Colburn v. Krabill

This is a personal injury suit resulting from plaintiffs fall while alighting from defendant Pullman Companys coach on defendant Illinois Central Railroad Companys train standing at the depot in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The accident happened on the morning of February 14, 1951, at approximately 11:30 a.m. Plaintiff dozed off about a half hour before the train arrived and did not awaken and alight with other passengers. Fort Dodge being a division of the railroad, the trains departure is delayed some fifteen minutes to change crews. Plaintiff was awakened by the conductor, asked her destination, and advised to alight immediately as the train was ready to pull out. As she started to descend the steps of the coach to the station platform she fell and was injured. She was unable to tell how the accident occurred, and the trial court sustained the motion of both defendants for a directed verdict on the ground that plaintiff had failed to introduce any evidence of the breach of duty toward her as a passenger.