Chesapeake Ohio Railway Company v. William Howard 17, 18 1900 21, 1900

Decision Date16 November 1886
Docket NumberNo. 247,247
Citation178 U.S. 153,20 S.Ct. 880,44 L.Ed. 1015
PartiesCHESAPEAKE & OHIO RAILWAY COMPANY, Pliff. in Err. , v. WILLIAM HOWARD and Others. Argued April 17, 18, 1900. Decided May, 21, 1900. The railroad company seeks by this writ of error to reverse a judgment obtained against it at a trial term of the supreme court of the District of Columbia in favor of defendants in error, which judgment has been affirmed by the court of appeals of the District. The defendants in error are husband and wife, and the action was brought by themto recover damages alleged to have been sustained by the wife because the car in which she was riding ran off the track while forming part of a train in transit from Louisville, Kentucky, to the city of Washington, D. C. The accident occurred during the night of
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

The railroad company seeks by this writ of error to reverse a judgment obtained against it at a trial term of the supreme court of the District of Columbia in favor of defendants in error, which judgment has been affirmed by the court of appeals of the District.

The defendants in error are husband and wife, and the action was brought by themto recover damages alleged to have been sustained by the wife because the car in which she was riding ran off the track while forming part of a train in transit from Louisville, Kentucky, to the city of Washington, D. C. The accident occurred during the night of November 16, 1886, at a place called Soldier, in the state of Kentucky, and about 60 miles west of the east line of the state, and while the train was running on the rails of the Elizabethtown, Lexington, & Big Sandy Railroad Company, which was a Kentucky corporation.

The amended declaration of the plaintiffs below alleged that the train on which the wife was a passenger was operated and conducted by the agents of the plaintiff in error, and that the plaintiff in error was managing and operating a line of railway between the cities of Louisville, in the state of Kentucky, and Washington city, in the District of Columbia, and upon said line of railway it was a common carrier of passengers for hire; that on the 18th of November, 1886, the plaintiff, Laura P. Howard, purchased from the agents of the defendant, at the city of Louisville, a ticket entitling her to a passage upon the railway from the city of Louisville to the city of Washington, and the defendant, it was alleged, thereupon became bound to safely carry and transport her from the city of Louisville to the city of Washington, but the defendant did not carry or transport her safely, and that near the town of Soldier, in the state of Kentucky, by the unskilfulness, carelessness, and wrongful neglect and mismanagement of defendants' agents in charge of said train, the sleeping car in which she was riding left the track, and went down an embankment and was demolished, and she was badly wounded and injured, and that by reason of these injuries she suffered great pain, and has been rendered permanently unable to do any business.

The defendant took issue upon these allegations, and the case went to trial. It has been twice tried, and upon the first trial, when all the evidence was in, the court directed a verdict for the defendant on the ground that no liability on its part had been shown for the accident in question. Upon appeal to the court of appeals of the District that court reversed the judgment (11 App. D. C. 300), and granted a new trial. A retrial was had, and the jury found a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, upon which judgment was entered, and on appeal it has been affirmed by the court of appeals. (14 App. D. C. 262).

Mr. Leigh Robinson for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. R. Ross Perry, James Francis Smith, and R. Ross Perry, Jr., for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice Peckham, after stating the above facts, delivered the opinion of the court:

The injuries sustained by Mrs. Howard, as shown by the evidence are very serious, and undoubtedly permanent. The accident happened at night, the car in which she was sleeping left the rail and went over an embankment about 30 feet high, and was broken to pieces. She was released from the car and taken to a cottage by the wayside, and subsequently was given a berth in a sleeping car and brought to Washington.

On the trial she was sworn as a witness, and testified that the disease was evidently progressing, because she could not sit up as long; that she could not walk and distance; could not ride in the street cars without great suffering; that she suffered in various ways a great deal, in her head and in her spine, and was never free from pain. The suffering in her head was at the base of the brain, and if she wanted to see anything back of her she had to turn her entire body; she could not turn her head either way. She said she had been under the doctor's care most of the time during the past eleven years up to the time of the trial.

