Palmer v. Pennsylvania Co.

• Decision Date: 27 November 1888
• Citation: 18 N.E. 859,111 N.Y. 488
• Parties: PALMER v. PENNSYLVANIA CO.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

111 N.Y. 488

18 N.E. 859

PALMER

v.PENNSYLVANIA CO.¹

Court of Appeals of New York.

November 27, 1888.

Appeal from supreme court, general term, Second department.

Action by Joseph Palmer against the Pannsylvania Company for injuries received while alighting from defendant's train. Plaintiff recovered judgment, and defendant appeals.

R. F. Wilkinson, (Homer A. Nelson, of counsel,) for appellant.

Grant B. Taylor, for respondent.

RUGER, C. J.

The evidence was quite conflicting as to the presence of any ice on the platform of the car from which the plaintiff fell and broke his leg, and as to the quantity of snow lying thereon; some of the witnesses stating that there was no ice, and only so much snow as had apparently been blown in and gathered around the corners and crevices of the platform; and others saying there was some ice former on the edges of the platform from sleet, hail, or rain freezing there, and being thinly covered with a coating of snow. It had stormed at various times during the night and morning, and the weather was cold and freezing. Whatever may have been the testimony, it is quite certain that the quantity of either ice or snow was quite inconsiderable, and perceptible only after some inspection. It also appeared that, such as it was, it had been formed upon the platform of a passenger car attached to a through train, running from Chicago to Fort Wayne, in the course of its transit between those places. The plaintiff had taken his passage at Chicago for a place beyond Fort Wayne, and had been upon the cars about 12 hours, when, about 5 o'clock A. M., they arrived at Mansfield, in the state of Ohio, where the accident occurred. The jury were undoubtedly authorized to find from the evidence that there was some snow upon the car platform, and some slight spots of ice around its edges, and that the accident was occasioned by the slipping of the defendant on the platform by reason of such ice or snow. There is no claim that there were hummocks or bunches of either substance, or that it lay in any other form than as a thin covering upon the platform. It was also established by the evidence of the plaintiff that he was aware of the condition of the platform at the time of the accident, as he had two or three times during the night crossed over it, and observed that it was slippery. The amount of the verdict rendered in the case is quite reasonable, and as the plaintiff was undoubtedly seriously injured, and was subjected to damage by reason thereof, we should be quite willing to affirm the judgment if it could be done without violating legal principles. Railroad corporations, however, are not the insurers of the lives of safety of passengers upon their cars, and, in order to render them so, it is essential to show that they have neglected the performance of some duty which in the exercise of reasonable care, prudence, and diligence they owe to such passengers. We think the trial court was not justified in applying to this case the rule pertaining to the construction and maintenance of tracks and running machinery by railroad corporations, which holds them to the use of the utmost possible care in discovering and remedying defects therein. That rule is applicable to such appliances of a railroad as would be likely to occasion great danger and loss of life to the traveling public, if defects existed therein on account of the velocity with which cars are moved, and the destructive and irresistible force which accompanies such motion. No claim is made here but that the road-bed was in good order, the cars constructed upon the usual and customary plan, and provided with all the conveniences and appliances ordinarily used to afford safety and comfort to their occupants. It had a safe and well-constructed platform, with proper and convenient steps, to enable passengers to safely enter or alight therefrom, and hand-rails on either side to afford assistance in case of any insecurity in the footing of the passage-way. The accident occurred from a cause which is as common to all other exposed places as to that of a car platform, and which is inseparable from the nature of a...