Opinion
No. 352355
03-10-2022
Jacob MARION, BY Guardian and NEXT FRIEND, Monica MARION, Plaintiff-Appellant v. GRAND TRUNK WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY, Steven Golombeski, and Jessie Wilson, Defendants-Appellees.
Michael S. Cafferty, Detroit, for plaintiff Gallagher Sharp LLP (by Mary C. O'Donnell and Adam P. Sadowski, Detroit) for defendants.
Michael S. Cafferty, Detroit, for plaintiff
Gallagher Sharp LLP (by Mary C. O'Donnell and Adam P. Sadowski, Detroit) for defendants.
Before: Gleicher, P.J., and Cavanagh and Letica, JJ.
Gleicher, P.J. Jacob Marion, age 14, was struck by a train as he walked down the tracks while listening to music on his earbuds. Through his guardian and next friend, he brought a negligence action against the train's conductor, its engineer, and Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company. According to plaintiff's expert witness, the train's engineer saw the teenager in time to have stopped the train. The circuit court acknowledged that a question of fact existed regarding when the train's engineer applied the brakes. Nevertheless, the court granted summary disposition in favor of defendants, ruling that the engineer had no legal duty to stop the train, or to even slow down, after spotting Jacob on the tracks and realizing that he was not responding to the train's horn.
The circuit court's opinion rested on cases decided by the Michigan Supreme Court between 1899 and 1933. The court incorrectly interpreted those cases, ignored more recent and relevant caselaw, and overlooked fundamental components of the concept of duty. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.
I. UNDERLYING FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS
Jacob Marion regularly walked on or near the railroad tracks between his home and his high school. Approximately three-quarters to one mile before the train struck Jacob, the train's conductor and its engineer saw the young man walking "in the middle of the tracks" with his back to the train. The engineer, Jessie Wilson, routinely sounded the train's horn as the train approached the Oak Street crossing. At approximately the same time, Wilson and the conductor, Steven Golombeski, spotted Jacob in the distance. Golombeski remarked: "The kid doesn't look like he's going to move." According to Wilson, both he and Golombeski realized Jacob's peril before the train reached the Oak Street crossing. Under questioning by his counsel, Wilson testified as follows:
Steven Golombeski's name was misspelled in various places in the lower court record. We have employed the correct spelling in this opinion.
Q. When you had the conversation with Mr. Gol[o]mbeski where he indicated that he didn't think maybe the pedestrian heard the—the horn, were you at the crossing or almost upon the crossing at that time?
A. We were—we were approaching the crossing.
Q. Were you very nearly on it?
A. Excuse me?
Q. Were you very nearly on the crossing?
A. Yes.
[Plaintiff's counsel ]: The Oak Street crossing, is that—
Q. The Oak Street crossing.
A. It was before—that conversation was before the—the crossing.
Q. But it was after you had started blowing the horn.
A. Yes.
When the train "got over the crossing," Wilson again recounted that Jacob was "just not responding." Wilson then sounded the horn in emergency mode but still did not apply the brakes. When asked whether he also applied the brakes at that point Wilson responded, "No, not until after I was giving him all of the warning that I could give him." Wilson conceded that he could have applied the brakes at that point, but in his view, it would have been impossible to have stopped the train in time.
According to plaintiff's expert's interpretation of the train's event recorder, Wilson did not activate the brakes until about three-quarters of a second before the train struck Jacob. Plaintiff's expert testified that when the train crew spotted Jacob and observed that he was not reacting to the horn, they should have immediately activated the brakes. Once an emergency brake was finally applied, the train stopped in 719.5 feet. If the brake had been applied when Jacob was first observed to be nonresponsive to the horn, the expert opined, the accident would have been avoided.
The circuit court granted defendants summary disposition under MCR 2.116(C)(10), concluding that "children ... are well aware of the dangers of trains" and that "no negligence can be imputed" to train operators if they attempted to alert Jacob and he did not respond. Relying largely on Piskorowski v. Detroit, G.H. & M.R. Co. , 121 Mich. 498, 80 N.W. 241 (1899), a case involving a deaf plaintiff who was struck by a handcar, the court summarized that "unless ... train operators are aware of [a] person's deafness, no negligence can be imputed to them if they attempted to alert the person."
