Drummond v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 63 Pa. Super. 445
• 1916 Pa. Super. LEXIS 186

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Accident -at station — Loiterer.</p> <p>In an action against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries the ease is for the jury where there was evidence that the plaintiff entered a station of the defendant .company not as a passenger or as intending to become a passenger, but for the purpose of making a purchase at a newsstand, that he was injured by the fall of a stepladder on which an employee of the company was standing while engaged in cleaning a ceiling, and the testimony of plaintiff’s witnesses tended to show that the fall of the ladder was caused by the negligent act of the employee, and the testimony of the witnesses for the defendant tended to show that the fall of the ladder was caused by the plaintiff negligently backing against it.</p> <p>In such a case the question whether the plaintiff was merely a loiterer after he had made his purchase, is for the jury where the testimony would warrant a finding that the, plaintiff remained standing near the door of the station reading a newspaper while awaiting the arrival of a street car. It is error, however, for the court to charge, that if the plaintiff did not come in contact with the ladder until it fell upon him then there was negligence on the part of the defendant, inasmuch as such an instruction ignored the question as to whether the plaintiff was a mere loiterer at the time he was injured, and also ignored the burden upon the plaintiff to establish the negligence of the defendant.</p>