 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
WRIGHT v. MIDWEST OLD SETTLERS12/18/1996
At issue in the present case is whether a train operated by the defendants, Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Association (association) and Gary Van Gilst, comes within the definition of a common carrier, thereby justifying an instruction in a personal injury action on the higher standard of care attributable to a common carrier. The plaintiffs, Mary Jo and Gary Wright and their two minor children, maintain that the train the association operated is a common carrier and therefore subject to a higher degree of care to others. We disagree and affirm.
On September 1, 1991, Mary Jo Wright was injured while alighting from a passenger train at the annual Midwest Old Thresher's reunion. The five-day event is run by the association, a nonprofit organization. It is open to the public for an admission fee. For [556 NW2d Page 810]
an additional fee attendees may ride around the fenced-in grounds of the event on the train in which Wright was injured. Activities at the reunion included museum programs, educational programs, viewing equipment and musical performances.
The "train" had two open cars each with three six-foot-long seats. It was pulled by a small tractor driven by volunteers. Riding the train allowed passengers to see the grounds as well as to be transported from one area to another. Wright allegedly injured herself when the train suddenly began to move while she was attempting to exit one of the cars.
Wright, her husband, Gary, and their two children sued the association, Midwest Central Railroad, the owner of the train, and Gary Van Gilst, the operator, alleging they operated the train in an unsafe and negligent manner. The Wrights specifically alleged the association failed to provide sufficient people to operate the train safely, allowed the train to move before all passengers had gotten off safely, and failed to provide adequate lighting. Following trial, the district court, in its instructions to the jury, declined to submit an instruction on the liability of a common carrier. Instead, the district court submitted the following instruction:
"Negligence" means failure to use ordinary care. Ordinary care is the care which a reasonably careful person would use under similar circumstances. "Negligence" is doing something a reasonably careful person would not do under similar circumstances, or failing to do something a reasonably careful person would do under similar circumstances.
The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants. The Wrights appeal.
Whenever a proffered jury instruction is rejected, the reviewing court's scope of review is for the correction of errors at law. Tappe v. Iowa Methodist Med. Ctr., 477 N.W.2d 396, 398 (Iowa 1991). In determining whether a jury question was raised, the court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the party requesting the instruction. Lanz v. Pearson, 475 N.W.2d 601, 603 (Iowa 1991). Where reasonable minds might draw different conclusions from the evidence, a jury question is engendered. Id.
The Wrights argue the district court erred in refusing to submit a jury instruction on the liability of a common carrier. The Wrights maintain that although the association did not run the train exclusively for the purpose of transporting the general public, the train nevertheless was a common carrier and the association should be held to a higher degree of care to be exercised in the operation of the train. We conclude that the train operated by the association does not fit within the definition of a common carrier, and that the district court was correct in refusing to instruct on the high degree of care owed by a common carrier.
Iowa law a
Page 1 2 3 Iowa Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|