McDonald v. Chicago and Northwestern R. R. Co.

so as to omit the language applicable to the first offense above specified, as follows: If any person verbally *

maliciously threaten

person of another, with intent

*

*

to compel the person so threatened to do any act against his will, he shall be punished, etc. That this is the correct construction of the statute we have no doubt.

Affirmed.

MCDONALD et ux. v. THE CHICAGO & N. W. R. R. Co.

1. Amendment: INCREASE OF DAMAGES. The allowance of an amendment to a petition, increasing the amount of damages claimed, was held not erroneous.

2. Railroad: DUTY TO PROVIDE STATION ACCOMMODATIONS. There exists a common law duty on the part of railway companies to provide reasonable accommodations at their stations, for passengers who are invited and expected to travel on their roads.

3.

If the station room is full, or if it is intolerably offensive by reason of tobacco smoke, so that a passenger has good reason for not remaining there, it will justify his endeavor to enter the cars at as early a period as possible, and if in so doing he receives an injury from the unsafe and dangerous condition of the platform or steps, in a place where passengers would naturally go, the company are liable therefor, if the passenger used proper care, and violated no rule or regulation of the company of which he had actual knowl. edge, or which, as a reasonable man, he would be bound to presume existed.

4. Evidence: CARLISLE TABLES: HUSBAND AND WIFE. In an action for damages, by a husband and wife against a railroad company, for permanent injuries received by the wife, the Carlisle tables may be admitted to show the expectancy of the wife's life, when it appears from the evidence that, by reason of such injuries, a servant had been, and probably would have to be, employed to do the work the wife had been accustomed to do.

5. Parties: HUSBAND AND WIFE. Section 2771, of the Revision, changes the common law rule, that, in an action wherein the husband and wife were joined, for an injury to the wife, the recovery was limited to damages for that injury alone, and did not embrace the injury to

6.

McDonald v. Chicago and Northwestern R. R. Co.

the husband; and under said section the husband, in such an.action, may join thereto a claim in his own right, and recover for the loss of services of the wife, occasioned by the injury.

ATTORNEY WHO RECEIVES PER CENT OF RECOVERY. An attorney, who, by an agreement with his client, is to receive a portion of whatever amount shall be recovered, is not a necessary party plaintiff, and need not be joined as such.

7. Railroad: RULES OF COMPANY AS TO ENTERING CARS. Railroad companies are held to a strict accountability for the safety of passengers. To enable them to properly discharge this duty, they have power to make reasonable rules and regulations respecting the time, mode, and place of entering cars; and these, when known to the passenger, he is bound to conform to, and he cannot violate them by pursuing another course and hold the company liable for damages thus occasioned, though the jury may believe that an ordinarily prudent man might have adopted the same course.

8.

9.

INJURY FROM DEFECTIVE PLATFORM: LIABILITY OF COMPANY

AS COMMON CARRIERS. In the present case, which was an action by a husband and wife against a railroad company, as common carriers, to recover damages for injuries to the wife, caused by defective steps to a platform to which the train had backed, and which was not the usual place for passengers to get on and off the cars, the jury should have been instructed to ascertain from the evidence whether the company had designated or set apart the platform in front of the depot as the place where it required all passengers to enter the cars: if so, and this was known to the plaintiffs, and they, in disregard of such requirement, in advance of time, and without any justification, sought to enter the cars at another place, and in so doing, met with the injury, then the company would not be liable as common carriers.

But if, on the other hand, there was no such rule or regulation known to the plaintiffs, and they in good faith, and using reasonable care, were seeking to find and enter the cars, the company would be liable, as the plaintiffs would have a right to presume, that the platform and its approaches were in a safe condition. The authorities sustaining the foregoing principles collated by DILLON, Ch. J. 10.

GENERAL RULE. As a general rule, railroad companies are bound to keep in a safe condition all portions of their platforms and approaches thereto, to which the public do or would naturally resort, and all portions of their station grounds reasonably near to the platforms, where passengers or those who have purchased tickets with a view to take passage on their cars, would naturally or ordinarily be likely to go.

