Carson v. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co.

Citations

• 103 Kan. 138
• 172 P. 1000
• 1918 Kan. LEXIS 205

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Negligence — Train Violating Speed Ordinance — Death of Boy — Liability. Rule followed that, in an action for damages against a railway company, the breach of a city speed ordinance cannot be considered as an element in establishing the railway company’s negligence unless the damages are traceable to or aggravated by the violation of the ordinance.</p> <p>2. Same — Juvenile Trespassers — Duty of Railroad. A railway company ordinarily owes no duty to be on the outlook for juvenile trespassers who may be inclined to climb upon the freight cars of its moving trains, and it is not liable for injuries sustained by such juveniles in so doing.</p> <p>3. Same. Rule followed that a railway company’s duty to a trespasser is merely to avoid injuring him willfully.</p> <p>4. Negligence — Moving Train — Twelve-year-old Boy Climbing Car — Death — Contributory Negligence. The facts and relevant circumstances adduced in evidence to sustain an action for damages against a railway company for the death of a bright twelve-year-old boy tended to show that the boy climbed upon the fore truck of a freight car in a train moving from five to fifteen miles per hour through a city having an ordinance limiting train speed to seven miles per hour; that the boy’s foot became fast in the truck, and that he fell off and was run over by the car wheels, and that he was dragged by the foot some 1,200 feet before the train was stopped; that the trainmen did not see the accident; that the enginemen did not see or did not respond promptly to the signals of a bystander to stop the train after the accident had occurred. The boy died of his injuries. Held, that this evidence did not establish negligence on the part of the railway company; that it did establish negligence on the part of the boy; and that a demurrer to the evidence was properly sustained.</p>