Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad v. Weldon

Burke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is taken by the defendant from a judgment-for three hundred and fifty dollars entered against it in the Circuit Court for Prince Georges County at the suit of theappellee for personal injuries. The defendant is a corporation, and, at the time the plaintiff was injured, was operating-an electric railroad between the cities of Baltimore, Washington and Annapolis. The defendant is a carrier of passengers- and freight.

One of the stations on its road between Baltimore and Washington is located in Prince George’s County and known as “High Bridge Station,” where passengers and; freight are received and discharged. On May 8, 1915, the plaintiff went to this station in a one-horse wagon to get two gates belonging to himself, and also certain boxes belonging to one Arthur Brown, who had requested him to* remove them from the station. These gates and boxes had been transported by the defendant to the station for the use-of the plaintiff and Brown, and had been deposited by it upon the ground near' the defendant’s tracks. The declaration alleged that “while so upon said premises and engaged? in loading said gates and- boxes upon his said wagon and' while standing in his said wagon, without any negligence, wrong, default, or want of due care on his part, the defendant by its servants in charge of the operation of its trains upon and over said railroad needlessly, carelessly and with-gross negligence, and heedlessly, caused two torpedoes- to be-suddenly and violently exploded upon its said railroad, in* the immediate vicinity of, the said premises, with useless*, ³²¹ unusual, startling and terrifying noises, whereby the said horse of the plaintiff was greatly frightened and he suddenly started and ran away and thereby the plaintiff was thrown off from his said wagon down upon the ground, whereby he was greatly bruised about his head, body, arms and legs, and externally and internally injured in and about the same ; that by reason of the said injuries, the plaintiff was ill for the space of one month, was compelled to expend a large sum of money, to wit: the sum of fifty dollars 'for medical attendance and care, suffered great pain, was prevented from pursuing his trade as a carpenter and was made a cripple for life.” The evidence shows that the plaintiff was painfully injured.

One of his ribs was broken and two others injured, and that at the time of the trial he was suffering from the effects of the injury. Besides., he incurred an expense of fifty dollars for medical attendance. The torpedoes mentioned in the declaration are what are known as “fibre ease torpedoes” and are used by the defendant as danger signals to prevent collisions.. Mr. Doyle, the General Manager, of the defendant company, said that “if a train is late or off time or delayed for any reason, the conductor or the person responsible for the safety of the train places one or two torpedoes on the rails as an indication to the train following that they had better he on the look out for the train ahead.” The explosion of two torpedoes is a signal to run slowly, and of one an explosion is a signal to stop immediately.

Mr. Doyle explained “that, as a general rule, the conductor, in placing these torpedoes before he gets to a local station, drops off a pole length behind the car and then runs on to where the ear has to stop and take-on passengers.” It -was contrary to the practice of the defendant to put torpedoes upon the tracks at stations, and to do so was a violation of a rule of the company which provided that: “Torpedoes must not he placed near stations or road crossings where persons are liable to be injured by them.” ³²² The torpedoes used by the defendant were kept in a.fiieproof cabin at the Eaval Academy Junction office, and were taken out by the conductors. The company operates over its road about 144 trains every 24 hours, and used about 8 gross of torpedoes a month. There is. a conflict in the testimony as to the violence of the explosion of these torpedoes. One witness for the defendant said that “the volume of sound is like the crack of a revolver,” but it is conceded that the explosion must be sufficiently loud to overcome the noise of a running train.

A witness for the plaintiff testified that he had frequently heard torpedoes exploded on the defendant's road, and on some occasions at a distance of a mile and three-quarters. The testimony offered on behalf of the plaintiff as to the circumstances under which he was injiired tended to show that the horse he was driving was gentle and quiet and was not afraid of cars; that he had stopped his wagon between the freight platform and the passenger landing; that his horse was near the tracks with his head turned towards Washington; that the reins were lying in the front of the wagon, where the plaintiff who was standing in the wagon, could easily reach them. The plaintiff saw a car approaching the station going in the direction of Washington. At that time two witnesses for the plaintiff, Frank Fletcher and Edward Ohittam, were on the ground near the horse handing boxes to the plaintiff who was in the wagon.

The plaintiff testified that he saw the car coming and that he looked at the horse and it was perfectly quiet; that he thought lie would take hold of the reins if the horse attempted to move away, but it stood perfectly quiet until an explosion occurred which caused the horse to jump and run away, and the plaintiff was thereby thrown from the wagon ‘and injured. We think