Pokora v. Wabash Railway Co.

Facts

John Pokora, an ice dealer, drove his truck to a railway grade crossing in Springfield, Illinois, to load ice. The Wabash Railway's tracks ran along Tenth Street, and Edwards Street crossed them. Ice depots stood on opposite corners. Pokora stopped at the northeast depot, found so many trucks ahead of him that he decided to try the depot across the way, and set out to cross. The railway had four tracks there: a switch track on the east, the main track, and two more switches. As he left the corner, he looked north. A string of box cars standing on the switch, about five to ten feet from the north line of Edwards Street, cut off his view of the tracks beyond. He also listened and heard neither bell nor whistle. Still listening, he crossed the switch. At the main track, a passenger train coming from the north at twenty-five to thirty miles an hour struck him. It was daytime, the crossing was a frequented highway in a populous city, and a line of other cars waited behind him. The railway offered no proof of the dimensions, so the record did not show how far back from the front of the truck Pokora sat.

Issues

1. Was it for the jury, not the judge, to decide whether Pokora acted with reasonable caution in crossing in reliance on hearing alone when box cars blocked his view of the tracks?
2. Did Pokora's failure to get out of his truck and look along the tracks on foot before crossing amount to negligence as a matter of law, so that a verdict could be directed against him?

Holding

On this record, Pokora's failure to get out of his truck and look for trains before crossing was not negligence as a matter of law. Whether he acted with reasonable caution, relying on hearing when box cars blocked his view, was for the jury. The Court limited Goodman's standard accordingly.