Buffington v. Atlantic & Pacific R.R. Co.

• Citation: 64 Mo. 246
• Parties: WILLIAM S. BUFFINGTON, Respondent, v. THE ATLANTIC & PACIFIC R. R. CO., Appellant.
• Decision Date: 31 October 1876
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

64 Mo. 246

WILLIAM S. BUFFINGTON, Respondent,

v.THE ATLANTIC & PACIFIC R. R. CO., Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1876.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court.

J. N. Litton, for Appellant.

Cline, Jamison & Day, for Respondent.

HOUGH, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff was a brakesman on the Kirkwood accommodation train, a passenger train of the defendant running between St. Louis and Kirkwood, and while engaged in the line of his duty had his arm crushed in coupling the engine to the baggage car.

The petition alleged in substance that the injury was occasioned by the defective and negligent construction of the engine; that its coupling apparatus, instead of being on a plane with the coupling apparatus of the baggage car, was so high that when the engine and car were brought together, the buffer of the engine did not strike the buffer of the car as it should, but passed over the same and above the platform of the car, so that a projecting timber attached to the tender of the locomotive, and called the “deadwood,” was brought in contact with the platform of the car, and caught and crushed the plaintiff's arm.

The answer denied all the allegations of negligence in the petition, and averred that the injuries received by the plaintiff resulted from his own carelessness and unskillfulness.

There was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff which was affirmed at General Term, and the defendant has appealed.

The testimony tended to show that the engine in question was an old one which had been “rebuilt,” and, as in all new or “rebuilt” engines, the coupling apparatus was about an inch and a half higher than that of engines or cars which have been in use for a time, and was purposely so constructed with a view to the flexion of the springs resulting from use.

Two pieces of timber called “deadwood” were attached to the end of the tender and projected beyond it about eight inches; fastened to the ends of this “deadwood” was a circular buffer made of iron, which extended about eight inches beyond the ends of the “deadwood;” this buffer was intended to strike against another buffer attached to the end of the platform of the baggage car, when the car and tender were brought together, thus leaving a space of sixteen inches between the tender and car, on either side of the buffers and ““deadwood,” in which the plaintiff could stand while making the coupling.

The plaintiff was injured at Kirkwood while engaged in coupling the engine and tender to the baggage car, on a side track. At the time of the...