Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad v. Coultas

Citations

• 67 Ill. 398

Syllabus

<p>1. Negligence—contributory negligence of plaintiff. A freight train on which the plaintiff was a passenger, when nearing its destination at East St. Louis, was signaled to stop, and did stop, upon a high trestle work. Just before the train started the plaintiff went out of the car upon the platform, and while there the train started with a sudden jerk which caused him to fall off on the trestle work and from thence to the ice, a distance of about twenty feet, from which fall he received a personal injury. If he had remained in the car he would have received no injury, and it appears that he made no inquiry of the conductor whether it was safe for him to go out or not, and that he must have known that he could not get off at the place where the train stopped, and that it would soon reach its destination. It was dark and cold at the time: Held, that it was highly improper and negligent in him to attempt to go upon the platform in the dark, under such circumstances, without making any inquiry as to the danger, or as to how long the train would stop, and that his negligence and want of care were such that he could not recover, unless it was slight as compared with that of the company.</p> <p>2. In the same case it was insisted that the company was guilty of negligence in starting its train with a sudden jerk. It appeared that it was the duty of the engineer to stop the train where he did, in obedience to a signal, and to wait until he was signaled to start. The reason of the sudden jerk was, that the train could not be started without first slackening the train, and it appeared that the whistle was sounded for the purpose of setting the brakes for that purpose, and again for taking them off, and there was no other proof of any negligence: Held, that even if the engineer failed to ring a bell, it being no regular station where passengers could get on and off, he was guilty of no negligence in that regard, and it also appearing that the train could not be started excep