II. ANALYSIS
The central question presented in this appeal is whether a train operator has a duty to attempt to preserve the life of a trespasser in peril on the tracks. Defendants contend that a train crew has no duty to stop or slow a train until the crew determines that a collision is "imminent." The circuit court agreed. The caselaw does not support such a rule. We begin by setting the historical legal stage.
The doctrine of contributory negligence, which eliminated a plaintiff's ability to pursue a claim if the plaintiff bore any fault at all for their own injury, permeated tort law for most of Michigan's history. Our Supreme Court's first description of the doctrine summarized: "It is a well settled principle of law, that where an injury, of which a plaintiff complains, has resulted from the fault or negligence of himself, or where it has resulted from the fault or negligence of both parties, without any intentional wrong on the part of the defendant, an action cannot be maintained." Williams v. Michigan Central R. Co. , 2 Mich. 259, 265 (1851). Williams arose from a train accident. So did a subsequent case in which Justice CHRISTIANCY pointedly criticized the contributory-negligence rule:
The law is too well settled by the overwhelming weight of authority, both in England and in the United States, to be now disputed, that, in an action like this, to recover for an injury arising from negligence of the defendant in carrying on their lawful business without wanton or intentional wrong, the plaintiff cannot recover if his own negligence directly or proximately contributed to produce the injury, though the defendant's negligence may also have concurred in producing the result. This rule, it is true, often, and perhaps generally, fails to produce justice; and, upon abstract principles of right and wrong, may be said to be frequently unjust in its operation. Justice might seem to require that each should bear the loss in the proportion they had respectively contributed to the injury. [Lake Shore & M.S.R. Co. v. Miller , 25 Mich. 274, 277 (1872) (emphasis added), overruled by Bricker v. Green , 313 Mich. 218, 21 N.W.2d 105 (1946).]
It is no coincidence that both Williams and Lake Shore involved trains. Before the automobile—and for many years after the first cars hit the roads—trains were the predominant form of transportation in Michigan. Like the cars that replaced them as instrumentalities of regular travel, locomotives caused countless accidents, deaths, and injuries. The contributory-negligence doctrine shielded railroad companies from liability for most of them.
In Williams , 2 Mich. at 260, a train struck and killed the plaintiff's horses, which had been grazing on a track. The Supreme Court unhesitatingly applied the contributory-negligence rule. Justice CHRISTIANCY ’s misgivings about the doctrine arose in a far different context. In Lake Shore , 25 Mich. at 275-276, a woman sitting in a wagon was hit by a train at a highway crossing. The "unjust" nature of contributory negligence was not lost on the Court. But any reservations about the equities were cast aside in favor of protecting the railroads:
If, however, he sees a child of tender years upon the track, or any person known to him to be, or from his appearance giving him good reason to believe that he is, insane, or badly intoxicated, or otherwise insensible of danger, or unable to avoid it, he has no right to presume that he will get out of the way, but should act upon the belief that he might not, or would not, and he should therefore take means to stop his train in time. A more stringent rule than this—a rule that would require the engineer to check his speed or stop his train, whenever he sees a team crossing the track or a man walking on it, far enough ahead to get out of the way in time, until he can send ahead to inquire why they do not; or which would require the engineer to know the deafness or blindness, or acuteness of hearing or sight, or habits of prudence or recklessness or other personal peculiarities of all those persons he may see approaching, or upon the track, and more especially of all
those who may be approaching a crossing upon the highway, though not seen,—any such rule, if enforced, must effectually put an end to all railroads, as a means of speedy travel or transportation, and reduce the speed of trains below that of canal-boats forty years ago; and would effectually defeat the object of the legislature in authorizing this
mode of conveyance. [ Lake Shore , 25 Mich. at 279-280.][ ]
The first sentence of this quotation is directly relevant to the case at hand—a point discussed in greater detail below.
