Vadney v. United Traction Co.

Headnote

Negligence — railroads — action for injuries occasioned by street car running down sleigh stalled on its tracks.

Vadney v. United Traction Co., 193 App. Div. 329 , affirmed.

Appeal, by permission, from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the third judicial department, entered September 9, 1920, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict in an action to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by plaintiff through the negligence of defendant. The plaintiff was employed to drive a delivery sleigh for a bakery located in Albany, and on the day in question had taken on Ms load early in the morning, and at about half-past five o’clock in the morning had reached a point on the viaduct in Rensselaer used by the defendant, in common with the public, for the operation of its cars. He entered the viaduct at the southerly end and proceeded north. The snow, it appeared from the evidence, was thin on the east side of the defendant’s tracks, which were near the center line of the viaduct, and the plaintiff turned his horse to the westerly side of the tracks. The sleigh was heavily loaded and it appeared that the horse was unable to draw the load because of the absence of snow from the viaduct roadway. He came to a standstill with the sleigh covering the westerly rail of the south-bound track of the defendant. The plaintiff testified that he tried to get the horse to pull the load off the track, but the horse was unable to start the sleigh, and he directed his helper to take the horse by the head and urge him to pull, and himself took the lines in one hand and, with the other, tried to help to move tlie sleigh; that while so doing the defendant’s car, which had to run between five and six hundred feet upon the viaduct before reaching the sleigh, struck him and he was seriously injured by being pinned between the sleigh and the advancing car.