Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co. v. Kifer

• Decision Date: 26 November 1954
• Docket Number: No. 4859.,4859.
• Citation: 216 F.2d 753
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit
• Parties: CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, a corporation, Appellant, v. Raymond C. KIFER, Appellee.

216 F.2d 753 (1954)

CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY, a corporation, Appellant, v. Raymond C. KIFER, Appellee.

No. 4859.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

October 30, 1954.

Rehearing Denied November 26, 1954.

J. I. Gibson, Oklahoma City, Okl., (Savage, Gibson, Benefield & Shelton, Oklahoma City, Okl., on the brief), for appellant.

Rex H. Holden, Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellee.

Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and BRATTON and HUXMAN, Circuit Judges.

PHILLIPS, Chief Judge.

Kifer, an employee of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company,¹ brought this action under the Federal Employers' Liability Act² to recover damages for personal injuries sustained during the course of his employment by the Railroad Company as a switchman at the Union Station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Kifer for $88,666. The Railroad Company moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or, in the alternative, for a new trial. Both motions were denied and the Railroad Company has appealed.

The Union Station at Oklahoma City is a passenger terminal station, jointly operated by the Railroad Company and the Frisco Railway Company. There are nine pairs of tracks adjacent to the station, running east and west, separated by concrete platforms running parallel to the tracks. Each platform is approximately 12 inches higher than the adjacent rail. There is about one inch clearance between the edge of each platform and a car moving on the rails.

At about 6:00 a.m., on the morning of August 14, 1952, the Railroad Company's eastbound passenger train 52 arrived from the west on Track 7. Kifer was a member of a five-man switching crew. It became the duty of the crew to remove certain cars from the train and attach a diner to the train. The crew was working with a single unit diesel switch engine. The crew removed the engine from the train and coupled the switch engine to the baggage car on the east end of the train. After the baggage car was coupled to the train, Kifer signalled the switch engine engineer for a back-up movement in an easterly direction. Kifer rode the side of the engine until it reached the cross-over switch from Track 7 to Track 8, the latter track being located south of Track 7. Kifer then left the switch engine to set the switch for a movement west on Track 8. The engine at that time was headed west. After the switch was set, Kifer signalled the engineer to move west, slowly pushing the cars of the train onto Track 8. During that operation, Kifer rode on the northwest corner of the lead car with his feet in the upper sill step, which is about one foot above the lower sill step. From that position he passed signals to the engineer, who was on his side of the train, and moved past the point where, later, the accident causing his injuries occurred. During the switching movement westward on Track 8, Kifer was looking to the west, the direction of the movement, in the performance of his duty to see that everything was clear before the cars were moved onto that track. After the cars were placed on Track 8, the baggage car was uncoupled from a railroad Post Office car. Thereupon, Kifer gave the signal to the engineer to back up eastward on Track 8. When the train started to move eastward on Track 8 at a speed of from three to six miles per hour, Kifer stepped on the lower sill step and took hold of the projecting grab iron. For the first 10 to 20 feet, Kifer was looking westward in the performance of his duty to see that the uncoupled cars did not move in either direction. After he observed that the cars were not in motion, he turned to the east. He testified that when he did so, "the bright morning sun hit me in the eyes and I couldn't see anything for a few minutes there, it just blinded me." He said he shook his head a little bit and glanced about and when he looked around he was right against a four-wheeled baggage truck parked on the adjacent platform. When he saw that he could not clear the truck he tried to swing his body around to the end of the car, but was unable to do so in time to avoid being struck by the baggage truck. He was knocked off the baggage car. The switch engine had moved approximately 50 to 75 feet during the backing movement, before the accident occurred.

The baggage truck struck Kifer on the left side between the hip bone and the short ribs and caused him to fall on the rail nearest the platform. He suffered temporary unconsciousness, but soon was able to crawl onto the platform, but was unable to rise. He was removed to a hospital, where he remained five days. He complained of pain in his back and left side. Diathermy treatments and sedatives were administered. After he returned to his home from the hospital sedation was continued. He received treatments from a chiropractor on the Railroad Company's staff, which were helpful but did not give permanent relief. The chiropractor advised him to try to work again. Kifer worked 11 out of 15 days in October, 1952, but then left the Railroad Company's employment permanently because he believed he was physically unable to continue that kind of work.

The baggage truck was equipped with automatic brakes, which were set at the time of the accident. The side of the truck adjacent to the rails was only nine inches from the edge of the platform curb, and created an unsafe place for the switchmen to work. At the time of the accident, Kifer was riding in a normal position for a switchman engaged in his type of work.

Kifer did not know whether the baggage truck was in the same position at the time of the accident that it was when he passed it in the switching movement prior to the accident. The engineer testified that the truck was in the same position during both movements.

Prior to the accident, reports had come to the Railroad Company that baggage trucks were being parked too close to the rails, creating a hazard to switchmen carrying out switching operations at the Union Station. Such parking violated rules and regulations of the Railroad Company.

Continuously, from the time of the accident, Kifer suffered pain in his neck and lower back, accompanied by severe headaches and muscular spasms.

On March 19, 1953, Doctor Gerster W. Brown, a specialist in traumatic surgery, examined Kifer. He testified that Kifer complained of headaches, cervical pain and tension, pain in the mid-lower back at about the level of the fourth lumbar vertebra and anesthesia of the left lower extremity;...