A review of train injury cases decided before 1979, when the Supreme Court replaced the doctrine of contributory negligence with comparative negligence in Placek v. Sterling Hts. , 405 Mich. 638, 275 N.W.2d 511 (1979), reveals that most began and ended with the conclusion that the plaintiff's negligence, however slight, foreclosed recovery. Echoing Justice CHRISTIANCY , Justice WILLIAMS observed in Placek , 405 Mich. at 652, 275 N.W.2d 511, "There is little dispute among legal commentators that the doctrine of contributory negligence has caused substantial injustice since it was first invoked in England in 1809."
It is against this backdrop that we turn to Piskorowski , the case the circuit court found controlling under the facts presented here.
A. PISKOROWSKI
Anthony Piskorowski was 42 years old and deaf. While returning home from his job, he walked south on a train track used only by trains going north, which allowed him to see any approaching trains. When he turned to cross the tracks and "stepped across the rail," he "was struck by a hand-car" operated by the defendant railroad company and was severely injured. Piskorowski , 121 Mich. at 499, 80 N.W. 241. "The hand-car was propelled by four men, with a foreman in charge of a hand-brake." Id. The men on the handcar had shouted a warning of their approach, but Piskorowski, of course, did not hear it. "When between 12 and 15 feet away from the plaintiff they again shouted, and plaintiff again failed to pay any attention, and the men on the hand-car made no effort to slow up." Id. A third shout was to no avail, and the handcar hit Piskorowski. Id. at 500, 80 N.W. 241.
For a description of a handcar, see Miller v. Ann Arbor R. Co. , 196 Mich. 297, 298-299, 162 N.W. 1025 (1917) (involving a handcar that "was of the ordinary type, and was propelled by hand power. When being propelled, men stood upon the platform of said car, working two handles up and down, rods connected the handles with gearing beneath the platform, which caused the wheels to revolve").
Piskorowski's negligence claim rested on two arguments. First, to avoid the application of contributory negligence, he contended that the defendant's employees were grossly negligent. Id. "The term ‘gross negligence’ ... has a definite meaning, when referred to as authorizing a recovery for a negligent injury, notwithstanding the contributory negligence of the plaintiff." Knickerbocker v. Detroit, G.H. & M.R. Co. , 167 Mich. 596, 602, 133 N.W. 504 (1911). The Supreme Court rejected that the handcar operators had been grossly negligent given that they shouted warnings and had no reason to know of Piskorowski's deafness. Piskorowski , 121 Mich. at 500, 80 N.W. 241.
Piskorowski's second claim was that a flagman in the area should have warned him of the oncoming handcar. Id. The Court rejected this argument, too, on contributory-negligence grounds: "It seems to us that this question is governed by the same considerations which rule the former." Id. Like the handcar operators, the flagman had no reason to know of Piskorowski's deafness. The Court concluded, "In this case, had [the flagman] known all the facts, he would not be required to assume that plaintiff would ignore the warning already given, or that he would change his course so as to come in contact with the car." Id. at 501, 80 N.W. 241.
"The flagman's duty is to know of the approach of trains, and to give timely warning to all persons attempting to cross the railroad track, and the public have a right to rely upon a reasonable performance of that duty." Richmond v. Chicago & W. M. R. Co. , 87 Mich. 374, 382, 49 N.W. 621 (1891) (quotation marks and citation omitted).
In a sense, the facts of Piskorowski are similar to those presented here, in that both plaintiffs were unable to hear a warning. Piskorowski , however, does not describe the duty of an engineer piloting a locomotive. A handcar is not a train, a flagman is not an engineer, and a duty-to-warn claim is not a claim for the negligent failure to stop a moving train in time to prevent injury. Moreover, the Court's holding in Piskorowski was compelled by the doctrine of contributory negligence. Once the Court determined that Piskorowski bore responsibility for his injury, the die was cast. Recognizing the legal dominance of the contributory-negligence doctrine, Piskorowski did not even try to bring a negligence claim against the handcar operators, eliminating the need for the Court to address their standard of care. That is why Piskorowski simply does not stand for the proposition for which the circuit court cited it.
When analyzing duty, the difference between a handcar powered by four men and traveling at slow speed and a modern-day locomotive cannot be disregarded. The magnitude of the risk posed by an object or conduct is an integral aspect of every duty equation. See Moning v. Alfono , 400 Mich. 425, 433-434, 254 N.W.2d 759 (1977), and Buczkowski v. McKay , 441 Mich. 96, 103, 490 N.W.2d 330 (1992).
