Moon v. Northern Pacific Railroad Company
| Decision Date | 23 April 1891 |
| Citation | 48 N.W. 679,46 Minn. 106 |
| Parties | John L. Moon, Administrator, v. Northern Pacific Railroad Company, impleaded, etc |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
A motion for a reargument of this case was denied May 4, 1891.
Appeal by defendant (impleaded with the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company) from a judgment of the district court for Ramsey county, where the action was tried before Wilkin, J., and a verdict of $ 2,500 was returned against appellant, the jury also finding in favor of the Manitoba Company.
Judgment affirmed.
John C Bullitt, Jr., and F. S. Kirkpatrick, for appellant.
Lovely & Trask, for respondent.
Plaintiff 's intestate, who was a brakeman in the employ of the St Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Company, was killed while attempting to set a brake upon a loaded freight-car of the defendant Northern Pacific Railroad Company, which had been transferred by the latter to the track of the Manitoba Company in the village of Morris, in this state, for transportation over the road of the latter to a point thereon. There was a traffic arrangement existing between these two companies, in pursuance of which loaded freight-cars were mutually transferred and transported over their respective lines, and cars of the Northern Pacific Company, destined to points on the Manitoba road, were transferred from its line to a side track in the yard of the latter company at Morris, designated and set apart as a transfer track, whence, if in good order, they were placed in its trains by that company, and transported to particular stations. The car in question was loaded with wood to be shipped to Herman, a station on the Manitoba road a few miles west of Morris. When it arrived at Morris, on the 3d day of April, it was placed on the transfer track in the yard of the Manitoba Company, above referred to. According to the rule adopted by the companies, such cars were required to be inspected by the car inspectors of both on that track, and, if any repairs were needed, they were required to be made by the Northern Pacific Company before they were transferred and received by the Manitoba Company. Accordingly this car was so inspected by the car inspectors on the morning of April 4th. It was examined by them together at the same time, and they agreed that it was in good order. In the afternoon of the same day, the car was taken off this track by the Manitoba Company, to be placed in a train for transportation, and was switched on to another track, where the conductor ordered the deceased to set the brake on it so as to hold it securely on a descending grade. The brake-staff proved defective, and was insufficient to hold the loaded car in its place, but broke and precipitated him upon the track, and he was run over. It is claimed by the plaintiff that the brake-staff was cracked and partly broken before its use at the time of the injury, and that the defendant Northern Pacific Railroad is liable in damages for negligence in permitting it to be out of repair and unsafe, and also that the car was not properly or carefully inspected by the inspectors of the respective companies, and that the work was superficially and negligently done. The action was brought against both companies, but a verdict was recovered against the Northern Pacific Railroad only.
1. We are to inquire whether the relations of the deceased, as an employe of the Manitoba Company, to the defendant the Northern Pacific Railroad Company were such as to entitle plaintiff to maintain an action against the latter for its alleged negligence. As respects the transportation of freight in bulk from stations on one line to those on the other, the two roads are operated together, and it is immaterial whether such transportation by connecting lines is carried on in obedience to a statute, their common-law duty as carriers, or by mutual agreement; neither company is obliged to draw the cars of the other over its line, if they are unsafe or out of repair. Mackin v. Boston & Albany R. Co., 135 Mass. 201; Gottlieb v. New York, L. E. & W. R. Co., 100 N.Y. 462, 469, (3 N.E. 344.) It is, then, the primary duty of the company seeking such transportation to use due diligence to provide cars reasonably safe for the service contemplated. The rule above referred to, adopted by these companies, requiring the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to inspect and repair cars before transfer and acceptance, is a recognition of this duty. But such duty is not limited to the corporations as such, but extends to and is owed to the servants who must necessarily handle the cars, and who are exposed to danger arising from their unsafe or defective condition. One may owe two distinct duties in respect to the same thing, -- one of a special character to one person, growing out of special relations to him; and another, of a general character, to those who would necessarily be exposed to risk and danger from the negligent discharge of such duty. 1 Shear. & R. Neg. § 116; Bigelow, Cas. Torts, 614.
Subject to proper limitations, the rule, generally stated, is that if a reasonable man must see that, if he did not use due care in the circumstances, he might cause injury to the person or property of another entitled to repose confidence in his diligence, a duty arises to use such care. Smith, Neg. 12, and notes; Heaven v. Pender, 11 Q. B. Div. 503. In this last case, Winterbottom v. Wright, 10 Mees. & W. 109, and other cases relied on by the defendant, are explained and distinguished. See, also, Pol. Torts, 449. We do not inquire as to the application of the rule here considered to intermediate carriers. The delivery of the car to the servants of the Manitoba Company was an affirmation that the car was fit for use, and the latter were entitled to repose confidence in the implied assurance that such was the fact.
Undoubtedly by virtue of the relation of master and servant, the Manitoba Company would be liable to its employes if it undertook to use cars of another company without due inspection, and they should turn out to be defective and unsafe by reason of defects which might be ascertained by a reasonably careful...
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