Sandberg v. St. Paul & Duluth Railroad Company
| Decision Date | 14 July 1900 |
| Docket Number | 12,085 - (206) |
| Citation | 83 N.W. 411,80 Minn. 442 |
| Parties | MARY SANDBERG v. ST. PAUL & DULUTH RAILROAD COMPANY |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Action in the district court for Ramsey county by plaintiff, as administratrix of the estate of Gustaf Sandberg, deceased, to recover $5,000 damages on account of the death of decedent. The case was tried before Jaggard, J., and a jury, which rendered a verdict in favor of plaintiff. From an order denying a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial, defendant appealed. Reversed.
Railway -- Pedestrian at Crossing -- Contributory Negligence.
Held in crossing a steam railroad on a public crossing at a place where there were only double tracks, and the vision was unobstructed, the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in looking but once, and that before reaching the tracks.
Hadley & Armstrong, for appellant.
T. D Sheehan and D. J. Keefe, for respondent.
Defendant company owns and operates a line of railway running from the Union Depot in St. Paul in a northerly direction through a ravine, through which flows Phalen's creek. At a point about two miles from the center of St. Paul, between Fauquier and Ross streets, the tracks run under the Omaha railroad at right angles. From the Omaha bridge defendant's tracks curve to the east, and cross Greenbrier avenue at a point about eight hundred feet from the bridge. At the bridge the valley of the ravine is contracted to less than one hundred feet, widening out rapidly to the east, and again contracting to about one hundred feet in width at a point about three hundred feet north of the bridge, and the valley remains about the same for two hundred feet further north. Defendant's road consists of two tracks located about ten feet apart, the one to the east being used for north-bound and the other for south-bound trains. On the east side of these tracks was a footpath (possibly two) used by people in passing north and south along the tracks through this ravine. The principal path continued on south under the Omaha bridge and to the north as far and further than the Greenbrier avenue crossing. People were accustomed to cross back and forth from this path over the defendant's tracks to a point fifty or sixty feet north of the Omaha bridge, and westerly, up into Payne avenue.
On November 19, 1897, at about one o'clock p.m., Gustaf Sandberg was walking in a southerly direction along the path on the east side of defendant's tracks. At a point about one hundred twenty-five feet north of the Omaha bridge he started southwesterly across the tracks in a diagonal direction, and, after walking about fifty or sixty feet, was struck by a south-bound freight train on the westerly track, and was so injured that he died from the effects thereof on the evening of the same day. Plaintiff recovered a verdict of $3,550, and defendant appeals from an order denying a new trial.
Three questions are presented on this appeal: (1) Was the place where the deceased crossed the tracks a highway or recognized crossing? (2) Was the defendant guilty of negligence? And (3) was the deceased guilty of contributory negligence?
As to the speed of the train there is much doubt, and the usual signals at crossings were not given. The man was not seen by any of the train men, although he might have been for a distance of five hundred feet before he was struck. Conceding that the place was a regular crossing, there was evidence to go to the jury upon the question of defendant's negligence.
As to the crossing it is claimed by respondent that, although there was no regularly laid out street at that point, and although the defendant had never recognized it as a crossing, except by acquiescence in its use, such use had continued for so long a time, and had been of such persistent character, that defendant had by implication become bound to recognize it as a crossing, and...
To continue reading
Request your trial