St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Woodward

• Decision Date: 07 June 1902
• Citation: 69 S.W. 55
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. WOODWARD.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

69 S.W. 55

ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. WOODWARD.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

June 7, 1902.

Appeal from circuit court, Sebastian county, Greenwood district; Styles T. Rowe, Judge.

Suit by Idus Woodward, by next friend, against the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. From a verdict for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Dodge & Johnson and Oscar L. Miles, for appellant. Cravens & Cravens and F. M. Jamison, for appellee.

BUNN, C. J.

This is a suit instituted in the Sebastian circuit court, Ft. Smith district, and transferred on change of venue to the Greenwood district, where trial before a jury was had, resulting in a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $2,000 for personal injuries to said Idus Woodward, and the defendant duly and in due time appealed to this court.

Idus Woodward, a boy 12 years old, was driving a covered ice wagon along one of the streets of the city of Ft. Smith, and when crossing the defendant's railway track this ice wagon was struck and demolished by a car which was being backed by an engine at the rear end of a train of three or four cars, and threw the plaintiff out, greatly wounding him. The only questions in the case were whether or not the defendant's engineer in charge of the moving train was negligent in not giving warning of its approach to the street crossing; and, on the other hand, whether or not the plaintiff exercised the proper care to protect himself in attempting to cross the railroad track at the particular place, and under the particular circumstances by which he was surrounded. In the course of the trial the trial court gave, among others, the following instruction: "(7) If you believe from the evidence that the injuries complained of were caused by the plaintiff's own negligence, and further find from the evidence that the direct cause of the injuries complained of was on account of the omission of defendant's engineer, after becoming aware of the negligence of the plaintiff, if he knew of such negligence, to use a proper degree of care to avoid the consequences of such negligence on the part of the plaintiff, then your verdict should be for the plaintiff." There is no evidence in the case that the engineer in charge of the engine and moving cars could have done more than he did do to avoid the injury after he saw the ice wagon, and the peril of its driver, for after the wagon got in view on the railroad track the train was stopped within from 34 to 80 feet, according to the...