Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Harrison

• Decision Date: 18 August 1919
• Citation: 83 So. 89,78 Fla. 381
• Court: Florida Supreme Court
• Parties: LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. HARRISON.

83 So. 89

78 Fla. 381

LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO. v. HARRISON.

Florida Supreme Court

August 18, 1919

Error to Circuit Court, Santa Rosa County; A. G. Campbell, Judge.

Action by W. W. Harrison against the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.

Additional Syllabus by Editorial Staff.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

When the driver of an automobile attempts to cross a railroad track at a road crossing and has ample time to do so, but his engine chokes down and the automobile stops upon the railroad track, and it is not alleged in the declaration that the choking down of the engine was caused by the defective condition of the railroad crossing, the proximate cause of the accident is the stopping of the automobile, and the railroad is not guilty of negligence in not assuming that it would break down and stop on its track, provided that when the railroad employés saw that it had stopped on the track they at once did everything in their power to stop the train.

An engineer in charge of the locomotive of a train has the right to presume that an automobile crossing the railroad track a quarter of a mile ahead of his train will be over and away in ample time before his train reaches the crossing, and he is not called upon to presume that the automobile would choke down and stop on the track.

COUNSEL R. A. McGeachy, of Milton, for plaintiff in error.

W. W Clark, of Milton, for defendant in error.

OPINION

BROWNE C.J.

The defendant in error recovered damages from the Louisville &amp Nashville Railroad Company for the destruction of his automobile by the plaintiff in error's train. He undertook to cross the railroad track about a quarter of a mile from a curve. When he got on the track his engine choked and his car stopped. He testified in part as follows:

'As I drove up my wheels jumped down in the crossing, my car choked down, I looked around, and the train was approaching. At the moment my engine choked the train wasn't quite a quarter (1/4) of a mile from me; it was turning the curve when I noticed it. In approaching the railroad with my car I was looking around; yes, sir. I was noticing. I did not see any car approaching, and the whistle did not blow at all. Just as it hit the car it blowed, maybe a minute before it hit it, 'Toot toot.' When I looked around and seen there was a young lady in the car, I said, 'Look out; get out of here; yonder comes the train.' I jumped out on one side, she on the other. We run and tried to shove the car off of the crossing. We shoved it a time or two. I said, 'We can't do nothing with it.' About that time I looked around, and Mr. Strickland gave me this (witness indicated with his hand). I said, 'Look out! They are going to hit anyhow.' We both ran out of the way. It wasn't hardly a minute from the time he tooted after we got out the way that he hit it.'

The immediate cause of the injury was the choking down of the plaintiff...