MICHIGAN CENTRAL R. R. COMPANY v. COLEMAN.

If they have no such facilities, or if they habitually receive passengers elsewhere, they may be expected to take such care as those circumstances call for.

The traveling community, when they know that cars start from a depot, and when they resort thither to reach them, cannot be supposed to be ignorant of the necessity and use of platforms. They must be assumed to know they are made for the purpose of enabling passengers and baggage to be put on and off securely. All of our cars are so made that they may be reached from whichever side a platform may be, and this mode of construction renders it impossible to prevent persons from using the other side if they choose. But when there is a platform in plain sight, which they must know was made for their use, they cannot properly complain that they are not accommodated. The courts have had frequent occasion to refer to the absurdity of attempting to prevent passengers from getting on and off where they please. There are few places where persons do not more or less frequently run some risks in their haste to get up or down. If such conduct is to have any force in compelling railways to conform their rules to it, it would require double platforms everywhere. But there was no evidence in this case that railroads usually or ever adopted such a course, or that it was safer or more prudent than the other. And as the general usages of this business are supposed to be matters of common knowledge, and have been so treated, we are not at liberty to make any such assumption, nor to allow it to be made without proof that the usages are changed.

The decisions are, so far as they have been brought to our attention, entirely uniform in requiring passengers to conform to the reasonable business arrangements of the railways. We have found no case in which a passenger has been upheld in neglecting to avail himself of the regular platform, unless he himself at the time was where it was not available, and was invited by the action of the company to go elsewhere. Where the train has been at the

MICHIGAN CENTRAL R. R. COMPANY V. COLEMAN.

platform and accessible there, it has been regarded as clearly indicating to the passenger what was expected of him.

In

This rule has been declared as well in those cases where a recovery has been had, as in those where it has been denied. It was laid down very forcibly in McDonald v. Chicago & N. W. R. W. Co., 26 Iowa, 124, where a passenger was injured by reason of the defective condition of the steps of the platform, and was going where a passenger had a right to go, and would go naturally. In Foy v. London & Brighton R. W. Co., 18 C. B. (N. S.), 225, a lady was invited to alight beyond the platform, by a porter of the company, and was held justified, the platform not being accessible. And in Siner v. Gt. Western R. W. Co., L. R., 3 Exch., 150, affirmed in 4 Exch., 117, where there was no such invitation, and a person jumped off without waiting or taking means to have the train backed to the platform, it was held there could be no recovery, and that passengers were bound to use common sense to avoid such risks. Cockle v. London and S. E. Ry. Co., L. R., 5 C. P., 457; 7 C. P., 321, the platform receded at one end opposite which the car was from which the passenger got out, and it was dark there though light further on. The train had fully stopped, and it was held that the passenger had a right to suppose she should get out there. The Siner case was distinguished as not showing any good reason for getting out. In Bridges v. N. London Railway Co., L. R., 6 Q. B., 377, where a man who was familiar with the road jumped off in a tunnel a few feet back of the platform, it was held there could be no recovery. In that case the whole subject of the duties of companies and passengers in regard to conduct at stations was considered fully, and reference was made to the reckless habits of impatient travelers in their haste and disregard of the reasonable facilities furnished them. In Toomey v. London & Brighton R. W. Co., 3 C. B. (N. S.), 146, it was held a company having a proper platform could not be held guilty of any negligence, where a passenger after alighting undertook to open a door leading

MICHIGAN CENTRAL R. R. COMPANY v. COLEMAN.

down stairs, which was not intended for strangers, and about which he was misinformed by inquiring of a third person not connected with the road. So in Crafter v. Met'n Ry. Co., L. R., 1 C. P., 300, where a man slipped on the brass edge of platform steps, the court said it was no negligence to have such steps, and that the company could not be dictated to as to the details of their buildings.

