The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-10-09

ger who has entered without opposi-
ton cannot be- turned out because he |
entered through the wrong door.
Platforms and stairways about rail- |
road station have often given rise to
lawsuits; where the station master has |
allowed them to get out of repair or
into bad condition and a traveller has
been hurt in consequence. While John
son was President he made a trip over
the Pennsylvania Road. and wherever
the train stopped at way stations the
people gathered to look at him and get
speech. At Johnstown the station
platform broke down under the weight
of the unusual crowd. One of the per-
sons who was hurt sued the company,
and proved that the platform was old
and the timbers rotten. But the court
inquired whether he had come to the
station to take the train, and he said:
"No, he was only there to see the Pres
ident." The court said if that was the
case he had no ground to sue, for the
company was not bound to keep a
strong platform for a crowd of sight
seers. But they said that if any pas
senger were injured by the defect, or
even any person who had come to meet
a passenger, or to see one off, he could
have recovered damages. A station
master on the New Jersey Railroad al
lowed hole in the floor Of his station
to 60 unmended until one day lady
passenger, on alighting from the cars,
caught her foot in it and fell and was
badly hurt. At Wells River Depot
there was fight of steps to the plat
form. The depot-master did not keep
the stairway lighted properly at night,
and lady passenger who had come to
take night train. in groping about in
the dark to find her way, fell down the
steps and hurt her hip so as to become
a cripple for life. The court said, in
both these cases, that the company
must pay. At one of the stations of
the New York Elevated Road the peo-
pie in charge allowed the steps and
platform to get icy, from rain and snow
falling and freezing; and a passenger
slipped, fell and was permanently hurt,
so badly, that the jury gave him SO, 900
damages. The Judges said that this
was right. The agents of railroad COM
panies must take more than mere ordi-
nary care in keeping their floors and
platforms in q safe condition for pas
sengers; they are bound to use " all
such reasonable precautions against in
jury as human sagacity and foresight
can suggest" They are bound to be
on the alert during cold weather to see
whether there is ice on the platform,
and to remove it or make it safe by
sanding it or putting ashes upon it, or
in some other manner. And so in a
variety of other instances, the compa-
ny have had to pay heavy damages to
passengers because the platforms were
neglected.
Attention is due to the condition of
the waiting-rooms, and to the behavior
of persons who congregate in them.
Passengers have a right to expect that
pains will be taken to protect them
from violence of fellow-passengers.
Noisy, turbulent, drunken and quarrel
some persons have no legal right to re-
main in and about the station, and if a
station-master has reason to anticipate
disorderly conduct, he should interfere
to repress it. And he may, no doubt,
order such a person to leave it, and, if
he refuses, may have him put out, al
| ways taking care that he is not hurt
and that no unreasonable or unneces-
sary force is used. In Iowa a woman
was badly hurt in getting upon the
cars, or trying to, and suit was
OrOuSnt. 1nc company Sdlu SHc WAS
to blame, fer she was trying to get
aboard the train before it was ready; if
she had waited till the proper time she
would have had no difficulty. She and
her husband then testified that the de-
pot-master had allowed people to smoke
in the passenger-room until the air was
so offensive and unwholesome that it
actually made her sick, and this was
the reason she had tried to get into the
car so early; moreover, there was no no.
tjce but that the train was ready; she
supposed it was. The court said she
was right. If the company's agents
would not keep the passengers room
in decent condition, they must expect
passengers to be in haste to enter the
cars.
These are not nearly al the cases
which might be mentioned in which
neglect of duty by those in charge of a
depot may expose the company to
heavy damages. But they are enough
to explain and illustrate the rule of the
courts, which is, that extreme care
must be taken by all these employees in
respect to everything which involves
the safety of passengers.-Railroad
Gazette.