Yazoo & M.V.R. Co. v. Dyer
| Decision Date | 02 December 1912 |
| Docket Number | 15,453 |
| Citation | 59 So. 937,102 Miss. 870 |
| Parties | YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY v. L. M. DYER ET AL |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the circuit court of Yazoo county, HON.W. A. HENRY Judge.
Suit by Mrs. L. M. Dyer and others against the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company. From a judgment for plaintiff defendant appeals.
The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.
Reversed and remanded.
Mayes & Longstreet, for appellant.
Barber & Henry, for appellee.
Counsel on both sides filed elaborate briefs too long for publication.
The appellees in this case, as mother and sisters of Charles Dyer, brought this suit against appellant for damages because of his death at Holly Bluff station on appellant's railroad in February, 1911. The jury returned a verdict for ten thousand dollars, from which this appeal is taken.
Charles Dyer, a young man, on February 16, 1911, boarded the train at Vicksburg to go to Midnight, a station on the Silver City branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad. A part of this journey was over the main line of the railroad, and the remaining part was over the Silver City branch. It appears that on the day named Dyer was under the influence of liquor. He had a bottle with him on the train, and drank out of it more than once. He appears to have been in high spirits, and walked up and down the aisles of the coaches, and offered drinks to several parties. and endeavored to be generally sociable. He had with him a large hunting knife, which he exhibited somewhat to the discomfort of certain passengers. It is shown that. when the train would reach a station, he would go out of the cars, mix with the people, shaking hands with and talking to them, and would get aboard before the train would move from the station. At one station he boarded the train while it was in motion. He was warned by Mr. Hoke, who was conductor on the train on the Silver City branch, that it was dangerous for him to board the train while it was moving. At Holly Bluff the train remained for about twelve minutes because it was necessary to do certain switching. Dyer got off the train and went to a grocery store about two hundred feet from the depot platform and there purchased three boxes of sardines, some crackers, and he also got salt and an onion. He delayed in returning to the train and was called by the conductor and, it also appears from the evidence, by other parties. There was a drain or ditch between the depot platform and the store. This he crossed going to the store and returning therefrom.
It is shown by the testimony of several witnesses that, when he reached the depot platform on returning, the train was still and had not started to move out. He got on the depot platform at the north end, about where the conductor was standing. and at the front platform of a combination car. It seems that the train consisted of an engine. box car, a combination car, the north end of which was for baggage and the remaining part for passengers, and a passenger coach. This combination car is referred to in the testimony as the baggage car; the front end has steps and a platform. As Dyer approached him. the conductor told Dyer to get on the front steps of the combination coach. Dyer did not do so. He replied to the conductor. "You let her go; I will get on." He then went to the front steps of the passenger coach, the last car on the train. The train had then started. It appears that it was just about to start when the conductor told Dyer to get on the steps of the combination car. Dyer endeavored to board the train at the front steps of the passenger car. At the time he had the articles which he had purchased at the store in his hands. From the testimony of some witnesses, it would appear that he had something in each hand; other witnesses state that he had the articles at the time in one hand. He grasped the handholds on the car; one hand then slipped, and he seems to have swung around, holding by one arm, and then fell to the ground. The testimony is a little conflicting as to the manner of his grasp on the handholds and the slipping of his hand and his falling. It appears from the testimony, however, that the front trucks of the passenger coach ran over him. From the injury he received, he died in about an hour. It appears from the testimony that Dyer did not have money to pay his passage after he left the main line of the railroad, and that he borrowed money to purchase the articles at the store. The amount of his passage was handed to the conductor after the accident by some of the persons on the train.
It also appears that the platform at Holly Bluff was some six inches higher than other platforms on the same railroad line. It is one of the contentions by appellees that the negligence on the part of appellant was in constructing this depot platform six inches higher than the standard platform, and that, when Dyer fell from the train, he was caught between the platform and the car and his body was caused thereby to roll under the train. We cannot see, however, considering the whole case as presented, that the construction of this platform as shown was negligence, in the present case, to the extent of rendering appellant liable. Depot platforms are intended for the convenience of passengers in boarding a train, and in the construction of them the company could hardly be expected to anticipate such an occurrence as the one presented in this instance. The other contention on the part of appellees in the trial of the case, and which is pressed upon this appeal, is that Dyer was drunk to the extent that he was not able to take care of himself and was not responsible, and that the conductor failed to discharge his duty in looking after and caring for him as a drunken and wholly irresponsible and disabled person; and also that the conductor violated his duty in telling him to get on the train while in motion.
The testimony does not show that Dyer was wholly unable to take care of himself because of his drunkenness; on the other hand, it seems that he moved about quite actively on the train and at the stations, and that he several times got off and on the train. It is also shown that he was able to go to the store, crossing the drain or ditch, make his purchases, and return. While he was under the influence of liquor, and it would seem that his powers of reasoning and deciding might have been somewhat clouded, yet he was not at all helpless physically.
Appellant complains that, in view of the facts presented in the case the trial court erred in giving two instructions. which are as follows: ...
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