Hickinbottom v. Central Park, North & East River Railroad

Headnote

Hickinbottom v. Central Park, N. & E. R. R. R. Co., 163 App. Div. 948 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered June 23, 1914, affirming a judgment in favor of

plaintiff entered upon a verdict in an action to recover for the death of plaintiff’s intestate alleged to have been occasioned through the negligence of defendant. Plaintiff’s intestate was seated at the end of a bench maintained by defendant in front of gates to its car barns, when a car on the track inside leading to the gates was started by an employee of the defendant, and while under his management crashed into the gates with such force as to push them forward and outward against the bench and hurl the plaintiff’s intestate to the ground, causing injuries from which he died. Defendant answered that it was not responsible for the injuries for the reason that the employee’s act. was beyond the scope of his employment, was unauthorized and unsanctioned by defendant and was not in furtherance of the work he was employed to do. Furthermore, that plaintiff’s intestate had no right to sit upon the bench, which was for the use of defendant’s employees and not for the use of the public, and that the intestate had been warned against using the bench.