Brady v. Chicago & G.W. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 03 March 1902
• Docket Number: 1,543.
• Citation: 114 F. 100
• Parties: BRADY v. CHICAGO & G.W. Ry. Co.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

114 F. 100

BRADY v. CHICAGO & G.W. Ry. Co.

No. 1,543.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

March 3, 1902

(Syllabus by the Court.)

In Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Iowa.

Charles A. Clark (James W. Clark and William G. Clark, on the brief) for plaintiff in error.

Carroll Wright (A. B. Cummins and James P. Hewitt, on the brief), for defendant in error.

Before CALDWELL, SANBORN, and THAYER, Circuit Judges.

SANBORN Circuit Judge.

Elizabeth Brady, as administratrix of the estate of John J. Brady brought an action against the Chicago & Great Western Railway Company for negligence resulting in the death of Brady, and at the close of the evidence produced on her behalf the court instructed the jury to return a verdict in favor of the defendant. The judgment, based upon this instruction, is challenged by this writ of error.

The facts established at the trial were these: John J. Brady was the foreman of a switch crew in the employment of the Chicago & Great Western Railway Company, engaged in discharging the customary duties of such crews at the city of St. Paul. In the early morning of November 1, 1896, while it was yet dark it became Brady's duty to take his train, which consisted of an engine, tender, and caboose, from West St. Paul across the Mississippi river, and through the yards of the St. Paul Union Depot Company, to Mississippi street, a distance of two or three miles. He had exclusive charge of this train, and he directed the crew to couple the caboose on to the rear of the engine, and to back the train across the river and through the yards. He took his station on the forward end of the caboose as it was sent into the darkness. The only light he had at that end of the train was a lantern. As he was backing this train through the yards at a speed of about six miles an hour it collided with a refrigerator car on a portion of one of the transfer tracks of the depot company, called the dead track,' and so injured Brady that he died. This dead track was long enough to hold four or five cars. It was used by several railroad companies as a place of deposit of cars that were ready to be transferred from one railroad to another. It was provided with a switch at each end, by means of which trains could be sent around it when it was occupied by cars. When the switches were turned to send trains around it they displayed green lights. At such times it formed a part of the main track through the depot yards used by the defendant for the passage of its trains. At the time of the accident the switch lights were green, thus indicating that the dead track was clear. It was not the duty or the privilege of the servants of the Great Western Railway Company to operate these switches. The dead track, the switches connected with it, and all the railroads and switches in this yard were the property of the St. Paul Union Depot Company, a corporation of the state of Minnesota. This company had the exclusive management and control of all these tracks and switches, and the Great Western Railway Company had a contract with it for a transfer of its cars and engines and for permission to run its trains through the yards. Six other railroad companies had similar agreements with the terminal company. The depot company employed three or four switchmen whose exclusive duty it was to throw the switches in the yards for those who were entitled to use them under these contracts. The dead track on which the accident happened was used largely in the daytime for the deposit of cars to be transferred from railroad to railroad, but it was used at night only for special work, such as perishable freight and stock. One of the plaintiff's witnesses said that from his experience it was lined up anywhere after 10 o'clock at night until 5 o'clock in the morning so that it was proper to proceed without delay or bothering a switch tender to be there; that there was liable to be some transferring at night, and the placing of cars upon this dead track; that all the trainmen and switching crews knew that this track was used for standing cars; and that the customary way of protecting these cars on this dead track was to set the switches so that they would display red lights; and send approaching trains around it. He also testified as follows:

'The crew of one railroad company would set cars there, to be afterwards received and taken by the crew of another railroad company. But the cars were to be immediately afterwards taken or protected. To the best of my knowledge, they were always immediately taken or else protected. If they were protected, then they might remain there for some considerable length of time. It is a piece of track that is busily used for transfer work, and very seldom anything stands there long, but there may be some delay where they could not possibly get the car, and it would stay there for half an hour. They couldn't allow anything to stand there any longer, you know, to make a rule of it. It is true that this dead track was very much in use, and that cars were frequently stood there for a greater or less length of time,-- freight cars which were not attached to an engine. At various times in the evening they wouldn't even allow you to cut your engine from the car there at all, and leave it there. You could stay right there and hold the car until the other engine was ready to take right hold of it: that is, at certain times. The Union Depot yards at that time consisted of almost a complete network of railway tracks running in all directions, used by the various railroad companies I have referred to and by the Union Depot Company for transferring, switching, and handling freight trains, and also passenger trains. * * * It was not defendant's custom to have any one at the dead track in question to watch or protect cars placed upon the dead track by other companies. It was the custom of the Union Depot switch tenders to protect those cars.'

There was no evidence that the defendant or any of its servants placed the refrigerator car with which Brady's train collided upon the dead track.

Upon this state of facts counsel for the plaintiff in error insist that the direction of the court to the jury to return a verdict for the defendant was erroneous (1) because the railway company was liable for the negligence of the depot company in its discharge of the positive duty of the master to exercise ordinary care to provide a reasonably safe place for the servant to work, and there is some evidence of such negligence on the part of the terminal company; and, (2) because the servants of the depot company were the fellow servants of the employes of the railway company, there was some evidence that the servants of the former company were negligent in the discharge of their primary duties as servants, and under the statute of Minnesota a railway company is liable to its employes for injuries inflicted upon them by the negligence of their fellow servants.

Before entering upon a discussion of these contentions, it will be well to fix clearly in mind the negligence and the nature of the negligence which was the cause of this deplorable accident. Was it negligence in the construction, repair, or maintenance of the road, its switches and appurtenances, or was it carelessness in their operation? for the line of demarkation which separates the absolute duty of the master from the primary duty of his servants lies here. It is the duty of the railroad company to use ordinary care to furnish a reasonably safe railroad machine; to exercise reasonable diligence to keep it in repair; to use ordinary care to employ a sufficient number of reasonably competent servants to operate it; to establish reasonable rules for, and to exercise proper supervision of, its operation. But when this duty is performed an equally positive duty rests upon the servants to keep the great machine from becoming dangerous by their operation of it and to work it with reasonable care. The railroad tracks, the switches, the engine, and the caboose were on November 1, 1896, well constructed and in good repair. If they had been operated with ordinary care, they would not have caused the death of Brady. If the servants who put the refrigerator car on the dead track had placed red lights upon it, if when it was placed there the switchmen of the depot company had turned the switches so as to display red lights and so as to send Brady's train around it, or if Brady had run his train through the yard in the dark with the engine and its blazing headlight foremost rather than the caboose (Southern Pac. Co. v. Yeargin, 48 C.C.A. 497, 109 F. 436), the fatal result could not have followed. The failure to do these things was negligence, but it was not negligence in the discharge of any duty of the master. It was negligence in the discharge of the duties of the servants; negligence in the operation of the railroad machine, which had been safely constructed and maintained, and which was made dangerous by the negligent discharge of the duties of these servants in its operation. Railroad Co. v. Needham, 63 F. 107, 109, 11 C.C.A. 56, 58, 27 U.S.App. 227, 231; Railroad Co. v. Mase's Adm'x, 63 F. 114, 11 C.C.A. 63, 64, 27 U.S.App. 238, 240.

Bearing in mind the nature of the negligence which caused the accident, let us now consider the first position of counsel for the plaintiff in error. It is that the defendant was liable for the death of Brady because the depot company was negligent in the discharge of the positive duties of the master. The defendant was operating its trains in the yard and over the railroads of the depot company under a contract which excluded it from all management and control of this yard, its railroads and switches, and imposed upon...