Title: GRISAMORE, ADMX. v. Atchison, T. & SF Rly. Co.

State: kansas

Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court

Document:

195 Kan. 16 (1965)
403 P.2d 93
BONNIE M. GRISAMORE, as Administratrix of the Estate of Milo B. Grisamore, Deceased, Appellant,
v.
THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellee.
No. 43,968

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed June 12, 1965.
Charles M. Cline, of Wichita, argued the cause, and Emmet A. Blaes, Roetzel Jochems, Robert G. Braden, J. Francis Hesse, James W. Sargent, Stanley E. Wisdom, Cecil E. Merkel, Harry L. Hobson, Bruce W. Zuercher, L.D. Klenda, and Richard A. Loyd, all of Wichita, were with him on the briefs for the appellant.
Charles W. Harris, of Wichita, argued the cause, and C.J. Putt, W.E. Treadway, J.B. Reeves and Roth A. Gatewood, all of Topeka, Lawrence Weigand, Lawrence E. Curfman, Byron Brainerd, Orval J. Kaufman, J. Ruse McCarthy, Donald A. Bell, J.L. Weigand, Jr., Spencer L. Depew, Paul M. Buchanan, and Charles R. Moberly, all of Wichita, were with him on the briefs for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
HATCHER, C.:
This is an appeal from a judgment sustaining a demurrer to plaintiff's petition.
On September 29, 1961, at about 12:15 A.M., Milo B. Grisamore was traveling south in a 1959 Chevrolet pick-up truck on St. Francis Street in the city of Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas. The street crosses certain railroad tracks used and maintained by the defendant in the 700 block south. As Grisamore reached the railroad tracks one of defendant's trains was blocking the crossing and his truck collided with one of defendant's cars injuring him and subsequently causing his death on September 30, 1961.
The specific facts with which we are concerned must be accepted as alleged in the petition and are as follows:
"`Erection and maintenance of railroad signals.
The action was brought by the plaintiff for the benefit of the heirs at law of Milo B. Grisamore and was presented in two counts. Count one requested recovery in the sum of $25,000 for the wrongful death. Count two requested recovery in the amount of $3,000 for hospital, medical and funeral expenses, and $10,000 for the decedent's pain and suffering following the accident until the time of his death.
The defendant demurred to the petition on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.
The trial court sustained the demurrer stating only that "the same is hereby sustained." The plaintiff has appealed.
*19 It would appear from the briefs filed herein that the trial court sustained the demurrer on the grounds that the petition (a) failed to state facts showing that the defendant was guilty of actionable negligence, and (b) alleged facts showing that the plaintiff's cause of action was barred by the contributory negligence of the deceased.
It might be helpful if we first consider the general principles of law that should guide us in the determination of the issues presented. No general rule of law is available from which the rights and liabilities growing out of all accidents occurring at railroad crossings may be determined. It necessarily results that each individual case must be determined on its particular conditions and circumstances. As was stated in Drake v. Moore, 184 Kan. 309, 315, 336 P.2d 807:
It may be suggested, for the purpose of avoiding two separate discussions, that the same decisions will give us general rules for determining both the negligence of the railroad and the contributory negligence of the driver of the vehicle at the crossing. The duty of a railroad to a motorist approaching a crossing is directly affected by the care required of the motorist. If the motorist would have been able to see the hazard had he looked and been able to avoid the collision had his automobile been in proper condition and under proper control, the railroad has no obligation which could result in its negligence.
It was stated in Jones v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Rly. Co., 129 Kan. 314, 282 Pac. 593, on page 315:
A railroad company need not anticipate that a motorist will be negligent. If the conditions and circumstances are such that a motorist exercising due care in the operation of a properly equipped vehicle will see the railroad cars standing on a crossing in time to avoid an accident the railroad may assume that the operator will do so and it is not required to take precautions to avoid such *20 a collision. It has a right to make a reasonable use of a crossing, and ordinarily the presence of a train on the crossing is of itself an adequate warning to a driver of a vehicle on a highway and special safeguards need not be employed in the absence of unusual surroundings, conditions and circumstances. In Harmon v. Atchison, Topeka & S.F. Rly. Co., 171 Kan. 403, 411, 233 P.2d 489, it was stated:
In Jones v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Rly. Co., supra, it was stated on page 315:
Although railroads are not insurers of the safety of persons approaching their tracks for the purpose of crossing, they must exercise due care for the safety of travelers at public crossings. This anticipates the exercise of ordinary care depending on the situation and surroundings at the crossing. Unusual dangerous conditions prevailing at the crossing may require the railroad to anticipate that the mere presence of the train standing thereon will not adequately warn users of the highway. Such special conditions may create an unusual hazard making additional warnings necessary.
Where a crossing is unusually dangerous such reasonable care must be exercised by the railroad as common prudence dictates. Where a standing train is blocking a crossing it is under a duty to use reasonable means to warn and avoid injury to the traveling public. The character of the means will depend on the particular conditions and circumstances surrounding the crossing. A railroad may be liable for injuries received by a motorist colliding with a *21 railroad car on a crossing where normal headlights do not reveal the obstruction or where a trap is created by an illusion of safety revealed by the headlights.
