Carr v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 02 May 1921
• Docket Number: 3587.
• Citation: 273 F. 511
• Parties: CARR v. NORTHERN PAC. RY. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

273 F. 511

CARR v. NORTHERN PAC. RY. CO.

No. 3587.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

May 2, 1921

Chas W. Johnson, of Pasco, Wash., for plaintiff in error.

E. J Cannon and Francis J. McKevitt, both of Spokane, Wash., for defendant in error.

Before GILBERT and HUNT, Circuit Judges, and WOLVERTON, District judge.

HUNT Circuit Judge.

Carr, a conductor for the Northern Pacific Railway Company, brought action against the Railway Company to recover for personal injuries alleged to have been suffered by reason of an operation for appendicitis performed by the chief surgeon of the Tacoma Hospital of the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association When he became sick, Carr went voluntarily to the hospital of the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association. The result of the operation was unsatisfactory, and he charged that the surgeon who operated was negligent, and that the attendants furnished by the defendant were negligent in not doing certain things which they should have done.

The defendant denied negligence, and pleaded that the employes of the Railway Company organized themselves together for mutual benefit and advantage, in an association called the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association, and that the association conducted hospitals in states through which the Northern Pacific Railway operated, and employed physicians and nurses and hospital attendants; that to obtain funds with which to operate the hospitals, and pay the doctors and employes, it was agreed between the railway employes and the Northern Pacific Railway Company that a certain sum of money should be deducted each month from the salary of each employe, to be turned over by the Railway Company to the Northern Pacific Beneficial Association. Defendant denied that it had ever maintained hospitals, or employed physicians or surgeons, or made any profit out of the hospitals. At the close of all the evidence, on motion of the Railway Company, the court directed a verdict for the defendant. This action is assigned as error.

The evidence was: That many years ago the employes of the Northern Pacific Railway Company formed the association referred to, and that each employe, when he entered the service of the company, agreed to become a member of the association, and that a small percentage of his salary should be collected each month by the Railway Company to be turned over to the association; that the funds deducted from the...