Reibel v. Cincinnati, I., St. L.&C. Ry. Co.
| Decision Date | 11 May 1888 |
| Parties | Reibel v. Cincinnati, I., St. L. & C. Ry. Co. |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from circuit court, Jennings county; Jeptha D. New, Judge.
Action by appellant, Frances Reibel, administratrix, against the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railway Company for causing the death of her intestate.
J. S. Scobey, for appellant. A. G. Smith, J. B. Brown, and R. Hill, for appellee.
Action by Frances Reibel, administratrix of the estate, as well as the mother of Frank Reibel, deceased, against the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railway Company for causing the death of the decedent. The complaint was in two paragraphs. The first charged that on the 4th day of July, 1885, the said Frank Reibel, with five other persons, took passage on one of the defendant's trains at the city of Greensburg, in Decatur county, to the town of Sunman, in Ripley county, paying his fare to the conductor on the train, who informed him that the train would stop at Sunman; that as the train approached the town of Sunman the signal indicating that it would stop at that place was sounded; that thereupon the said Frank Reibel, and the other five persons with whom he was so traveling, went out upon the platform of the car in which they had been riding, preparatory to alighting from the train when it should stop; that the speed of the train was then so checked as to reduce it to the rate of six miles an hour, but that the train did not stop at Sunman, and, its speed being about to be increased, the said Frank Reibel and said five other persons jumped from the train onto the platform at Sunman station, they believing, and having good reason to believe, that they could safely so alight from the train without injury to themselves or to any one of them; that said other five persons did safely so alight, but that the said Frank Reibel, notwithstanding due care on his part, was caught in his clothing and dragged against and under the train, and was thereby instantly killed, being at the time about 21 years old; that they, the said Frank Reibel and said five other persons, without any want of care or negligence on their part, were compelled to get off the train as they did while it was in motion, and running, as stated, at a speed of six miles an hour; that the defendant wrongfully, unlawfully, willfully, and purposely failed, nelected, and refused to stop its train of cars at Sunman station as it had agreed to do, but, on the contrary, increased the speed of its train when it reached that place. The second averred substantially the same preliminary facts, and charged that as the train approached Sunman station its speed was reduced to about five miles an hour, and that at that rate it ran past that station without stopping; that, as the speed of the train was about to be increased, the said Frank Reibel, and five other persons referred to, stepped from the platform of the car on which they were standing onto the platform at said Sunman station, alighting thereon safely, but that, being then run against by one of the other persons who got off the train with him, he, the said Frank Reibel, was thrown down upon the last-named platform, and thence under the train which...
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