The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway Co. v. Lucas

• Decision Date: 18 June 1889
• Docket Number: 13,906
• Citation: 21 N.E. 968,119 Ind. 583
• Parties: The Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company v. Lucas
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

21 N.E. 968

119 Ind. 583

The Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company v. Lucas

No. 13,906

Supreme Court of Indiana

June 18, 1889

Petition for a Rehearing Overruled Sept. 19, 1889.

From the Porter Circuit Court.

Judgment affirmed.

G. W Friedley, C. C. Matson and G. R. Eldridge, for appellant.

H. A Gillett and E. D. Crumpacker, for appellee.

OPINION

Elliott, C. J.

The appellee in her complaint charges the appellant and the Pennsylvania Company with negligence in suffering a platform adjoining their stations at Wanatah to become unsafe, and avers that, without fault on her part, she fell through a hole in the platform and was severely and permanently injured.The Pennsylvania Company was awarded judgment on the special verdict, and the appellant alone prosecutes this appeal.No objections have been urged to the complaint in argument, and we do not, therefore, give a synopsis of it.

The special verdict is not ill, although it does not contain the usual formal conclusion.Where the facts are properly stated, the omission of mere formal statements will not vitiate a special verdict.

The special verdict reads thus:

"We the jury, having been required to find a special verdict in this action, do find the facts in the case to be as follows: That said defendants are respectively railroad corporations of and in the State of Indiana, and were such at the time of the injury hereinafter mentioned; that at the time of such injury, and for several years prior thereto, the said defendants were respectively controlling and operating railroads, the road of said Pennsylvania Company running through the State of Indiana from east to west, and through the counties of Laporte and Porter in said State, and the one of said defendant Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company running through said State from north to south, and through said county of Laporte; that said railroads at the time of such injury, and for twenty-five years prior thereto had, crossed each other at grade and nearly at right angles, at the village of Wanatah, in said county of Laporte; that those in control of said respective railroads had, during all said twenty-five years, solicited and invited an interchange of freight and passenger traffic at said point of crossing, and at the time of such injury said defendants were doing, and for five years prior thereto had been doing, a large business in the way of interchange of freight and passengers at said point, each maintaining a regular station, with passenger, ticket and freight offices, at said point, and transferring freight and the baggage of passengers from one to the other; that the said defendant Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company, to the north of said crossing had a main track and one side-track east of and immediately adjoining the same, and about ten feet east of said side-track had a building thirty-six feet long, the north half of which was used and occupied by said company as a passenger waiting-room, and ticket and telegraph office, and the south half thereof as a freight-room; and in front of such building, and extending to the said side-track, a platform at an elevation of about one foot from the grade of its tracks, which building was forty-seven feet north of such crossing; that said defendant, the Pennsylvania Company, to the east of said crossing had one main track and a side-track north of and immediately adjoining the same, and about ten feet north of said side-track a freight-house forty-one feet long, and in front of such freight-house and extending to said side-track, a platform at an elevation of about three feet from the grade of its tracks, without any steps leading down therefrom to the ground, which freight-house was forty-one feet east of said crossing; that said defendantPennsylvania Company had a passenger ticket office on the south side of its main track, about one hundred and seventy-five feet east of such crossing, with a gravel walk on the grade of its track extending from a little east of said ticket office nearly to the crossing, along which walk it received and discharged its passengers; that there was a platform about twenty feet wide extending from the said Pennsylvania Company's freight-house, and connected with and joining on to the said platform in front thereof, and so extending thence westward along and abutting on said side-track to a point where it joined and connected with a like platform, about ten feet wide, extending southward from said platform in front of said passenger and freight-house of the defendant Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company, and so joining and connecting at the angle formed by said crossing; that such platforms, and the respective extensions thereof aforesaid to such junctions thereof, were under the charge and control of the respective defendants on whose tracks they abutted as aforesaid, and were used by both said defendants for the entire length thereof for their joint use and convenience for the transfer of freight and baggage by one to the other respectively; that said platforms were so constructed and joined together as aforesaid as to form, and they did form, one continuous passage-way, without interruption or any visible hindrance to the use thereof by passengers, and were so constructed and joined together as to lead one unfamiliar with the locality to suppose that they were intended for the use and convenience of passengers in going to and from the said station-house of the defendant Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company to that of the other defendant, and so as naturally to invite such use.

"There was, however, a way of going from said station of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company to the other, consisting of a plank walk about five feet wide, on a grade with their tracks, and leading from said elevated platform across said side-track and thence southward between the main and side-tracks to a point about 15 feet north of the main track of the Pennsylvania Company, and thence southeastwardly diagonally across such last mentioned track, to the south side thereof, and connecting there with the aforesaid gravel walk, which last mentioned route and way was the one ordinarily used by passengers.That the foregoing, so far as therein stated, represents the situation, condition, use and control of all the premises in question at the time of the injury hereinafter mentioned, and for five years prior thereto.

"At the time, however, of such injury, the said platform, so extending from said Pennsylvania Company's freight-house to such junction and connection, was old, decayed and greatly dilapidated and out of repair, and about 15 feet east of such junction there was a hole in said last mentioned platform caused by the breakage of planks therein, of the size and for the space of three to five feet either way, which hole was then, and had been, and remained, open and wholly unguarded for the period of four months prior to such injury, and the existence thereof, as well as such general condition of such platform, was, during all said time, well known to both the defendants; that there was, during all said time, a ditch running under said platform and immediately under said hole and open space, and the distance from the top of such platform to the bottom of such ditch was seven and one-half feet; that, on the 12th day of November, 1885, the plaintiff in this cause was a passenger for hire, on one of the regular passenger trains of the defendant Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company, from the south, destined for Wanatah aforesaid, and intending there to take a train on said Pennsylvania Company's road; that such train on which plaintiff was so travelling arrived at and stopped in front of the said passenger-house of said Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company, at Wanatah aforesaid, at 6:30 p. m. of that day; that it was then after nightfall, dark and raining; that she alighted from said train, and the train immediately moved on and away; that said platform was wholly unlighted, and there was no light visible in or about said passenger-house or the platform, or the tracks in front thereof, nor any person in attendance thereon or present thereabouts; that plaintiff was wholly unfamiliar with said premises, only knowing the general direction from one station to the other; that she so alighted between said tracks, and discerning the outlines of said elevated platform in front of such passenger-house, she stepped at once to and upon the same, and from there looking around she did not, and by reason of the darkness could not, discover such walk between the tracks, nor any entrance to such station-building, but could and did discover the said elevated platform, extending southward in the direction of the other road; that she had no notice or knowledge of the existence of such walk between the tracks of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company; that she looked, and after looking about did not nor could she see or hear any person about the premises, and there were no lights...