was returned by direction of the court, judgment for costs was rendered thereon, and the plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.Struble & Stiger, for appellant.

Cummins, Hewitt & Wright, for appellee.

ROBINSON, C. J.

The evidence submitted on the part of the plaintiff tended to show the following facts: A railway of the defendant extends through Melbourne, in Marshall county, southward. At a point about two miles south of the town it is crossed at right angles by a wagon road, extending from east to west. About 40 rods east of the crossing is a school house. The surface of the ground over which the road runs descends gradually from a point 300 feet west of the school house to a point from 150 to 125 feet east of the railway track, where there is a strip of level ground about 25 feet in width, called by some witnesses a “swale.” From a point 125 feet east of the track the surface of the ground inclines upward to the track. At a point 300 feet north of the crossing is the south end of a railway cut, and the ridge through which it passes extends eastward. A person going from the school house westward can see a railroad train approaching from the north at all times until within 150 feet of the track, and from that point to the crossing can see a train approaching from the north a distance of 500 or 600 feet. The plaintiff resides one-half mile west of the crossing. In November, 1897, an employé of the plaintiff named Claflin, with a team and a wagon of the plaintiff, hauled a load of grain to Melbourne, and while returning was struck at the crossing by a train of the defendant running southward, and killed, the two horses were killed, and the wagon and harness were destroyed. The plaintiff seeks to recover the value of the property destroyed.

At the time of the accident the train was running at a speed of from 40 to 50 miles an hour, and approached the crossing without the ringing of a bell or the blowing of a whistle. As Claflin drove towards the crossing, he was standing in the wagon facing westward, and the team was trotting slowly. When he reached the swale the team was checked, if not stopped, for a moment, but it is not shown whether he looked for a train, or, if he did, which way he look...