Miller v. Union Pacific R. Co.

Background

In December 1927, Marcus Andlauer and his wife Ellanore attempted to cross a railroad track at a highway intersection near St. Marys, Kansas. The husband was driving and the wife sat in the front seat. A train coming from the east struck their automobile; both were killed. The car had turned north onto the crossing after driving west and was moving about 12–15 miles per hour; trains from the east were visible for about 2,000 feet. Evidence suggested the train ran 50–60 miles per hour, may not have sounded its whistle, was about an hour late, and usually slowed near the city where an ordinance limited trains to 20 miles per hour.

Reasoning

The Court treated the two deaths separately. It agreed that the husband’s own failure to look or his taking a chance supported concluding he was contributorily negligent as a matter of law. But the Court held the wife’s claim differently: she did not control the car, and there was no evidence she failed to warn, look out, or protest. The Court rejected treating a passenger as automatically charged with the driver’s negligence and said the railroad must prove a passenger’s negligence. The Court also explained the railroad’s alleged failures (no whistle, excessive speed) and the driver’s act were concurrent causes that together produced the accident, so the driver’s fault did not automatically defeat the passenger’s claim.

Real world impact

The Court reversed the dismissal of the wife’s claim and sent the case back for further proceedings. A jury may now decide whether the railroad’s conduct contributed to the deaths and whether the wife herself was negligent. The ruling preserves passenger wrongful-death claims when passenger negligence is not proved.