Williams v. Louisville & N.R. Co.

• Decision Date: 11 April 1907
• Citation: 43 So. 576,150 Ala. 324
• Parties: WILLIAMS v. LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

43 So. 576

150 Ala. 324

WILLIAMS v. LOUISVILLE & N. R. CO.

Supreme Court of Alabama

April 11, 1907

Appeal from Circuit Court, Shelby County; John Pelham, Judge.

Action by Cora Williams against the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company. From a judgment sustaining a demurrer to the complaint, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Brown &amp Leeper, for appellant.

Whitson & Harrison and E. H. Dryer, for appellee.

TYSON C.J.

Appellant's counsel do not seriously insist that the trial court was in error in sustaining the demurrer to the first, second, and third counts of the complaint; but they do insist that the sustaining of the demurrer to the fourth was erroneous. That count alleges that plaintiff was at one of the stations on defendant's road for the purpose of being carried as a passenger; that she was just recovering from a severe spell of sickness, on account of which she was very weak and hardly able to walk; that when the passenger train of defendant reached the station "it was stopped for the purpose of taking on and putting off passengers, and that defendant then and there, through its agents and servants, accepted plaintiff as a passenger and transported her as such on said train from said station to her destination, and received her fare and pay for the same, but that defendant through its agents or servants undertook and proceeded to assist plaintiff to board said train by lifting her up the steps of a passenger coach of said train, but performed said service carelessly and negligently; that she was caused to fall or be violently thrown from said steps to the ground, thereby causing her great injury," etc. While a carrier is under no duty to accept as a passenger a person who is physically unable to take care of herself unattended by a care taker yet if such a person, without an attendant, is accepted by the carrier as a passenger, and his disability is apparent or made known at the time of his application for carriage to the servants of the carrier, it becomes the duty of the carrier to render to such person such special care and assistance as his condition may require in order that he may be safely transported. 6 Cyc. p. 599; 5 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law (2d Ed.) ___; 2 Hutchinson on Carriers (3d Ed.) § 992. But "whether bound to assist a passenger or not, a carrier is always liable for negligence in so doing." 2 Sher. & Red. on Negligence (5th Ed.) p. 929, § 510.

But it is insisted...