Korter v. Gulf & S.I.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 26 March 1906
• Citation: 40 So. 258,87 Miss. 482
• Parties: EVA KORTER v. GULF & SHIP ISLAND RAILROAD COMPANY
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

40 So. 258

87 Miss. 482

EVA KORTER v. GULF & SHIP ISLAND RAILROAD COMPANY

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 26, 1906

FROM the circuit court of Harrison county, HON. WILLIAM T MCDONALD, Judge.

Mrs Korter, the appellant, was plaintiff in the court below; the railroad company, the appellee, was defendant there. The suit was for the alleged wrongful killing of plaintiff's husband by the railroad company. From a judgment in favor of defendant company, predicated of a peremptory instruction the plaintiff appealed to the supreme court.

The accident resulting in the death of Henry Korter, husband of the plaintiff, occurred at Gulfport, on the pier of the appellee leading into the Gulf of Mexico. The pier is over a mile in length, and is about two hundred feet in width. It extends from the mainland on the north, southward, to the deep-water channel. On the western side of the pier is the anchor basin, which extends from the extreme southern end of the pier, alongside the pier, for a half mile. North of the anchor basin there was, at the time of Korter's death, a canning factory, to which a sidetrack extended. Just south of this factory, on the west side of the main line, there was another sidetrack. From the shore to the canning factory on the west side of the pier there extended a plank walk constructed along the edge of the pier, for the use of pedestrians. South of the canning factory to the anchor basin is an opening unobstructed, except by the sidetrack above referred to, and pedestrians going from the factory to the anchor basin used this as a walk. On the east side of the pier a plank walk, constructed for pedestrians, extended the entire length of the pier. There were a number of cross-walks built from the east side to the west side of the pier for the use of pedestrians in going from one side to the other. On the occasion of the accident a train of the railroad company's, in charge of a crew consisting of an engineer fireman, and three brakemen--one brakeman being near the engine, another near the middle of the train, and the other on the rear car--was engaged in setting out cars on the sidetracks. A number of the forward cars were to be set out on the sidetrack leading to the factory; and in order to do this, the rear cars had to be set on the sidetrack south of the factory, and while the train was backing down towards the southern sidetrack, at a rate of from two to four miles an hour, deceased was seen to come from the south end of the oyster factory and walk in a southeasterly direction towards the main track, then turn and walk across the track in proximity to the backing train. The flagman on the rear car, as soon as he observed the deceased attempting to cross the track in proximity to the train, gave the signal to stop. The engineer immediately stopped the train, but not in time to prevent harm, for the deceased was found crushed beneath the wheels. Deceased was a painter, and had been engaged in painting a vessel anchored in the anchor basin on the west side of the pier south of the canning factory.

Affirmed.

Barber & Mize, for appellant.

The only resemblance between the Nichols case--83 Miss. 136 (S.C., 36 South. Rep., 192)--relied upon by the appellee, and the one at bar, is the fact that the deceased in both cases received injuries on the Gulf & Ship Island pier. In the Nichols case all of the facts and circumstances were testified to by witnesses. The fact that Nichols was drunk, as disclosed by the record, coupled with his own testimony that he alone was to blame, relieved the railroad of liability. In the case at bar, none of the facts as to how Korter came to his death are in evidence, except that he was struck by some part of the backing train.

Appellee says that deceased should have stopped and looked and listened, while on the pier, for approaching trains. In answer to this argument, we would refer this court to its decision in the case of Louisville, etc., R. R. Co. v. Crominarity, 86 Miss. 464 (S.C., 38 South. Rep., 633), decided on June 12, 1905, in which TRULY, J., says that the court declines to adopt any such rigid rule that one must stop and look and listen before approaching a railroad track.

Counsel say that deceased was a trespasser. This could not be, because the record discloses that the west walk leading to the south end of the oyster house took deceased to the place where Strange first saw him, and Strange's own testimony is that deceased could not have gotten from the place to which said west walk conducted him without having crossed the main line of tracks on said pier. The railroad company cannot erect a public walk for pedestrians by which they are conducted to a certain place at the end of the walk, in order to leave which they are compelled to cross the tracks of said railroad, and then make them trespassers in so doing. Where a railroad company has built a certain walk for pedestrians, this is an invitation to pedestrians to make use of said walk; and when they have reached the destination to which said walk conducts them, the law does not require them to retrace their steps on said walk to enable them to leave said place, but allows them to go from its end to their place of business by some more convenient route, even if it becomes necessary to cross the tracks of said railroad, and in so crossing they are not trespassers. Louisville, etc., Ry. Co. v. Hirsch, 69 Miss. 126 (S.C., 13 So. 244).

Even where a person has voluntarily placed himself in a position of peril, yet where this peril becomes known to the employes of the railroad company, they must use all reasonable means in their power to stop the train, if necessary, to prevent injury.

In the case of Mobile, etc., R. R. Co. v. Stroud, 64 Miss. 785 (S.C., 2 So. 171), the court uses the following language: "If the railroad employes see a man on the track at a place or under such circumstances that he cannot readily leave it in time to avoid injury, or if they discover that for any cause he is unaware of his peril, then they are bound to stop the train, if this can be done."

To the same effect also is Cottrell v. Southern Ry. Co., 80 Miss. 611 (S.C., 32 So. 1), wherein the court says "Whether, therefore, the engineer, when he saw the danger threatening appellant, could have shut off steam and put on the brakes, or used other means in...