Garlich v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co.

Citations

• 131 F. 837
• 67 C.C.A. 237
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4319

Syllabus

<p>1. AVitnesses — Cross-Examination—Scope.</p> <p>It is no objection to the cross-examination of a plaintiff’s witness that it discloses facts tending to constitute a defense, where such facts relate directly to matters about which he testified on his direct examination.</p> <p>2. Evidence — Private Statutes — Necessity oe Pleading.</p> <p>Neither a private statute nor a city ordinance is admissible in evidence to establish a defendant’s negligence in the running of a railroad train, unless pleaded.</p> <p>3. Railroads — Injury to Person on Track — Contributory Negligence.</p> <p>The law recognizes the track of an operated railroad as a place of danger, of which danger a view of the track conveys notice; and when a person goes upon such track, or so near it as to he within the overhang of the cars or engine, ordinary care requires that he be alert in the use of his senses of sight and hearing to guard himself from harm, and no reliance on the exercise of care by persons in control of trains will excuse his failure to exercise such care. If the use of these senses is interfered with by obstructions or by noises, ordinary reasonable care calls for proportionately increased vigilance.</p> <p>4. Same — Failure to Look and Listen.</p> <p>Plaintiff, without occasion therefor, was walking near a city station in the space between railroad tracks and a river bank, used as a pathway, and ranging in width from 5 to 25 feet. A freight train was moving in the opposite direction on the second track from him, making the usual noise; and, after looking back along the nearest track, which could be seen for about 500 feet, and seeing no train thereon, plaintiff walked on about 150 feet, without again looking back, when he was struck and injured by the end of the pilot beam on the engine of one of defendant’s trains which came from behind him. The space between the track and river bank was there 11 feet wide, and plaintiff was walking at a safe distance from the track until just befo