Opinion

Distler v. . Long Island R.R. Co.

  • 151 N.Y. 424
  • 5 E.H. Smith 424
  • 45 N.E. 937
  • 1897 N.Y. LEXIS 845
Court
New York Court of Appeals
Filed
Jan 19, 1897
Status
Published
Author
Gray
On the bench
Gray, Martin
Cited by
22 cases
Authority
More cited than 41.8%

The opinion

Gray, J.

(dissenting). I dissent from the conclusion reached by the majority of my associates; because, in all the main and material facts, this case cannot be distinguished from the

Hunter

case ( 112 N. Y. 371 ; 126 N. Y. 18 ), which in turn

rested

upon the principle decided in the

Solomon

case ( 103 N. Y. 437 ). This train was a special train, which was not scheduled to stop at the station and upon which the plaintiff had no right to be carried. The plaintiff elected to leave his place of safety and to incur the peril of boarding a moving train for some purpose of convenience, upon the invitation of his friend, the conductor of the train. These were also the facts in the

Hunter

case; upon consideration of which this court determined that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence and, therefore, should have been nonsuited. The distinction attempted now to be made between the cases does not amount to a substantial difference. It seems to me that in making this distinction we are unnecessarily introducing uncertainty in the law for the government of trial courts in negligence cases.

Andrews, Ch. J., O’Brien, Bartlett and Vann, JJ., concur with Martin, J., for reversal; Gray, J., reads for affirmance and Haight, J., concurs.

Judgment reversed.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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