Newman v. Alabama G.S.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 24 May 1889
• Citation: 38 F. 819
• Parties: NEWMAN v. ALABAMA G.S.R. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Mississippi

38 F. 819

NEWMAN v. ALABAMA G.S.R. CO.

United States Circuit Court, S.D. Mississippi, Eastern Division.

May 24, 1889

Miller Smith & Hush, for plaintiff. Fewell, Watkins & Brahan and John C. McMartin, for defendant.

HILL J.

This is an action brought by the plaintiff against the defendant for alleged injuries received by him while a passenger on defendant's train, caused by the negligence of defendant in not keeping its railroad track in sufficient repair. Such is the substance of plaintiff's declaration, and to which the defendant has interposed the plea of the general issue and upon which, by stipulation, the question of fact as well as of law are submitted to the court, the finding of the court to be in lieu of the verdict of a jury. The proof shows that the plaintiff was a passenger on defendant's train and that he had paid his fare, and had a ticket from Chattanooga to Vicksburg, and had also paid the additional fare demanded, and was in the Mann boudoir car,-- one of the cars in said train; that by reason of the breaking of one of the rails on the track said car was thrown from the track and plaintiff was thrown from his seat or place of repose and that by some sharp substance a deep cut or wound was made on the right side of his face, which severed one of the arteries, or perhaps two of them, from which a large quantity of blood flowed, which greatly weakened him, producing temporary faintness, and from which he suffered considerable pain; that a considerable time elapsed before said wound was healed and cured; that soon after this accident a clot of blood made its appearance in the right eye,-- the one next to the wound,-- which to some extent injured the sight of the eye, and that since that time the hearing in the right ear has been impaired. The proof further shows that not long after the accident symptoms usually found in cases of diabetes-mellitus made their appearance in plaintiff, and which continue, and that since the accident plaintiff's health has not been as good as before, that he has expended several hundred dollars in the payment of physicians' bills for the treatment of his wound, and of the disease from which he has been suffering, and for medicines and board and other necessary purposes while under the treatment of said physicians; and that he has been detained from his business, and has not attended to his business as formerly. It is charged that all the suffering and expense to which plaintiff has been subject since the accident have been the result thereof, and that it caused the disease known as diabetes-mellitus, which, it is alleged, is incurable, and from which plaintiff will have to suffer during the remainder of his life, if it is not shortened thereby. The first question is to determine whether or not the defendant is liable to plaintiff by reason of the carelessness and negligence in not keeping its road-bed and track in sufficient repair. That the accident was the result of the broken rail is admitted, but it is insisted that the defect of the...