Goodrich v. New York Cent. & H.R.R. Co.

Decision Date22 October 1889
CourtNew York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
PartiesGOODRICH v. NEW YORK CENT. & H. R. R. CO.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Appeal from a judgment of the general term of the third judicial department, which affirmed a judgment entered upon an order at the circuit dismissing the plaintiff's complaint. This action was brought to recover damages for injuries received by the plaintiff, a brakeman in the employ of the defendant, while engaged in coupling cars. It appeared from the testimony that on the morning of the 17th of October, 1882, the plaintiff and other employes of the defendant were directed to go from Albany to Fishkill, and take charge of a circus train which was to come upon defendant's road from the New England road. The circus train reached Fishkill about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and was switched upon a side track north of the depot. In the evening, between 7 and 8 o'clock, the plaintiff was directed by the conductor to couple some of the cars of the circus train to some stationary cars further north on the same track, and this he proceeded to do. He stood on the east side of the track as the cars were moving north at a slow gait. It was dark, and plaintiff had a lantern. When the cars to be coupled were within a few feet of each other, he stepped between them for the purpose of inserting the link which was in the bumper or drawhead of the stationary car. When the cars were three or four feet apart, he discovered that the bumper of the moving car was lower than the bumper of the stationary car. He testified that he thought, by raising the link, it would enter the bumper of the stationary car. He took hold of the link with his left hand to raise it up, but found it would not enter the bumper of the stationary car. The bumper of the moving car passed under the bumper of the stationary car, and in attempting to withdraw hishand it was caught between the dead-woods and severely crushed. The dead-woods were about eight inches on each side of the bumpers. Their purpose was to prevent the cars coming together, and thus afford protection to a person standing between them. The bumper on the moving car was not broken, but hung lower than the one on the stationary car, and lower than it was intended to hang, for the reason that the staple or strap which surrounded it, and in which it played, was broken on one side. It is customary, in coupling cars of which the bumpers are of different heights, to use a crooked link, and such links are supplied by the company, and were in the caboose which plaintiff and his fellows took with them from Albany to Fishkill. The link in the bumper at the time of the accident was a straight one. After the accident a crooked link was used, and the coupling was made, and the car was thus used while on defendant's road. The bumpers are backed by strong springs, and it frequently happens that, when the cars meet with considerable force, the bumpers are pressed in upon the springs, and the dead-woods come together; but when the cars approach each other at a slow, or, as the witnesses, term it ‘ordinary,’ speed, the bumpers receive the shock, and a space is left between the dead-woods of from two to eight inches. It further appeared that in making the coupling the plaintiff's hand would necessarily be between the dead-woods of the two cars. Plaintiff appeals.

FOLLETT, C. J., and POTTER, J., dissenting.

Amasa J. Parker, for appellant.

Hamilton Harris, for respondent.

BROWN, J., ( after stating the facts as above.)

It was decided in Gottlieb v. Railroad Co., 100 N. Y. 462, 3 N. E. Rep. 344, that a railroad company is bound to inspect the cars of another company used upon its road, just as it would inspect its own cars; that it owes this duty as master, and is responsible for the consequences of such defects as would be disclosed or discovered by ordinary inspection; that when cars come to it from another road which have defects, visible or discernible by ordinary examination, it must either remedy such defects, or refuse to take them. This duty of examining foreign cars must obviously be performed before such cars are placed in trains upon the defendant's road, or furnished to its employes, for transportation. When so furnished, the employes whose duty it is to manage the trains have a right to assume that, so far as ordinary care can accomplish it, the cars are equipped with safe and suitable appliances for the discharge of their duty,...

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