Pincus v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.
| Decision Date | 06 March 1906 |
| Citation | 53 S.E. 297,140 N.C. 450 |
| Parties | PINCUS v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Edgecombe County; Webb, Judge.
Action by H. Pincus against the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.
A carrier owed one attempting to board a train the duty of providing a safe platform, though the station was not a regular one, but merely a flag station.
Thorne Gilliam & Gilliam, for appellant.
John L Bridgers, for appellee.
The testimony most favorable to plaintiff tends to prove that he arrived at Sharpsburg on defendant's railroad, with his trunks, which were placed with checks on them in defendant's warehouse by direction of Dawes defendant's agent, and they remained in custody of defendant while plaintiff was at Sharpsburg, which was from one train to the next south-bound train. The warehouse was on defendant's right of way, and used by defendant for freight purposes. Defendant's agent testified that passengers' baggage was stored and handled in the warehouse on this platform. Plaintiff's baggage had been previously stored there, and he had gotten on and off the train there. Shortly before arrival of the next train defendant's agent sent his clerk with plaintiff to this warehouse for the purpose of rechecking the trunks to Elm City. After rechecking the trunks, plaintiff started to take the approaching train. It was at night; there was no light on the platform, and it was incumbered with cotton. Plaintiff stepped into a hole in the platform, and was injured. Plaintiff had a mileage book good on defendant's road.
If these facts are true plaintiff was a passenger when injured. He had a right to seek his baggage and recheck it. It matters not whether Sharpsburg was a regular or a flag station, the defendant owed plaintiff the duty to provide a safe platform especially as plaintiff entered on it at invitation of defendant's agent for a legitimate purpose. Daniel v. Railroad, 117 N.C. 592, 23 S.E. 327. The duty of a railroad company in respect to keeping safe station premises extends to all who rightfully come upon the premises in pursuance of the invitation which it holds out to the public, and embraces all who come there on legitimate business to be transacted with its agent. Wood on Railways, pp. 310, 1341, 1349; Beard v. Railroad, 48 Vt. 101; 6 Cyc. 605, 610. There was, in...
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