Griffin v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

Citations

• 67 Pa. Super. 392
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 413

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Passengers — Alighting from train beyond station — Contributory negligence — Proximate cause.</p> <p>In an action by a woman passenger against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries, a judgment on a verdict for plaintiff will not be sustained on appeal, where the evidence shows that the train stopped at the station of plaintiff’s destination, and certain passengers alighted; that plaintiff and others either not hearing the call of the station, or because no call was given, remained in the train, and after they had been carried for about two squares requested the train to be stopped, and this was done; that the place where the plaintiff and her companions alighted was in itself safe; that there were two ways back to the station, either by a broad and safe boardwalk, or more directly by the railroad over an open trestle; that after deliberation and at plaintiff’s sugges-'. tion, the party started back over the trestle disregarding a danger notice, and in passing over it in the twilight, and in attempting to avoid a train, plaintiff sustained-the injuries for which she brought suit.</p> <p>If two distinct causes are operating at the same time to produce a given result which may be produced by either, they are concurrent causes. But if two distinct causes are successive and unrelated in their operation, one of them must be the proximate and the other the remote cause. In such case the law regards the proximate as the efficient and responsible cause and disregards the remote.</p>