Dr. Chrystie, a specialist in spinal diseases, testified on the trial that Mrs. Howard placed herself under his treatment early in 1887, and had been under his treatment ever since. He said that she was suffering from an incurable spinal affection, which was progressive, occasioning great suffering and almost total disability. The witness had contrived, and made for her an appra tus grasping the hip and extending up to the shoulders and giving support in front, which steadies the back as a broken bone would be steadied, and this gives her partial relief, but the disease is located so low down, so much superincumbence of weight above, that it does not give her complete relief. The apparatus is made of steel, and the doctor said should be worn constantly, and she should sleep in it at night. It is necessary for her to wear it every hour for comfort, as well as for protection of her backbone. The disease is progressing slowly, and if it had not been for this spinal assistance, he thought she would have had complete paralysis.

At the time of the accident she was a clerk in the Agricultural Department at Washington, but since that time has been compelled to give up her position, and has been unable to do any work.

The probable cause of the accident, as shown by the evidence given by the plaintiffs, was an imperfect flange on one of the wheels of the sleeping car in which Mrs. Howard was riding. It did not appear that a careful inspection could not have discovered the defect. There was evidence also given as to the train being driven at a reckless rate of speed at the time. We think there was sufficient evidence of negligence to carry the case to the jury.

The most important question, that of the liability of the defendant company for the consequences of an accident on the road of another company, arises upon the evidence now to be considered.

In order to sustain their claim the plaintiffs gave evidence showing the following facts: The Elizabethtown, Lexington, & Big Sandy Railroad Company, hereinafter called the Kentucky company, was incorporated by an act of the legislature of Kentucky, approved January 29, 1869, for the purpose of building a railroad from Elizabethtown to a point on the Big Sandy river at or within 20 miles of its mouth, all within the state of Kentucky. By a subsequent act the company was authorized to sell the railroad or lease the same whenever it might be to the interest of the company to do so. The Big Sandy river is the boundary line between the states of West Virginia and Kentucky.

At this time the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company, the plaintiff in error (hereinafter called the Virginia company), or its predecessor, had been incorporated by an act of the legislature of Virginia, and was operating its railroad from Phoebus, a station about a mile east of Fortress Monroe, in Virginia, to Huntington, in the state of West Virginia, and about 8 miles east of the Big Sandy river.

In 1877 the legislature of West Virginia passed on act providing for a terminus for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway on that river, and for the building of a bridge over it so as to connect with the road of the Kentucky corporation. That corporation had not then built its road east of Mount Sterling, a place some distance west of the river and on November 12, 1879, the Virginia and Kentucky corporations entered into an agreement, by which the Kentucky corporation was to complete its railroad from Mount Sterling east to the river, and thereby form a connection with the road of the Virginia company, and in consideration thereof the latter company was to complete its road from the station at Huntington to and across the river, and allow the Kentucky corporation the free and undisputed use of its railroad from the westerly bank, and across the river to the depot of the Virginia corporation in the city of Huntington, for the term of five years from the date of the completion of the road as stated.

Pursuant to the agreement this extension from Huntington west to the river was completed early in 1882, and at that time the Kentucky corporation had also completed its road from Mount Sterling east to the river, and had also a running arrangement over the Louisville & Nashville Railroad into the city of Louisville.

During these times Mr. C. P. Huntington was very largely interested, and was the controlling spirit, in a numer of railroads situated both east and west of the Mississippi. He had built many new lines and extended many old ones, and had a plan for bringing into practically one management a line of railroad extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was also desirous of organizing into one line his lines east of the Mississippi river, consisting of the Virginia company, the Kentucky company, and the Chesapeake & Ohio and Southwestern Railroad Company.

After the completion of the road of the Virginia company from Huntington to the west side of the river and its connection with the Kentucky corporation at that point, an arrangement was made between the two corporations by which they were operated substantially as a continuous system. They were operated together by one general manager, under verbal directions from Mr. Huntington, who was president of the Virginia company, and owned a controlling amount of the stock of the Kentucky company. Under that arrangement the Virginia company 'operated and maintained the line of railroad for and on account of the Elizabethtown, Lexington, & Big Sandy Railroad Company, mostly west of the Big Sandy river to Lexington, and included in that also the 8 miles of track between the west bank of the river and Huntington.

They operated it for and on account of the ...

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