Yu v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 17 July 1958
• Citation: 145 Conn. 451,144 A.2d 56
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Alice YU v. The NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD RAILROAD COMPANY. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 56

144 A.2d 56

145 Conn. 451

Alice YU v. The NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD RAILROAD COMPANY.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 17, 1958.

Thomas P. Hackett, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, was Edwin H. Hall, New Haven, for appellant (defendant).

Sherman Rosenberg, New Haven, with whom was Paul E. Farren, New Haven, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before DALY, C. J., and BALDWIN, KING, MURPHY and MELLITZ, JJ.

MELLITZ, Associate Justice.

The plaintiff was injured while alighting from a railroad coach at the defendant's railroad station in New Haven on the evening of April 2, 1955. Upon a trial to the court, the defendant was found negligent in failing to provide assistance to the plaintiff in alighting. It has appealed from a judgment rendered for the plaintiff.

The facts found, with such corrections as are warranted, are as follows: The plaintiff at the time of the accident was thirty-seven years old and about five feet two inches in height. A disease of the right hip caused her to walk with a pronounced limp, noticeable to anyone seeing her walk. On April 2, 1955, after purchasing a coach ticket, she boarded a train for New Haven at Grand Central Station in New York City at about 6 p. m. She was carrying a shopping bag containing food, a square package containing eight or ten long-playing phonograph records, and a parcel containing a coat. She approached the train in the view of several of the defendant's railroad personnel, and one of them directed her to enter a coach near the rear. The entrance to the coach was level with the platform, so that she was not required to climb or descend any steps. She entered the coach to which she had been directed and sat alone in a full seat, placing her packages on the seat beside her. Thereafter, she proceeded to the dining car, some eight cars forward, passing several uniformed personnel on the way. The train reached New Haven at 7:30 p. m., and it was then dark. The plaintiff proceeded to alight, carrying her bundles in her left arm and holding the handrail at the side of the steps with her right hand. The distance from the bottom step to the concrete platform was approximately fourteen inches. When her right foot was on the lowest step, she stepped forward with her left foot but it did not reach the station platform and she fell forward, receiving injuries which included fractures of the left ankle and heel bone. On her previous trips to New Haven by train, railroad personnel had assisted her in alighting. On this occasion none of the defendant's employees were at or near the coach steps and she received no assistance. She did not request assistance, and before descending she saw that there was no one at the bottom of the steps to assist her. On its arrival at New Haven, the train consisted of a locomotive, a baggage car, a grill car and thirteen coaches. On leaving New York it had 761 passengers, and when it reached New Haven there were 567, 47 of whom were in the coach in which the plaintiff was riding. The train was bound for Boston and had a crew of six, one of whom was a baggage master who had no duties with respect to passengers.

The court concluded that the physical defect which caused the plaintiff to walk with a decided limp was known or should have been apparent to the defendant's personnel, as was the fact that in endeavoring to alight she would also be burdened by the three parcels she was carrying. It also concluded that in view of the degree of care with which the defendant was charged and its knowledge of the height of the bottom step from the platform, it was negligent in failing to provide the plaintiff with assistance in alighting, and that the plaintiff was not guilty of contributory negligence.

The principal contention of the defendant is that the court was in error in concluding that the defendant was negligent in failing to assist the plaintiff, in the absence of a finding either that the plaintiff had requested assistance or that the defendant had actual knowledge that when the plaintiff was endeavoring to alight she was in need of assistance. The defendant argues strenuously that constructive notice of a passenger's disability and need for assistance is, alone, not sufficient to raise a duty to assist a passenger in alighting. Authorities to support this view are not wanting. Illinois Cent. Ry. Co. v. Cruse, 123 Ky. 463, 471, 96 S.W. 821; Southern Pac. Co. v. Buntin, 54 Ariz. 180, 186, 94 P.2d 639; Beaudet v. Boston & M. R. R., 101 N.H. 4, 131 A.2d 65. It is true that a carrier may not be held to a duty to assist a passenger to alight, even in the case of one with an obvious infirmity, where the circumstances ae such that assistance is neither requested nor apparently required. See Graham v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co., 174 N.C. 1, 3, 93 S.E. 428; Beaudet v. Boston & M. R. R., supra. But the prevailing view is that it is incumbent upon a carrier to render assistance to a passenger in alighting where it becomes reasonably apparent that such assistance is required for the safety of the passenger, even though no special request for assistance has been made. Note, 55 A.L.R. 389, 392; Southern Ry. Co. v. Laxson, 217 Ala. 1, 3, 114 So. 290; Payne v. Thurston, 148 Ark. 456, 462, 230 S.W. 561; Tampa Electric Co. v. Fleischaker, 152 Fla. 701, 707, 12 So.2d 901; Southern Ry. Co. v. Reeves, 116 Ga. 743, 42 S.E. 1015; Fanelli v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 246 Iowa 661, 667, 69 N.W.2d 13; Kurn v. Bayless, 197 Okl. 521, 524, 172 P.2d 779; Singletary v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 217 S.C. 212, 218, 60 S.E.2d 305; Wisdom v. Chicago, R. I. & G. Ry. Co., Tex.Com.App., 231 S.W. 344, 346; International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Williams, Tex.Civ.App., 183 S.W. 1185, 1187.

We have repeatedly held it to be the duty of a common carrier of passengers for hire to use the utmost care consistent with the nature of its business to guard its passengers against all dangers which might reasonably and naturally be expected to occur, in view of all the circumstances. Andrea v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co., 144 Conn. 340, 344, 131 A.2d 642, and cases cited therein. This high degree of care is required during the period of a passenger's alighting as well as during transportation. Ferguson v. Connecticut Co., 87 Conn. 652, 654, 89 A. 267. So, in the case of a young child traveling by himself, we held it to be the duty of the carrier to exercise care proportioned to...