Halstead v. Westchester Electric Railroad

Headnote

Negligence — railroads — intoxicated pedestrian struck by car while crossing street — failure to prove wanton negligence on part of motorman.

Halstead v. Westchester Electric R. R. Co., 213 App. Div. 832 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment, entered April 28, 1925, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, reversing a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a verdict directed by the court and directing a dismissal of the complaint. The action was to recover for the death of plaintiff’s testator alleged to have been occasioned through the reckless, willful and wanton negligence of one of defendant’s motormen. ■ It was alleged that while decedent was staggering across the street, which was covered with ice and slippery, in an obviously helpless intoxicated condition, walking unsteadily and in a zigzag manner, and manifestly unaware of an approaching trolley car, and plainly oblivious to the danger, the motorman, who during all of the time was looking at the place where decedent was walking, permitted the car to approach and strike decedent in the back, and to knock him down and drag him for a distance of forty-seven feet, without making any effort to avoid the accident by stopping or retarding the speed of the car, until just before the collision.