Masteller v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co.
| Decision Date | 15 November 1921 |
| Docket Number | 34162 |
| Citation | 185 N.W. 107,192 Iowa 465 |
| Parties | MILO MASTELLER, Appellant, v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, Appellee |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Iowa District Court.--RALPH OTTO, Judge.
ACTION at law to recover damages for injury sustained by plaintiff by the falling of a tractor wheel at the station of the defendant company. The court directed a verdict for the defendant, and plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
J. M Dower, for appellant.
J. G Gamble, R. L. Read, and Havner, Hatter & Harned, for appellee.
The appellant is a boy 11 years of age, and the action is prosecuted by his next friend. The appellee operates a line of railway across the state, with a station and station grounds in the city of Marengo. At the time of the injury in question, the appellant accompanied an older boy, one McWilliams, to the station. McWilliams was a newsboy, and went to the station for the purpose of securing a bundle of papers from Des Moines, which arrived by express on a train operated by the appellee. The train arrived about 1:45 o'clock in the afternoon. McWilliams had requested the appellant to accompany him to the station, to receive the package of papers and to assist him in distributing the same, and the evidence shows that McWilliams expected to pay the appellant for this service. The two boys arrived at the station shortly before the time that the train was due, and learned that the train was a few minutes late.
The station of the appellee at Marengo is situated on the north side of the main tracks of the railway. It is constructed in the ordinary and usual manner of railway stations in small cities and towns. It is a rectangular building, its greatest length being east and west. The freight room is at the eastern end of the building. The office of the station agent is near the center of the building. The men's waiting room is between the office and the freight room, and the ladies' waiting room is in the west end of the building. On the north side of the building, there is a freight track, located about 10 feet from the building. The freight-depot platform is at the east end of the building. It is about 16 or 18 feet wide, and extends north and south the width of the depot. The 10-foot space between the building and the freight track, extending along the north side of the building, is referred to in the evidence as a "passageway." It is all dirt, and there is a slight slope to the ground. There is a door to the freight house, opening to the north along this passageway, about 10 or 15 feet from the east end of the building. Freight cars are brought in on this freight track north of the station, and freight is unloaded on this passageway near the freight depot, and also on the freight platform at the east end of the building.
At the time of the accident in question, there was a wheel in this passageway, north of the building. It was located some 7 or 8 feet east of the north door of the ladies' waiting room. It appears from the evidence that at one time the wheel had been lying down, but at the time of the accident, it was leaning against the north side of the building. The wheel was a large tractor wheel, with a rim 6 or 8 inches wide, and weighed about 600 pounds. On the outside of the wheel, as it stood, was a gear or cogwheel. From rim to rim, the wheel was about 6 feet in diameter. It was made of iron. After the appellant and his companion arrived at the station and discovered that the train was late, they stayed for some little time in the men's waiting room, and then began chasing each other and playing around the station on the south platform. The appellant went along the south side of the station, and entered the ladies' waiting room at the south door, and passed through this room and out at the north door. He then turned east along the passageway, to where the wheel was leaning against the building. He testified that, when he came up to the wheel, he put his hand on it "playfully." The wheel fell over upon the appellant, breaking his leg.
A witness, who observed the accident, testified that it looked to him as though the appellant stepped upon the rim of the wheel, in passing by it; that it seemed to him that the boy stepped on the outside rim or flange of the wheel; that he stepped on the rim just previous to the instant that the wheel started to fall; and that he put his hand up, as if trying to push the wheel away from him as it was falling.
Another witness testified that appellant stepped on the wheel and took hold of it with his right hand.
The appellant denies that he stepped on the wheel, but testified that he took hold of it by reaching up, about the middle of the spoke. He denied that he pushed or pulled on the wheel.
I. Railway station grounds and passenger stations are, in a sense, quasi public places. A person going to a railway station, or passing over station grounds at a proper place in a proper manner, and for a proper purpose, is not a trespasser. The appellant herein had a right to go to the railway station with the boy, McWilliams, to receive the papers from the express car on the train. As we understand the record, he expected to receive the papers there directly from the express agent, and to start the distribution of them from that point. He had a right to go to such parts of the station and station grounds as were ordinarily and reasonably used by persons receiving express. If, while so properly engaged in the business that called him to the station, he had been injured through negligence of the appellee, without any fault on his part, liability would attach. These rules are too well established and too familiar...
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