B. SUPREME COURT PRECEDENT RELEVANT TO THIS CASE
Abundant precedent contradicts the circuit court's ruling and defendants’ argument, including cases decided in the contributory-negligence era. While the doctrine of contributory negligence was in effect, adult plaintiffs hit by trains faced the almost insurmountable hurdle of proving freedom from fault. In cases involving children, however, the Supreme Court was free to describe the duties of care applicable to a train crew. Train employees owed adults and children several duties of care, including to keep a "sharp lookout" for people on the tracks and to make reasonable efforts to avoid hitting them. But because contributory negligence precluded an adult from pursuing virtually any claim arising from an injury by a moving train, a railroad defendant's duty to protect and preserve life was most clearly articulated in cases involving children.
In Baker v. Alt , 374 Mich. 492, 505, 132 N.W.2d 614 (1965), the Supreme Court reconciled several cases offering different age cutoffs for the application of contributory negligence, holding that "an infant under seven years of age is incapable of contributory negligence." (Quotation marks and citation omitted.)
Fourteen years before Piskorowski was decided, the Supreme Court considered a case roughly analogous to the one now before us. In Keyser v. Chicago & Grand Trunk R. Co. , 56 Mich. 559, 560, 23 N.W. 311 (1885), a 2½-year-old child was struck and injured by a moving train where a private road crossed the tracks. The plaintiff alleged that the train personnel failed to keep a proper lookout and failed to sound the whistle. Id. The Supreme Court reversed a defense verdict, holding that the trial court had incorrectly charged the jury that the railroad employees were not "required to keep a vigilant lookout in this locality" or to give danger signals. Id. at 561, 23 N.W. 311 (quotation marks and citation omitted). The evidence supported that the engineer had seen "something" on the track that "resembled a stick of wood" some 2,500 to 3,000 feet ahead of the train, but he apparently did not slow down at that point. Id . at 561, 23 N.W. 311. The "stick of wood" was the child, lying on the tracks. The Supreme Court held that the appearance of "something" on the track
was of a character to call for increased vigilance on the part of defendant's train-men in determining the character of the apparent obstruction. It should have, at least, caused the engineer to slow down the speed of his engine to such a rate that, in approaching it, he could have stopped his train, if necessary, to prevent injury before reaching the object of danger. [ Id. at 562, 23 N.W. 311.]
Injury could have been avoided, the Court explained, "by proper care and caution exercised by defendant's engineer[.]" Id.
In 1888, the Supreme Court reiterated in another case involving a child that the railroad defendants had a duty to "look out for accident or danger to individuals upon the track," and in that case, they negligently failed to do so. Battishill v. Humphreys , 64 Mich. 514, 520, 38 N.W. 581 (1888). Had "the persons in charge of that train perform[ed] their duty of keeping a lookout," the Court asserted, "they would have seen the child in time to stop the train and avoid the accident. If they had seen it upon the track the same distance from it that [the eyewitnesses to the accident] saw it, they could have stopped the train, and avoided the injury to plaintiff." Id. at 520-521, 38 N.W. 581. In 1890, the Court again confirmed that a train must reduce its speed when a danger ahead is spotted: "Only when the engineer, in the exercise of due caution, sees danger, is he required to slacken the speed. He is then bound, from regard for the rights of all parties concerned, to take all proper steps to avoid the danger." Robinson v. Flint & P.M.R. Co. , 79 Mich. 323, 329, 44 N.W. 779 (1890).
These cases involving children advance the same general duty principle described by Justice CHRISTIANCY in Lake Shore . If an engineer
sees a child of tender years upon the track, or any person known to him to be, or from his appearance giving him good reason to believe that he is, insane, or badly intoxicated, or otherwise insensible of danger, or unable to avoid it, he has no right to presume that he will get out of the way, but should act upon the belief that he might not, or would not, and he should therefore take means to stop his train in time. [ Lake Shore , 25 Mich. at 279-280 (emphasis added).]
