Fearn v. West Jersey Ferry Co.

Citations

• 143 Pa. 122
• 22 A. 708
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 911

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>(a) A husband and wife, entering a ferry boat, both fell upon the deck by reason of its slippery condition, caused by a snow-storm in progress at the time, and were injured. The husband brought trespass for negligence against the company, but before trial died, when his wife as his administratrix was substituted:</p> <p>1. On the trial, the husband’s deposition, read in evidence on the prior trial of a like action brought by the husband and wife, in right of the wife, to recover for the injuries received by the wife at the same time and from the same cause, was inadmissible on behalf of the plaintiff.</p> <p>2. The joinder of the husband and wife in the prior action was merely formal. It was the wife’s cause that was litigated, though involving the same ground of complaint, to wit, the alleged negligence of the defendant; and there was not the identity of interest to render a deposition in one case admissible in the other: § 9, act of May 23, 1887, P. L. 161.</p> <p>3. The plaintiff’s case not suggesting any defect in the construction of the boat, and not showing an accumulation of ice or snow on the deck, formed or left there from a prior rain- or snow-fall, but merely a slippery condition thereof caused by the existing storm, no negligence on the part of the defendant was disclosed: Neslie v. Railway Co., 113 Pa. 300, distinguished.</p> <p>4. The cause of the accident was as well known to the plaintiff as to the company. In such cases, the presumption of negligence arising from the mere fact that one is injured while a passenger in the care of a carrier company, has no application: Hayman v. Railroad Co., 118 Pa. 508; Farley v. Traction Co., 132 Pa. 58.</p>