McDonald v. Chicago and Northwestern R. R. Co.

Appeal from Linn District Court.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10.

LIABILITY OF RAILWAY COMPANY FOR SAFE CONDITION OF PLATFORM AT STATIONS, ETC. This action is brought to recover damages for an injury received by Mrs. McDonald, at Cedar Rapids, on the evening of January 3, 1867.

The petition avers that the defendants are common carriers of passengers; that, on the 3d day of January, 1867, at defendant's station, in Cedar Rapids, Mrs. McD. (plaintiff) purchased a ticket entitling her to be carried from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Fulton, Ill., and, that, "thereupon it became and was the duty of the defendant to use due and proper care that the plaintiff should be safely placed in said train, and so to construct and keep in good repair the platform around the said depot and the steps to the same, that plaintiff could safely go from the platform to the cars;" yet the defendant neglected its duty in this behalf, "so that the plaintiff, in going from the platform to the cars, fell through a step connected therewith, which defendant had negligently left in an unsafe condition, by reason of which fall she broke her ankle bone and was otherwise injured," etc. Answer:

1. In denial.

2. That the injury was caused by the plaintiff's own negligence.

3. That, before suit brought, "plaintiffs sold and conveyed to one E. Latham one-half of the claim in suit, who still owns the said half of said claim, so that the plaintiffs were not then, and are not now, the sole real parties in interest in the action."

On the trial it appeared in evidence that the plaintiffs

McDonald v. Chicago and Northwestern R. R. Co.

husband and wife) had been on a visit at Cedar Rapids, and being desirous of going to their home in Wisconsin, procured tickets of the defendant, at its station in Cedar Rapids, and waited in the passenger room at the station until the arrival of the train on which they expected to take passage. The train arrived at 6.20 P. M., and left at 6.45 P. M. When the train arrived, the plaintiffs went to take their seats in the cars, and when about to step upon the train heard the announcement of "twenty minutes for supper." Mr. McDonald testified, that, about the time this announcement was made, 66 the train started and moved back beyond the platform, and I told my wife we had better go back into the room till such a time as the train should come forward. She said "no," she would rather sit down on the platform, or stand up there, as the room was so full of tobacco smoke that she could not stand it. It made her sick. I proposed to her that we should go back to the cars and get on, as it was cold. We started and walked on the platform toward the cars until we came to the west end of the platform, and in going down the steps, one of them being loose and out of place at one end, it gave way and came up between my legs, and threw us both on the track head foremost, down under the train." Her right leg was broken, the left ankle sprained, and she was otherwise injured and long confined to her bed.

Mrs. McDonald testified to the same facts.

The evidence showed that the accident happened when it was "dusk, or getting dark." There was evidence tending to show care in descending the steps where the accident happened.

Mrs. McDonald was 59 years old and weighed about 200 pounds. There was evidence showing that the passenger depot, if not full, was crowded with foreign emigrants who were smoking. The plaintiff, Mr. Mc

McDonald v. Chicago and Northwestern R. R. Co.

Donald, testified, "that it was thick with tobacco smoke, so much so that it was difficult for one to breathe, and my wife took more offense at it than I did." Mrs. McDonald testified, "that it was so smoky that it made me sick," and that this was the reason why she did not go back into the room, but went west along the platform to get aboard of the cars.

The plaintiff's son testified, "that the depot was so full of people that his mother could not get a seat, and that it was full of tobacco smoke, which was very offensive to her."

This testimony as to the smoky condition of the room was allowed to go to the jury against the defendant's objection.

The defendant produced evidence showing that the steps where plaintiffs fell were about 300 feet distant from the door of the passenger depot; and that the usual place for passengers to get on and off the cars was in front of the passenger depot and the platform between it and the freight depot. The depot buildings, platform, steps, etc., are correctly indicated in the annexed diagram.