Court Opinion

ID: 9516109
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:35:08.923749+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:34.573242
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION
Crumpacker, J.,
dissents. Notwithstanding recent decisions of this and the Supreme Court I think there *569still exists, in the jurisprudence of this state, such a thing as contributory negligence as a matter of law. Of course the courts have not said, in so many words, “There is no such thing as contributory negligence as a matter of law” but by their persistent disposition to ignore it when it appears they have accomplished the same result.
The appellant testified that when they, meaning herself and husband, reached the crossing where the accident in controversy occurred they “sat there a second.” The area was quiet and she listened for approaching trains but heard no whistle or bell or other noise warning her of a train. She looked both ways but saw nothing and said to her husband, who was driving the car, “let’s go, honey.” During the moment she sat there looking and listening the train was in close proximity to the crossing, as it struck her seconds later, and her only excuse for not seeing it is that it was dark and she saw no light on the engine. I realize that our courts have repeatedly held that where one is in a position to hear and listens for the sound of a whistle or bell on an approaching train and hears neither, such fact is competent evidence that neither was sounded and is sufficient to take the question of the defendant’s negligence in failing to sound them to the jury. We have never gone so far as to say, however, that where one listens for the noise of an approaching train but hears none, that fact is evidence that the train made no noise. The absurdity of such a proposition is at once apparent. It is equally absurd not to charge one with having seen a train which is within his view simply because he says he looked and did not see it. But, the appellants says, the accident happened at 7 o’clock in the evening of April 17, and it can reasonably be inferred that the train was not within her view when *570she looked because it was dark and the headlight on the engine was not lit. The fact remains nevertheless that every disinterested witness in the case, who were in no better position to see than the appellant, saw the train when it was quite a distance from the crossing. To illustrate the significance of this permit me to state a hypothetical case. The driver of a motor bus with 20 passengers aboard approaches a railroad crossing and stops. Everybody in the bus sees an approaching train in close proximity to the crossing except the driver who proceeds across the track and is hit. Certainly reasonable men, considering such a state of facts, would be forced to the conclusion that the driver either did not look or if he looked he did not heed what he saw. His sworn statement that he looked and saw no train would lack sufficient probative value to warrant the submission of the question of contributory negligence to the jury.
We have criticized trial courts for not weighing the evidence, on motions for a new trial, and setting aside verdicts that are contrary to the great preponderance of the evidence yet, when a trial court has courage enough to direct a verdict, we, with meticulous care, search the record and almost invariably find some item of evidence or inference which we conclude, through a process of tenuous reasoning, is sufficient to take the case to the jury.
I would affirm the judgment.
Note. — Reported in 133 N. E. 2d 86.