Case ID: nys_7/html/0785-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Dykman, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Bartholomew v. Poughkeepsie & H. Ferry Co.
    
      (Supreme Court, General Term, Second Department.
    
    December 10, 1889.)
    1. Negligence—Dangerous Premises—Evidence.
    A verdict of §5,000 for injuries sustained by reason of a ferry company’s negligence is supported by the evidence and the law, where it is shown that plaintiff, a child of 10 years, in passing with her mother and aunt from the waiting-room of the ferry to the boat over the regular passage-way for passengers, stepped into a hole in the bridge, and was seriously injured; that the iron plate which usually covered the hole had become unfastened, and pushed to one side, a week before .the accident, to the knowledge of the company’s agents.
    2. Same—Instructions.
    It was not error to charge the jury that “ the fact that a thousand or ten thousand persons went every day on the ferry and did not get injured would not excuse the company for not providing for the case when this obviously dangerous place was to result in an accident. ”
    Appeal from circuit court, Dutchess county.
    Action by Alice Bartholomew, an infant, by Esther Henzie, her guardian ad litem, against the Poughkeepsie & Highland Ferry Company, for injuries caused by defendant’s negligence. Defendant operates a ferry. Plaintiff, a child of 10 years, entered the waiting-room of the ferry with her mother and aunt, for the purpose of taking passage on defendant’s boat. In passing from the waiting-room to the boat over the regular passage-way for passengers, plaintiff stepped through a hole in the bridge, and sustained the injuries complained of. The hole had been covered with an iron plate up to within a few days of the accident, when the plate became unfastened, and was pushed to one side, leaving part of the hole exposed. There was evidence that a great deal of traffic was going over; that the same plank were on the bridge at the time of the accident that were there when the ferry was built, which ivas 10 years before; that the hole was large enough to admit the foot and leg of a child 10 years of age; that it was not repaired for three weeks after the accident; that defendant’s agents knew of the dangerous condition of the hole. The physician who attended the child some time after the accident testified that he found the child suffering from an inflammation of the knee-joint, and that the child’s condition was about the same as when he first saw her, six months before the trial. The child could not use her leg, and suffered great pain from it. The court, in its charge to the jury, instructed them that “the fact that a thousand or ten thousand persons went everyday on the ferry and did not get injured would not excuse the company for not providing for the case when this obviously dangerous place was to result in an accident.” The jury found a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $5,000, and judgment was entered accordingly. Defendant appeals.
    
      Thompson & Lown, for appellant. Allison Butts, for respondent.
   Dykman, J.

This is an action against a ferry company for the recovery of the damages resulting to the plaintiff from an injury sustained by her while walking from the ferry-house to the boat upon which she was to embark for passage across the Hudson river, at Poughkeepsie. The injury was caused by an opening in the plank or bridge over which the plaintiff passed, into which she stepped. Her leg went through the opening, and her knee-joint was injured in a very serious manner. The trial of the cause resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff, which is fully sustained by the evidence and the law ■applicable to the case. There was but one exception to the charge, and that presents no error. There is no merit in the appeal, and the judgment and or■der denying the motion for a new trial should' be affirmed.