The rules that a motorist who drives into a railroad car standing on a crossing, which was not unusually dangerous, is guilty of contributory negligence is an application of the rule that a driver of a motor vehicle must correlate his speed with his ability to stop within the range of his vision. (Jones v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Rly. Co., supra; Sheets v. Baldwin, 146 Kan. 596, 73 P.2d 37.) The rule as applied to railroad crossing accidents must therefore be subject to the qualifications or exceptions applied to highway collisions which we have recognized. In Drennan v. Penn. Casualty Co., 162 Kan. 286, 289, 176 P.2d 522, it was stated:
In Sponable v. Thomas, 139 Kan. 710, 719, 33 P.2d 721, in holding the plaintiff not guilty of contributory negligence, it was said:
We recognized the same exceptions or qualifications in Drake v. Moore, supra, page 314, where we said:
We also recognized further qualifications and exceptions to the rule in Winfough v. Tri-State Insurance Co., 179 Kan. 525, 528, 297 P.2d 159, where it was held that the trial court erred in sustaining a demurrer to the petition where the issues were stated as follows:
Also in Hayden v. Jack Cooper Transport Co., 134 Kan. 172, 5 P.2d 837, this court considered contributory negligence where a motorist rammed into a low trailer which was dark in color and held:
It would appear from the foregoing cases that where a crossing is unusually hazardous the question of whether a driver of a motor vehicle is guilty of contributory negligence is a question of fact if the rays from the headlights are absorbed by the color of a standing railroad car; if there is a blending of the train with the street *23 or general background; if the vision of the motorist approaching the crossing is affected by street lights near the crossing or on opposite side of crossing, or where the railroad car was on a grade so that the light beams projected under and past standing cars.
We would receive but little assistance from the numerous conflicting cases from other jurisdictions. The issues have been determined by our own decisions. However, those wishing to research the decisions of courts of other jurisdictions may see 74 C.J.S., Railroads, § 710, et seq., and the extensive annotation in 84 A.L.R.2d 813, et seq.
Considering, as we are compelled to do, that the demurrer admits all facts well pleaded; that the allegations of the petition must be liberally construed in favor of the pleader, and all inferences to be drawn therefrom must be indulged in his favor (Carpenter v. Strimple, 190 Kan. 33, 372 P.2d 571; Redmond v. Meier, 192 Kan. 730, 391 P.2d 39), we cannot say as a matter of law that the petition fails to state a cause of action.
Plaintiff may have assumed a heavy burden when she undertook to prove the material allegations of the petition but the law gives her the opportunity to try.
The petition alleges that:
This is a necessary allegation if a petition for damages resulting from injury at a railroad crossing is to be sustained as against a demurrer.
The conditions which it was alleged rendered the crossing more than ordinarily dangerous consisted of a poorly lighted, heavily traveled one-way street with two and three lanes of traffic; the tracks crossed the street at a grade and the view of the tracks both to the west and east were obstructed by buildings which are located a short distance from the street.
Whether the surrounding conditions did, as alleged in the petition, render the crossing more than ordinarily dangerous is a question of fact which plaintiff must establish by her evidence if she is to be successful in her action.
The petition alleges that the negligence of the defendant consisted of failure to maintain sufficient lights and warning signals; failure to properly position flagmen, and failure to comply with *24 city ordinances as to flagmen and mechanical or electrical railroad signals. These matters also present questions of fact once the evidence establishes that surrounding conditions render the crossing more than ordinarily dangerous.
Appellee relies on Eason v. Missouri Pacific Rld. Co., 191 Kan. 39, 379 P.2d 351, and cases therein cited in support of the order sustaining the demurrer. The case is readily distinguishable from the case now before us for decision. The material allegations of the petition in the Eason case were quoted in the opinion and it is disclosed that there was no allegation that the crossing was unusually dangerous. This constituted a fatal defect. If the crossing was not unusually dangerous the railroad owed no particular duty to a motorist attempting to cross the tracks.
The Eason case followed Jones v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Rly Co., supra, where this court in concluding that a demurrer was properly sustained to the petition stated: "... There was no allegation that there was anything peculiarly dangerous about the crossing ..." (p. 315.)
Our attention is also called to Bledsoe v. M.-K.-T. Rld. Co., 149 Kan. 741, 747, 90 P.2d 9, where it was stated:
The Bledsoe case is simply authority for the general rule that the plaintiff must not only plead but must also prove that the crossing was unusually dangerous.
The same rule was followed in Corkill v. Thompson, 169 Kan. 38, 40, 217 P.2d 273:
*25 Both the Bledsoe and the Corkill cases were dealing with the sufficiency of the evidence to establish that the crossing was unusually dangerous after the cases had been tried on the pleadings. The sufficiency of the petitions was not questioned.
We are forced to conclude that, measured by the rules of law announced herein, the allegations of the petition were sufficient to constitute a cause of action as against a demurrer.
The judgment is reversed.
APPROVED BY THE COURT.
PARKER, C.J., and PRICE, J., dissent.