Randall v. Connecticut R. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 02 March 1882
• Citation: 132 Mass. 269
• Parties: James M. Randall v. Connecticut River Railroad Company
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

132 Mass. 269

James M. Randall v. Connecticut River Railroad Company

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

March 2, 1882

[Syllabus Material]

Hampden. Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff while attempting to cross the tracks of the defendant's railroad in Springfield. Answer, a general denial. Trial in the Superior Court, before Allen J., who allowed a bill of exceptions, in substance as follows:

The accident happened at a point where Wason Avenue, a private way, crossed at grade the tracks of the defendant's railroad at a right angle. This crossing, which had been kept planked by the defendant, was the usual and only convenient place for passing across the railroad track in this vicinity. The defendant had established a whistling post for this crossing such as is usually set up near grade crossings of highways. There was evidence that the accident happened at five or six minutes past eight o'clock in the morning.

It appeared in the evidence offered by the plaintiff, that through the length of Wason Avenue between Main Street and the track, a distance of about five hundred feet, except where obstructed by the buildings and fences as hereinafter stated, the road of the defendant south of the crossing could be seen for a distance of about a quarter of a mile, and that from the fence on the east line of the location of the defendant's road to the east rail of the track upon which the accident happened, a distance of thirty-three feet, there was nothing to obstruct the view of an approaching train for nearly three fourths of a mile. At this place the road was straight and perfectly level, and the approach to the crossing was on the same grade as the railroad.

It appeared in evidence that on the south side of Wason Avenue there was, at its junction with Main Street, a dwelling-house. Still nearer there was a small tool-house and at quite a distance southerly of the station and on the easterly side of the tracks there was a factory building, and nearer the railroad there was a chapel; and the plaintiff contended that the view of a train approaching from the south was substantially cut off from a point near Main Street to the westerly end of the fence aforesaid. The defendant contended otherwise. From near said chapel to within thirty-three feet of the east main track of the railroad there was a common picket fence eight feet in height, with pickets about two and one half inches wide, with spaces of about the same width.

The plaintiff testified that, on the morning of the accident, he with four others, was riding down Wason Avenue towards the railroad in a wagon; that they drove down the avenue and approached the track at a very slow trot; that, as they approached the track, they saw the passenger train from Chicopee pass the crossing and stop at the station, which was about two hundred feet south of the crossing; that the morning was damp and cloudy; that the smoke came over upon the east track so that one could see only the rear car of the down train; that he could not see the engine of the down train as it was standing at the depot, on account of the smoke which came from it settling on the track; and that he looked and listened as he approached the track, and heard no sound or signal of an approaching train. He further testified as follows: "Just as the horse was stepping on the track, I first saw the up train coming through the smoke; it gave three sharp whistles, seemed to be not more than twenty-five feet off; I thought...