Chicago Co v. Pontius

• Decision Date: 18 March 1895
• Docket Number: No. 716,716
• Citation: 157 U.S. 209,39 L.Ed. 675,15 S.Ct. 585
• Parties: CHICAGO, K. & W. R. CO. v. PONTIUS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

157 U.S. 209

15 S.Ct. 585

39 L.Ed. 675

CHICAGO, K. & W. R. CO.

v PONTIUS.

No. 716.

March 18, 1895.

Pontius brought an action against the railroad company in the district court of Dickinson county, Kan., to recover for injuries sustained by him while in the employment of the company, and obtained judgment for $2,000. The case was taken on error to the supreme court of the state, and the judgment affirmed, whereupon a writ of error was allowed from this court, and, the cause having been docketed, a motion to dismiss the writ or affirm the judgment was submitted.

In the opinion of the supreme court of Kansas, reported 52 Kan. 264, 34 Pac. 739, the case is stated thus: 'Clifford R. Pontius was employed by the defendant company as a bridge carpenter, and worked in that capacity at various points on the line of defendant's road. A bridge was constructed across the Verdigris river in Greenwood county. The false work used for support in its construction was taken down, and the timbers of which it was composed were hoisted and loaded into cars on the bridge, to be transported to some other point on defendant's road. The timbers were muddy and slippery. The mode of hoisting them was to attach a rope or chain to the timbers, and to raise them by means of a pile driver. When a stick was raised to a sufficient height, a rope was thrown around the lower end of it, and a number of men, of whom plaintiff was one, would pull it out on the car. A chain had been used on the end of the rope to hold timbers which were being hoisted, and several pieces had been raised in that way. The chain, however, was thrown aside, and one piece was raised with the rope. When the men undertook to pull it back on the car, the rope slipped off, the timber fell, and caused the injury for which the plaintiff sues.'

Geo. R. Peck, A. T. Britton, and A. B. Browne, for plaintiff in error.

John H. Mahan, for defendant in error.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

Section 93 of chapter 23 of the General Statutes of Kansas (1 Gen. St. Ken. 1889, p. 415) provides: 'Every railroad company organized or doing business in this state shall be liable for all damages done to any employ e of such company in consequence of any negligence of its agents, or by any mismanagement of its engineers or other employees to any person sustaining such damage.'

In Railway Co. v. Mackey, 33 Kan. 298, 6 Pac. 291, the validity of this law was drawn in question on the ground of repugnancy to the constitution of the United States, and its validity sustained. The case was brought here on error, and the judgment of the state court affirmed. Railway Co. v. Mackey, 127 U. S. 205, 8 Sup. Ct. 1161. As to the objection that the law deprived railroad com anies of the equal protection of the laws, and so infringed the fourteenth amendment, this court held that legislation which was special in its character was not...