Wright v. Boston & Maine Railroad

• Decision Date: 22 September 1880
• Citation: 129 Mass. 440
• Parties: Albert J. Wright v. Boston and Maine Railroad
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

129 Mass. 440

Albert J. Wright v. Boston and Maine Railroad

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

September 22, 1880

Argued November 14, 1879; November 19, 1879

Suffolk. Tort. The declaration contained two counts. The first count was as follows: "The plaintiff says that while he was travelling on Cambridge Street in the city of Somerville, in the exercise of due and ordinary care, the defendant, by its agents and servants, grossly and carelessly ran and drove an engine, attached to a long train of cars upon and over him, wounding him in his head, breaking his legs and arms, and greatly injuring him in his person." The second count was for an injury received while on the premises of the defendant.

Trial in this court, before Ames, J., who withdrew the case from the jury, and reported it for the consideration of the full court. The facts appear in the opinion.

Judgment for the defendant.

D. F Crane & R. Lund, for the plaintiff.

S. Lincoln, Jr., for the defendant.

Colt J. Lord & Soule, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Colt, J.

The plaintiff at the time of his injury was not a passenger going to or from a train on the defendant's road. He was either using the premises of the defendant's station at East Somerville for his own convenience, as affording him a shorter way from Perkins Street on the north, by Cambridge Street on the south, to the station of the Eastern Railroad, or else, after so using the premises, he was attempting, on reaching Cambridge Street, to pass diagonally both across the highway and across the defendant's tracks, towards the last-named station, for the purpose of taking passage over the latter road in a train then just arriving.

The tracks of the two railroad corporations at this point are parallel, and the station-houses are built nearly opposite to each other. The platform at the defendant's station extends from street to street, but there is nothing in the arrangement of the platforms or buildings which indicates that they were intended for the use of passengers of the other road going to and from its station. As was said in Johnson v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 125 Mass. 75, 79, with reference to a similar accident to a person who was using these very premises in the same way, "the defendant was not bound to do any act or service for the plaintiff, nor to fulfil any contract with her, relating to the use by her of its lands." "In going upon the railroad track in order to make a short cut to the station of the Eastern Railroad, she assumed all risks of bad condition of the platforms and of the road-bed, and of the running of engines and cars." It was accordingly held in that case that the plaintiff, who was injured through the negligence of the corporation while crossing the tracks, when she should have crossed in the highway, was a trespasser, and could not recover without evidence that the defendant's negligence was wilful.

In the case at bar, there was some evidence offered tending to show that the plaintiff was injured, not on the premises of the corporation, but after he reached Cambridge Street, and while he was crossing both that street and the tracks of the railroad, in going towards the Eastern Railroad station. It is true that, if the case had been submitted to the jury they might have found that he was injured within the limits of the highway. But in either aspect of the case, and without reference for the present to the provisions of the St. of 1874, c. 372, § 164, we are of opinion that the evidence entirely fails to show that the plaintiff was in the exercise of due care. The uncontroverted facts show that he was negligent. He testified that he walked down the platform of the defendant's station from Perkins Street about half-way, intending to take the train on the Eastern Railroad, which was about due, and had his mind on that, having no occasion to know anything about the train on the Boston and Maine Railroad; that, after a short stop, he walked down the platform but could not tell how far, and did not remember that he walked off at Cambridge Street; that he saw the train on the Eastern Railroad coming fast, and knew it was time to be off, and could not tell whether he stepped off the platform, or whether he got to the end of it or not, and did not remember leaving the platform at all; that the last he did remember was that he was on the platform going towards the...