Wabash Ry Co v. Daniels

Decision Date07 May 1883
Citation107 U.S. 454,2 S.Ct. 932,27 L.Ed. 605
PartiesWABASH RY. CO. v. McDANIELS
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

This was an action to recover damages for injuries sustained by the plaintiff, the defendant in error here, from a collision between two freight trains belonging to the Wabash Railway Company, a corporation engaged in the business of carrying freight and passengers for hire. The collision took place on the night of August 17, 1877, near Wabash, Indiana. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $15,000. A motion for new trial having been made and overruled, the case has been brought to this court for review. The action proceeded mainly upon the ground that McHenry, a telegraphic operator in the service of the company, was incompetent for the work in which he was engaged, and that his incapacity to meet the responsibilities of his position could, by reasonable care, have been ascertained, and, in fact, was known to the company at, before, and during the time of his employment. The essential facts bearing upon the question of the company's negligence in employing McHenry are summarized in one of the paragraphs of the charge to the jury, to which, so far as the facts which the evidence tended to establish are stated, there seems to have been no exception. They are:

'The tenth night after McHenry went on duty as night operator he went to sleep at his post of duty, with the result already stated. He was 17 years old but a few weeks before his employment. In June, 1876, he went into the service of the defendant, at Wabash, as a messenger boy, and continued in that service some 12 months, during which time he was instructed by Waldo, the day operator, in the art of telegraphy. For this instructed Waldo exacted and received, as compensation, McHenry's wages, $10 per month. For a month or more before McHenry's employment as night operator he worked in the country, harvesting. The only knowledge that he had of telegraphy was what he acquired under Waldo, and before taking charge as night operator he had never been employed anywhere or in any capacity as operator. He was not competent, as he told you, to take press reports, but was competent, as he thought, and as Waldo and Wade (the latter his predecessor as night operator) thought, to do ordinary business, and to discharge the duty of night operator at Wabash; his habits were good, and he was bright and industrious. Waldo had recommended McHenry to Simpson, the chief train dispatcher at FT. Wayne, as capable and faithful, and without knowing McHenry personally, or even seeing him, and, on Waldo's recommendation and what Simpson knew of McHenry's skill from having occasionally noticed at Ft. Wayne his fingering the key at Wabash, Simpson directed Waldo to employ McHenry at $50 a month; or, according to Waldo's testimony, he was directed by Mr. Simpson to put McHenry in charge of the office. McHenry's father told Waldo, before the son entered on the discharge of his duties, that Waldo should have $10 a month of the son's wages if Waldo would continue to give the son attention, to which Waldo assented. This is the father's testimony. Waldo admits that the father made the proposition to him as stated, but says he replied that the son was competent to take charge of the office and run it without assistance. Boys no older than McHenry had successfully discharged the duties of day and night dispatcher on this and other roads, and it teems to have been the custom of the company to educate its telegraph operators while serving as messenger boys. Other railroad companies, it seems from the evidence have pursued the same course with satisfactory results.'

Wager Swuyne and Chas. B. Stuart, for plaintiff in error.

E. E. McKay and Wm. Stone Abert, for defendant in error.

HARLAN, J.

That we are without authority to disturb the judgment upon the ground that the damages are excessive cannot be doubted. Whether the order overruling the motion for new trial, based upon that ground, was erroneous or not, our power is restricted to the determination of questions of law arising upon the record. Railroad Co. v. Fraloff, 100 U. S. 31.

We also remark, before entering upon the consideration of the matters properly presented for determination, that it is unnecessary to express any opinion upon the question whether the plaintiff and McHenry were fellow-servants, within the meaning of the general rule that the servant takes the risks of dangers ordinarily attending or incident to the business in which he voluntarily engages for compensation, including the carelessness of his fellow-servants. The plaintiff took no exception to the instructions, which proceeded upon the ground that plaintiff and McHenry were fellow-servants, and that in accepting employment from the company they risked the negligence of each other in the discharge of their respective duties. As no such question can arise upon the present writ of error, we pass to the examination, as well of the instructions to which the defendant excepted, as of those asked by it which the court refused to give.

At and before the time of the accident the plaintiff was a brakeman in the service of the defendant. When injured he was at his post of duty on one of the colliding trains. The collision, it is conceded, was the direct result of negligence on the part of McHenry, one of defendant's telegraphic night-operators, who was assigned to duty at a station on the line of its road. He was asleep when one of the trains passed his station, and ignorant, for that reason, that it had passed, he misled the train dispatcher at Fort Wayne as to its locality at a particular hour of the night. In consequence of the erroneous information thus conveyed to the train dispatcher, the trains were brought into collision, whereby the plaintiff lost his leg, and was otherwise seriously and permanently injured.

The court charged the jury, in substance,——

That the position of a telegraphic night-operator upon the line of a railroad was one of great responsibility, the lives of passengers and employes on trains depending upon his skill and fidelity; that the company 'was bound to exercise proper and great care to get a person in all respects fit for the place;' that while the defendant did not guaranty to its servants the skill and faithfulness of their fellow-servants, its duty was 'to use all proper diligence in the selection and employment of a night-operator,' and to discharge him, after being employed, if it learned or had reason to believe he was incompetent or negligent; that the plaintiff had a right to suppose that the company 'would use proper diligence in the selection of its telegraphic operators and all other employes whose incapacity or negligence might expose him to dangers, in addition to those which were naturally incident to his employment;' that 'what will amount to proper diligence on the part of the master in the selection of a servant for a particular duty will in part depend on the character and responsibility of that duty;' that 'the same degree of diligence which is required in the employment of a locomotive engineer would not be required in the employment of a fireman;' that 'sound sense and public policy require that railroad companies should not be exempt from liability to their employes for injuries resulting from the incompetency or negligence of co-employes, when, by the exercise of proper diligence,...

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