“His is a much more sensible view of the case,” said Smith, who held some railway shares, “and one more likely to produce dividends for unfortunate stock-holders. If people avail themselves of the benefits of railway travellers, they should make some allowances. Ah! look at our fair friend!”
She was at the far end of the platform, and an engine attached to a freight train seemed to be rushing straight at her; she turned and fled, with a scream, to avoid the charge of the iron horse, and in her hurry tripped over a barrow and fell prostrate. The career of the locomotive was stopped. It appeared that its antics had been caused by the negligent displacement of a switch. We raised the lady and found that although slightly damaged she was more frightened than hurt. We consoled her with the assurance that if she chose to sue the company she could make them pay for the elephantine gambols of the fiery steed which had so disturbed her equanimity.[307]
Seeing a man a short way off to whom I desired to speak, I was on the point of jumping down off the platform, when my Q. C. exclaimed:—
“Hold! be not rash! If you jump, instead of going down by the steps, and are hurt, you can never make the company pay for the plasters and the salves;[308] besides here’s the train.”
And so indeed it was at last. Up it thundered to the station amid screeching and bell-ringing: out rushed the passengers eager to reach the refreshment room. The crowd pushed my chum against a portable weighing-machine, and, catching his foot in it, he fell and injured himself. Seeing that he was not very seriously damaged I could not help crying out:—
“Hold! be not rash! I knew a case on all fours with yours, where the foot of a machine projected above the level of the platform six inches and was unfenced; there it had stood for years without doing any damage, and it was held that there was no evidence to go to a jury of any negligence, the machine being where it might have been seen, and the accident not being one which could have been reasonably anticipated.[309] An exactly similar case. Ho! ho! ho!”
“I wish the whole platform had given way with the weight of that mob, and then there would without doubt have been evidence of negligence. Besides I might have had the pleasure of seeing you break your leg;” testily replied the Q. C. And he added, and more correctly than an angry man usually speaks, “A company should not allow their platform to be overcrowded, and they ought to have adequate means for protecting their passengers in the event of an unusual influx of travellers.[310] They are bound to see that the number of porters at each station is adequate for the safety of passengers.”[311]
“Ah! my dear sir, one must be careful and walk circumspectly about a station. You know where a man fell, seriously hurting himself, on a staircase down which some forty thousand people had passed every month without an accident, the court held that there was no evidence of negligence on the part of the company to go to a jury, although the brass covering on the step had been worn smooth, and said that ‘the mere fact of a man having fallen and hurt himself is not sufficient to charge the company with negligence in the construction of their station; and the court is in an especial manner bound to see that the evidence submitted to the jury in order to establish negligence, is sufficient and proper to go to them.’”[312]
FOOTNOTES:
[254] Galena & Chi. Rw. v. Loomis, 13 Ill. 548.