Peil v. W. Jersey & S. R. Co.
| Decision Date | 22 March 1909 |
| Citation | 77 N.J.L. 502,72 A. 362 |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
| Parties | PEIL v. WEST JERSEY & S. R. CO. |
Error to Supreme Court.
Personal injury action by Sarah B. Fell against the West Jersey & Seashore Railroad Company. Judgment of nonsuit, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.
Carrow & Kraft, for plaintiff in error. Bourgeois & Sooy, for defendant in error.
The plaintiff, a schoolteacher residing at Vineland, became a passenger of the defendant company on November 14, 1906, to be carried from Vineland to Cape May, where a teachers' institute was being held. From Vineland to Millville the defendant company's road was operated by electricity. From Millville to Cape May it was operated by steam. The tracks of the electric road at Millville station were on the west side of the platform, and those of the steam road were on the east side. Passengers going from Vineland to Cape May were required, when they reached Millville, to alight from the electric train and walk across the station platform to board the Cape May train. A certain portion of the platform was depressed so as to form a part of a trackway from the electric road to and across the tracks of the steam road, in order, apparently, that baggage might be conveniently and rapidly transferred from the one road to the other. The depression in the platform was gradual; its lowest point being on a level with the top of the rails and about 10 inches below the ordinary level of the platform. Plaintiff got off the electric train with about 50 other passengers, and started to walk across the platform with them to the Cape May train, in response to the invitation of the conductor of that train, who called out to the plaintiff and her fellow passengers, "All aboard." As she was proceeding across the platform, she came to the trackway without observing it or being aware of its existence, and, in unconsciously stepping down some 8 or 10 inches from the higher to the lower level, lost her balance, fell, and quite seriously injured herself. This being the case made by the plaintiff, the trial court directed a nonsuit, and error is assigned upon such direction, on the ground that the facts recited would support a finding by the jury that the defendant bad failed to use reasonable care to provide a safe platform for its passengers.
It is elementary law that, in actions for the recovery of damages charged to the negligence of a common carrier, it must appear that there has been a breach of duty on his part, or on the part of those toward whom he stands in the position of master, which...
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Vander Groef v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., A--641
...steps or a ladder was in any way a deviation from standard construction, or that it was unsafe. Cf. Feil v. West Jersey & Seashore R. Co., 77 N.J.L. 502, 504, 72 A. 362 (E. & A. 1909); Halm v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of Hudson County, 78 N.J.L. 712, 715, 76 A. 1014, 28 L.R.A.,N.S., 946 ......
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Shafer v. H. B. Thomas Co.
...5 N.J.Super. 203, 68 A.2d 641 (App.Div.1949), certification denied 3 N.J. 502, 70 A.2d 908 (1950); Feil v. West Jersey & Seashore R. Co., 77 N.J.L. 502, 503--504, 72 A. 362 (E. & A. 1909), and Traphagen v. Erie R. Co., 73 N.J.L. 759, 761, 64 A. 1072, 67 A. 753 (E. & A. 1906). Compare Canoni......
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Stahlin v. Lehigh Valley R. Co.
...uniform, practice was shown. See Traphagen v. Erie R. Co., 73 N.J.L. 759, 64 A. 1072, 67 A. 753, 9 Ann. Cas. 964; Feil v. West Jersey & S. R. Co., 77 N.J.L. 502, 72 A. 362. But there was no such Point V challenges the admission of a certified copy of testimony before the Board of Steamboat ......
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Williams v. New Jersey-New York Transit Co., 359.
...than that when it affirmatively appears that there is no standard, the jury has no power to set one. In Feil v. West Jersey & Seashore Railroad Company, 77 N.J.L. 502, 72 A. 362, 363, there was a depression of some eight or ten inches in a platform running between two tracks, put there to m......