Anderson v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an action for personal injuries' received by the appellant at a crossing over the Curtis Bay Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in Anne Arundel County, and alleged to have been directly caused by the negligence and want of care of the appellee company; and without negligence and want of care upon the part of the appellant. At the trial of the case, and upon the close of the testimony on behalf of the plaintiff, the Court granted an instruction withdrawing the case from the jury upon the ground that the undisputed evidence showed that the negligence of the plain.tiff directly contributed to the cause of the accident. The verdict and judgment in the Court below being in favor of the defendant, the plaintiff has appealed.

The question, then, presented on the record, relates to the correctness of the ruling of the' Court below by the instruction, that the plaintiff by his own negligence directly contributed to the injuries which he received. The rule of law involved in actions of damages for injuries sustained in negligence cases similar to the one now under discussion has so often and so recently been passed upon by this Court, that it becomes more a question of the application to the facts of the case, than a discussion of legal principles. By the testimony here, it appears that the plaintiff was injured on May 12th, 1903, while attempting to cross the railroad tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company ⁴⁸⁹ near Curtis Bay, in going from his place of business to his home in Brooklyn, Anne Arundel County. At the place of the accident there were six railroad tracks, which ran north and south.

The crossing runs east and west. The plaintiff was struck while attempting to cross the sixth track by a train coming from the north and going to the south. The train consisted of coal cars propelled over the crossing by an engine from the rear. According to the plaintiff’s testimony, as set out in the record, “I came from Fairfield up what is known as Hospital road until I hit the Stone House Cove road, and when I came to the tracks I noticed they were all blocked up on each side, but I stopped, looked, and I listened, both ways, but didn’t see or hear