Green v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

Citations

• 214 Pa. 240
• 63 A. 603
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 633

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Stations—Obstruction on floor of station — Passenger.</p> <p>In an action by a woman, who had been a passenger, against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries from a fall over a large cuspidor on the floor of the railroad station, judgment is properly entered for the defendant where it appears that the cuspidor in question was standing in a passageway eight or ten feet wide, about three feet from a row of seats, that there was nothing to show by whom it had been placed there, or how long it had been there, nor any facts shown by which knowledge of its position could be imputed to an employee of the defendant. In such a case the plaintiff after leaving the train had ceased to be a passenger, and the burden of proof was upon her to show affirmatively the negligence of the defendant.</p> <p>To hold that the mere proof of an injury caused by the misplacement of a loose piece of furniture in the waiting room of a station gives rise to a presumption of negligence that shifts the burden of proof, would be an unwarrantable extension of the rule applicable only to a passenger seated in a railroad car who is injured through the means of transportation.</p>