Chicago Great Western Co v. Schendel

• Decision Date: 02 March 1925
• Docket Number: No. 422,422
• Citation: 69 L.Ed. 614,267 U.S. 287,45 S.Ct. 303
• Parties: CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN R. CO. v. SCHENDEL
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

267 U.S. 287

45 S.Ct. 303

69 L.Ed. 614

CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN R. CO.

v SCHENDEL.

No. 422.

Argued Jan. 6, 1925.

Decided March 2, 1925.

Mr. A. G. Briggs, of St. Paul, Minn., for petitioner.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 287-289 intentionally omitted] Mr. Tom Davis, of Minneapolis, Minn., for respondent.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Supreme Court of Minnesota affirmed a judgment in favor of respondent for damages resulting from the death of his intestate, Ring, fatally injured while in petitioner's service and while both were engaging in interstate commerce. The original action was based upon the federal Employers' Liability Act, c. 149, 35 Stat. 65, 66, c. 149 (Comp. St. §§ 8657-8665), and the Safety Appliance Act of 1893, c. 196, 27 Stat. 531, as amended in 1910, by 36 Stat. 298, 299, c. 160, (Comp. St. §§ 8605-8623).

While the freight train upon which Ring served as brakeman was upon the main line at Budd, Iowa, a drawbar pulled out of a car. Thereupon the crew chained this car to the one immediately ahead. The engine pulled the whole train onto the adjacent siding, which lies on a gentle grade, and stopped. The intention was to detach the damaged car and leave it there. The plan was to cut off the engine, bring it around back of the train, remove the rear portion, couple this to the forward portion, and move on. Acting under the conductor's direction, Ring asked the head brakeman to tell the engineer to proceed, and then, without the knowledge of either of the others, he and the conductor went between the crippled car and the next one in order to disengage the connecting chain. While they were working there the engineer cut off the engine, the car ran slowly down the grade, and Ring, caught by the chain, suffered fatal injuries.

A rule of the company provided that employees should advise the engineer when they were going between or under cars and must know that he understood their purpose before they put themselves in any dangerous position. Ring gave no such warning, although familiar with the rule and with the grade upon which the train stood.

Petitioner insists: (1) The facts do not bring the case within the Safety Appliance Act since the car had come to rest on the side track and had ceased to be 'used,' within the meaning of the statute. (2) The defective drawbar did not proximately contribute to the injury. (3) The violation of the rule by Ring constituted negligence subsequent to and independent of the question of a defective safety appliance and was a proximate cause of the injury.

It is provided by the original Safety Appliance Act:

'Sec. 2. That on and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, it shall be unlawful for any such common carrier to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car used in moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars.' Comp. St. § 8606.

The amendment of 1910 directs:

'Sec. 4. That any common carrier subject to this act using, hauling, or permitting to be used or hauled on its line, any car subject to the requirements of this act not equipped as provided in this act, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every such violation: * * * Provided, that where any car shall have been properly equipped, as provided in this act and the other acts mentioned herein, and such equipment shall have become defective or insecure while such car was being used by such carrier upon its line of railroad, such car may be hauled from the place where such equipment was first discovered to be defective or insecure to the nearest available point where such car can be repaired, without liability for the penalties imposed by section four of this act or section six of the act of March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-three as amended by the act of April first, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, if such movement is necessary to make such repairs and such repairs cannot be made except at such repair point; and such movement or hauling of such car shall be at the sole risk of the...