Piskorowski did not silently overrule all this precedent. Piskorowski did not announce a new, radical rule abrogating a duty to preserve life and limb. Rather, the circuit court misinterpreted that case, failed to place it in a legally historical context, and neglected to consider the relevant cases implicating duty that followed.
Post- Piskorowski , in yet another case involving serious injury to a child struck by a train, the Supreme Court reversed a directed verdict for the defense. The Court held that the evidence supported that the train personnel had not been keeping a proper lookout and that "[i]t was their general duty to run the train with reasonable care and watchfulness." Huggett v. Erb , 182 Mich. 524, 536, 148 N.W. 805 (1914). The Court continued, "Plaintiff's evidence here clearly tends to show that her peril might have been known to the trainmen in time to avoid the injury, had they but exercised the reasonable care, in the operation of their train, which their duties under the circumstances demanded." Id. at 538, 148 N.W. 805. In addition to the contributory-negligence bar, adults (and teenagers such as Jacob) faced a second barrier to recovery in cases arising from train injuries. As trespassers on tracks owned by the railroad companies, such plaintiffs were (and likely still are) owed a reduced standard of care. Yet the Supreme Court has never proposed that even as to trespassers, a railroad has no duty to attempt to avoid striking a person who apparently does not hear or heed a warning to get off the tracks. For example, in Bloch v. Detroit United R. , 211 Mich. 252, 259, 178 N.W. 670 (1920), the Court approved the following instruction: "There was no duty incumbent upon the motorman to stop his car, or take measures so to do until he saw that the plaintiff was not going to get off the track , or was in such a position that he could not get off the track in time to avoid being struck." (Emphasis added; quotation marks omitted.) And in Johnson v. New York Central R. Co. , 357 Mich. 40, 53, 97 N.W.2d 769 (1959), four members of our then eight-member Supreme Court characterized as a jury question whether an engineer had violated the standard of care by failing to stop sooner, despite the plaintiff's contributory negligence:
Defendant's engineer did not apply his emergency brakes until approximately 640 feet east of the crossing when, as he stated, it became obvious to him that the truck was not going to stop, even though when he rounded the curve 2,200 feet east of the tracks he testified he saw plaintiff's long gasoline truck. He also saw and knew the switch engine standing on the south main tracks was activating the flasher signals. He also knew that highway US-12A crossed the tracks on an angle in a northwesterly direction, making it difficult for the driver to see to the east.
Despite all of this information, rather than applying the emergency brakes immediately, he simply applied the service brakes and then during the last few seconds switched to the emergency brakes. Since reasonable minds might differ as to whether his actions constituted reasonable care and caution under these circumstances, we feel a question of fact for the jury was created.
Risbridger v. Michigan. Central R. Co. , 188 Mich. 672, 685, 152 N.W. 961 (1915), provides yet another example of a decision recognizing a railroad's duty of care, albeit a narrow one, applicable to adults negligently walking on a train track. The plaintiff's decedent in Risbridger worked for the defendant railroad and was struck by a locomotive between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. He was walking to work on a path next to the railroad tracks that was used by other employees and citizens of the area. Id. at 674, 152 N.W. 961. The locomotive had no lights and did not sound a warning at the time it hit Mr. Risbridger. The train crew did not realize that a man had been hit by the train and did not stop. Id. at 675, 152 N.W. 961.
The Court's first opinion in Risbridger reversed a directed verdict, finding that Mr. Risbridger was a licensee rather than a trespasser, and that the railroad had arguably failed to use due care in running its train without lights. Id. at 677-679, 152 N.W. 961. On rehearing, the Court reversed itself, finding that Mr. Risbridger was a trespasser and affirming the directed verdict. Risbridger v. Michigan Central R. Co. (On Rehearing), 188 Mich. 672, 688, 152 N.W. 961 (1916). Nevertheless, the "general doctrine affecting the duty of railway companies to trespassers" adopted by the Court includes a duty to "exercise ordinary care after discovering [a trespasser's] peril not to injure him":
Except at public crossings and a few other places, the right of way of a railroad company is its exclusive property
and it owes a trespasser no greater duty than any other owner
of property would owe a trespasser under the same circumstances. The railroad company is not required to anticipate the presence of a trespasser on its track or property, and this rule applies to children as well as to grown persons. The railroad company owes no higher duty to a trespasser than not to wantonly or wilfully injure him. It is only required to exercise ordinary care after discovering his peril not to injure him. The railroad company owes no duty to such persons to employ competent operatives, nor to keep its tracks safe for pedestrians by the use of only sound ties. It is under no obligation to stop its trains at railroad junctions merely for the benefit of trespassers. [ Id. at 685, 152 N.W. 961 (quotation marks and citation omitted).]
