Kircher

Defendant railway company appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff in the sum of $60,000 for damages for physical injuries sustained by plaintiff at defendant’s railway station in Santa Ana, California.

The accident occurred in the early morning of November 14, 1943, when plaintiff’s left hand was run over and practically severed by defendant’s train No. 70.

Defendant’s depot consisted of a row of buildings, including an inside and outside waiting room, which ran in a northerly and southerly direction. East of the row of buildings and parallel thereto were five of defendant’s railroad tracks lying about 15 feet apart. The ground immediately east of the depot was paved with asphalt, and two of the tracks referred to ran through this pavement, flush with the surface. Three or 4 feet beyond the easterly rail of these tracks the asphalt ended and *178 was adjoined by a brick pavement 9 feet wide (which was referred to by the witnesses as a “platform” or “walk.” Two feet east of the brick pavement was the westerly rail of the main line track, on which train No. 70 travelled. There was no pavement east of the main line track, and the other tracks paralleling it farther east…

I dissent.

I am convinced that the plaintiff’s version of how the accident happened is contrary to the laws of nature and inherently improbable. To be expected to believe that the plaintiff could have stumbled over a shallow depression 13 feet from the westerly rail of the track and been pitched forward and under the train on that track so that his hand was crushed on the easterly rail and his body not injured while under the moving train, taxes credulity to the breaking point. On the other hand, there were reasonable inferences from sufficient credible evidence, some of it introduced by the plaintiff, that he proceeded from the park on the easterly side of the tracks as the train was moving in front of the station; that he tripped on a rail on the easterly side of the train where he had no right to be, and fell, whereupon his hand was caught on the easterly rail under the moving train. To my mind this was the only factual situation on which to base a conclusion and with no resulting liability on the defendant. It should lie uneasy on the conscience of a court to permit a jury’s verdict to stand which must necessarily be based on the incredible theory of the facts advanced by the…

Defendant railway company appeals from a judgment in favor of plaintiff in the sum of $60,000 for damages for physical injuries sustained by plaintiff at defendant's railway station in Santa Ana, California.

The accident occurred in the early morning of November 14, 1943, when plaintiff's left hand was run over and practically severed by defendant's train No. 70.

Defendant's depot consisted of a row of buildings, including an inside and outside waiting room, which ran in a northerly and southerly direction. East of the row of buildings and parallel thereto were five of defendant's railroad tracks lying about 15 feet apart. The ground immediately east of the depot was paved with asphalt, and two of the tracks referred to ran through this pavement, flush with the surface. Three or 4 feet beyond the easterly rail of these tracks the asphalt ended and was adjoined by a brick pavement 9 feet wide (which was referred to by the witnesses as a "platform" or "walk." Two feet east of the brick pavement was the westerly rail of the main line track, on which train No. 70 travelled. There was no pavement east of the main line track, and the other tracks paralleling it farther…