The only cases in this country which were cited as at all analogous to the present case, were Hulbert v. N. Y. Central R. R. Co., 40 N. Y., 145; and Keating v. N. Y. Central and H. R. R. R. Co., 49 N. Y., 673. In the former, a passenger who had been carried beyond Rochester by the neglect of the conductor to wake him as he had promised, was told to take the train westward at Newark, to return. The night was dark and it was late, the depot not lighted, and the train at a water station some hundreds of feet off. It did not appear that the train, which was an express, was to stop at Newark except to water, and there was nothing at the depot to indicate such an intention, and passengers were in the habit of boarding such trains at the water station. The plaintiff on his way thither from the depot fell into an open pit which had once been a cattle guard. It was held there was evidence of negligence in keeping the pit open in that place, and it was a question for the jury. In Keating v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., the train stood away from the depot and across a street, where passengers were in the habit of getting on board, and the plaintiff was hurt by the sudden starting of the train without any signal or notice. The case was decided on the ground that this had been treated by the company as a landing place, and the fact that they had conveniences at their depot, did not excuse them from neglect at other recognized stopping places, or necessarily put the plaintiff in fault for getting on there, and that the person in charge of the movement of the train having seen her approach under circumstances likely to induce a belief that she designed to get on, it was properly submitted to the jury

MICHIGAN CENTRAL R. R. COMPANY . COLEMAN.

whether there was not negligence in starting without any examination whether she would be exposed to danger. But when the train is at the depot, where there are conveniences for passengers to get on and off the trains, it was very distinctly intimated it would be negligence to get on otherwise.

In the case of Pennsylvania R. R. Co. v. Zebe, 37 P. St. R., 420, it was held negligence to get off from the cars, away from the platform unless to escape peril, and that the fact that people did so frequently could not change the case, because they could not be controlled, and the company should not be held liable unless for its own neglect in not making proper provision for them. In those cases where the party has been invited to take a particular course by the persons in charge of the car or premises, the principles of agency apply, and he may act as they advise or direct.— Warren v. Fitchburg R. R., 8 Allen, 227; Mulhado v. Brooklyn City R. R., 30 N. Y., 370.

There can be no doubt of the right of passengers on board to have a reasonably sufficient time to get off, and of those presenting themselves to get on board, to have time sufficient for that purpose. The question presented here is whether the conductor (who represents the company) is at fault for not ascertaining whether passengers are waiting and attempting to come on board on the ground at the side away from the platform.

If the company perform their duty by furnishing such conveniences as are necessary at the depot, it is certainly contrary to reason and against the authorities to hold them further, unless a single platform is less than companies of ordinary prudence have found it advisable to prepare. But the usages of this kind of business are perhaps as well calculated as any thing else to show what course is prudent.

The advantages of railroad transportation are almost entirely composed of the elements of speed and security during the transit of the cars. Many trains pass and repass

MICHIGAN CENTRAL R. R. COMPANY v. COLEMAN.

daily, and are obliged to calculate that all other trains will adhere to the time-tables and conform to the orders from proper sources. If each train should be compelled to keep constant watch and depend chiefly on that, there could be no night traveling possible. Each conductor must have the responsibility of setting his train in motion, and it would be very perilous to allow him to depend on any thing but his own personal observation as to the safety of starting. He knows in advance what passengers are to alight at any station. He cannot know what passengers are to go on board unless he has some place of observation where he can determine this. He must be off from the cars to see in any direction who is coming and going, and to see that no time is needlessly wasted. If he is compelled to keep watch on both sides of the train he can be no more sure when he gets back to the platform side that some one will not come up in a hurry on the other side, than he is by remaining on one side. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to devise any expedient whereby careless and tardy passengers can be looked after if they choose to incur perils. There are practical difficulties attending any such double vigilance which at night would be greatly aggravated. The platform of every depot is usually sufficiently lighted to make the side beyond the cars considerably obscured by the shadows, and persons coming close to the cars at any point could not be readily distinguished, especially by eyes that have just come out of the light. Passengers on the dark side will be far more likely to stumble and blunder. The necessity of prompt starting requires all of any one man's vigilance under the most convenient arrangements, as no one can tell whether persons near by are passengers or loungers until they attempt to get on board. Any thing which would tend to distract the conductor's attention needlessly would tend as certainly to increase rather than diminish the risk of accidents.

It has never been the policy of the law to hamper bus