Although this duty can be fairly described as minimal, it is far more stringent than the "no duty" rule proposed by defendants and the circuit court. See also Calvert v. Detroit United R. , 202 Mich. 311, 326, 168 N.W. 508 (1918) (involving a streetcar rather than a train, in which the Court approved an instruction consistent with the statement that "upon ... the admitted discovery of plaintiff's peril by the agents of defendant, it became the duty of those agents to seek to avert the threatened collision, neglect or refusal to perform the duty being subsequent negligence").
This review of the post-1899 caselaw demonstrates that the circuit court's interpretation and application of Piskorowski are unsupportable by the precedent of that era. An examination of modern tort law supplies additional grounds for reversing the circuit court's grant of summary disposition.
C. MODERN TORT LAW
In a sense, the contributory-negligence doctrine relieved defendants of an obligation to exercise reasonable care toward negligent plaintiffs. Without question, the doctrine truncated the development of the common law regarding duty, as in a vast number of cases the subject was not reached due to evidence of the plaintiff's fault.
With the abolition of contributory negligence and its replacement by comparative negligence, our Supreme Court has on several occasions explored the concept of duty and described its parameters.
"[T]he ultimate inquiry in determining whether a legal duty should be imposed is whether the social benefits of imposing a duty outweigh the social costs of imposing a duty." In re Certified Question from the Fourteenth Dist. Court of Appeals of Texas , 479 Mich. 498, 505, 740 N.W.2d 206 (2007). Measured against this standard, there should be no debate that a train engineer has a duty to stop or slow down when a person in a train's path fails to respond to a warning signal. The duty inquiry includes an evaluation of several relevant factors: "the relationship of the parties, the foreseeability of the harm, the burden on the defendant, and the nature of the risk presented." Id. (quotation marks and citations omitted). The Supreme Court has "recognized" that "[t]he most important factor to be considered [in this analysis] is the relationship of the parties...." Hill v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. , 492 Mich. 651, 661, 822 N.W.2d 190 (2012) (alterations in original).
The common law defines the relationship between Jacob and defendant as one of trespasser and landowner. Modern tort law establishes the boundaries of the duties owed to trespassers.
The common law categories are a shorthand, in well-established classes of cases, for the duty analysis; they, too,
are based on the relationship of the parties, the nature of the risk, the ability to exercise care, and
considerations of public policy. The only difference is that, through the evolution of our common law, the duty analysis has already been performed in respect of invitees, licensees (social guests), and trespassers. [ Rowe v. Mazel Thirty, LLC , 209 N.J. 35, 45, 34 A.3d 1248 (2012).]
In Lyshak v. Detroit , 351 Mich. 230, 249, 88 N.W.2d 596 (1957), the Supreme Court considered the duties owed to children trespassing on a golf course. The Court adopted the analysis provided in the first Restatement of Torts:
Here we have injury from dangerous activities conducted in a limited area which trespassers in general are known to frequent. In this situation 2 Restatement, Torts, § 334, well states the preferable and modern principle of law, with which we are impelled to agree:
A possessor of land who knows, or from facts within his knowledge should know, that trespassers constantly intrude upon a limited area thereof, is subject to liability for bodily harm there caused to them by his failure to carry on an activity involving a risk of death or serious bodily harm with reasonable care for their safety.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed "[t]he cardinal rule stated in Lyshak " in Nielsen v. Henry H. Stevens, Inc. , 359 Mich. 130, 132, 101 N.W.2d 284 (1960), a case arising from injuries sustained by a seven-year-old riding his bike on a trucking company's property.
