Worthen v. Grand T. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 24 July 1878
• Parties: Charles H. Worthen v. Grand Trunk Railway Company
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

125 Mass. 99

Charles H. Worthen v. Grand Trunk Railway Company

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

July 24, 1878

[Syllabus Material]

Suffolk. Tort against a common carrier, for personal injuries occasioned to a passenger, by the alleged negligence of the defendant. Answer: 1. A general denial. 2. That the plaintiff was not in the exercise of due care. Trial in this court before Lord, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions in substance as follows:

The plaintiff was injured by the collision of an express train on the defendant's road, in which he was riding, with an accommodation train standing on the same track, at the depot at Detroit Junction in Michigan, at which depot the train on which he was riding was to stop, and he was to change cars.

The plaintiff testified that the train, on which he was, was running at an unusual speed, much faster than he had been accustomed to ride on the defendant's road; that it did not stop at a crossing of the Bay City road, three miles distant from Detroit Junction; that from the Milwaukee Junction, five miles distant from the Detroit Junction, the train was racing with a train on the Michigan Southern road which was parallel with the defendant's road, and was in sight all the way; that, as they approached the Detroit Junction, and within one or two miles of it, the conductor took up the plaintiff's ticket and said to him, "You will change cars at the next stopping place;" that, the front door of the car being open, he went out upon the front platform of the car and looked to see how near they were to the junction, and looked at the trains racing, returned into the car and got his baggage ready, and placed it on the front seat, on which he had been sitting, ready to be taken up when the train should stop; that he stood beside his seat, within a step or so of the door, with his hand holding either on the knob of the door or on the edge of the door, which still remained open; that the cars, instead of stopping at the point where they ought to have stopped, went forward with great velocity and came into collision with a train standing on the track; that the shock of the collision was so great as to throw him out on the platform, and, holding on to the door, he was thrown around so as to bring his back next to the window, at the same time that the platform of the smoking car ahead of him was driven over the platform of the car on which he was thrown, and, the railings of the cars being forced against him, forced him through the window and caused the injuries complained of.

The engine-driver testified that the Smith patent steam-vacuum brake, which was used on the train, failed to work so as to stop the train before it struck the other train; that the train had been examined at Port Huron, sixty miles distant that this steam-vacuum brake was an approved brake, and worked at every other station, stopping the train promptly; that at the Bay City road crossing the cars came to a full stop; that when the patent air-brake did not work, he sounded the whistle for...