Chicago & Alton Railroad v. Arnol

Citations

• 144 Ill. 261
• 19 L.R.A. 313

Syllabus

<p>1. Railroad company — duty to stop its trains for passengers to alight. It is the duty of a railway company carrying passengers on a freight train, in reaching the station of the passenger’s destination, to bring the train to a full stop, with due and proper care and caution with reference to the personal safety of the passengers; and, thereupon, not to start or move forward, such train in an improper and dangerous manner at a time when such passengers may rightfully, in the exercise of due care, arise from their seats and prepare to leave the train at such station.</p> <p>2. The implied contract of a railway carrier of passengers to carry them safely to their destination, includes the duty of furnishing a reasonable opportunity to alight from the train in safety at the end of the journey.</p> <p>3. Same — conduct of its servants — ordinary care of passenger. If the conduct of those operating a freight train, to which was attached a caboose, and their management of the train, amounted to an invitation for passengers to alight at a station for the discharge of passengers, and would be so understood and acted upon by reasonable and prudent persons, and a passenger acting in good faith upon such invitation, arises, upon the train coming to a standstill, for that purpose and is injured by a sudden start of the train, the jury will be justified in finding that he was in the exercise of ordinary care for his safety at the time of the injury.</p> <p>4. If, by reason of such apparent invitation, the passenger was placed in peril from the further movement of the train, the duty of the railway company will at once arise to stop its train a sufficient length of time to permit him to leave it in safety, or to warn him of the danger in time to avert injury. In such case it will not be material whether the shock to the train producing the injury was an incident of the ordinary operation of the train, or was extraordinarily and unnecessarily violent.</p> <p>5. Same — measure of