2 Restatement Torts, 2d, § 336, pp. 190-191, reiterates these principles, almost verbatim:
A possessor of land who knows or has reason to know of the presence of another who is trespassing on the land is subject to liability for physical harm thereafter caused to the trespasser by the possessor's failure to carry on his activities upon the land with reasonable care for the trespasser's safety.
Comment b addresses the precautions required when a land possessor's activities are "highly dangerous," declaring:
[T]he gravity of the danger threatened by an activity which, unless carefully carried on, is likely to cause death or serious bodily harm, requires the possessor to exercise reasonable care not only when he knows that a trespasser is at some point made dangerous by it, or is reasonably certain or regards it as highly probable that he is at such a point, but also when he sees an object or hears a sound which causes him to realize that there is a substantial chance that the trespasser may be at such a point. This is in accordance with the tendency of the law not only to require a greater amount of care where life and limb are at stake, than where only some minor harm is likely to occur, but also to extend the duty of protection to persons to whom no duty would be owing if a less serious harm were threatened. [Id. , comment b, p 191.]
One of the illustrations offered in this section of the Restatement strongly resembles the facts of this case:
A is walking along the right of way of the X & Y Railroad Company. The engineer of an approaching train sees A while 200 yards away. The train is going so slowly that it could readily be stopped within 100 yards. The engineer blows the whistle. A, hearing it, turns around and apparently sees the train approaching. The engineer is entitled to assume that A knows of the approach of the train and will protect himself from harm by stepping off of the tracks before it reaches him. If, however, the engineer,
after blowing the whistle, sees that A does not hear the warning or is unable or obviously intends not to obey it, the Railroad Company is subject to liability for running down A if the engineer fails to take reasonable care, after reaching a point 100 yards from A, to stop the train so as to avoid running A down. [Id. , comment d, illustration 3, p. 193 (emphasis added).]
These Restatement provisions reflect modern duty concepts consistent with the contours of the duty analysis embraced by our Supreme Court. They align with Michigan's longstanding common law of the duty applicable to railroads in situations such as Jacob Marion's. They instruct that defendants had a duty to attempt to stop the train when it was apparent that Jacob did not hear the warning and was not going to step off the tracks.
The common law imposes a general duty to exercise ordinary and reasonable care and caution, i.e., the care and caution an ordinarily careful and prudent person would use under the circumstances. See, e.g., Zarzecki v. Hatch , 347 Mich. 138, 141, 79 N.W.2d 605 (1956). Similarly stated, the common law " ‘imposes on every person engaged in the prosecution of any undertaking an obligation to use due care, or to so govern his actions as not to unreasonably endanger the person or property of others.’ " Loweke v. Ann Arbor Ceiling & Partition Co., L.L.C. , 489 Mich. 157, 165, 809 N.W.2d 553 (2011), quoting Clark v. Dalman , 379 Mich. 251, 261, 150 N.W.2d 755 (1967) ("This rule of the common law arises out of the concept that every person is under the general duty to so act, or to use that which he controls, as not to injure another."). At a minimum, defendants had an obligation to refrain from wanton and willful misconduct. See, e.g., Stitt v. Holland Abundant Life Fellowship , 462 Mich. 591, 596, 614 N.W.2d 88 (2000).
Exactly when the train crew could and should have stopped the train represent quintessential fact questions. And whether stopping in time was possible is yet another question of fact. But viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, the facts indicate that the train crew saw Jacob from almost a mile away and, despite numerous horn blasts and the train's lights, recognized that Jacob did not change his course in the slightest. Nevertheless, the train did not slow and its emergency brake was not applied until it was too late. This was not a sudden, unexpected trespasser who happened across the tracks. Rather, based on the testimony of record, a reasonable jury could conclude that defendants had Jacob in plain sight and recognized his peril for a period of time sufficient to react so as not to strike him.
We reverse and remand for further proceedings. We do not retain jurisdiction.
Cavanagh, J., concurred with Gleicher, P.J
Letica, J. (concurring).
The trial court misconstrued critical facts and common-law legal principles before it concluded that there were no genuine issues of material fact. For this reason, I concur in the majority's disposition.
Plaintiff does not challenge the trial court's order to the extent it granted defendants summary disposition regarding allegations pertaining to the train's excessive speed, the railroad's duty to fence, or attractive nuisance.