Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co. v. Glascock
| Decision Date | 01 May 1933 |
| Docket Number | 4-2998 |
| Citation | 59 S.W.2d 602,187 Ark. 343 |
| Parties | CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY v. GLASCOCK |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Arkansas Circuit Court, Northern District; W. J Waggoner, Judge; affirmed.
STATEMENT BY THE COURT.
This appeal is from judgments for damages for the ejection of Floyd Glascock, a trespasser on one of appellant's through freight trains, from the train near Haleyville Oklahoma, causing him to fall through a trestle over which the train was passing at the time and severely injuring him.
Floyd Glascock, 18 years old, in May, 1932, left Arkansas County in company with two other boys, who were older than he, in search of work. They got on a through freight train at Brinkley on the Rock Island, appellant's road, and had arrived at Haleyville, Oklahoma, about sundown Wednesday of the same week without accident, where they remained during the night. On Thursday morning appellee, Floyd Glascock, left the other boys and went out and found some work. He returned in the evening to the railroad station so he might go on with the other boys. Mitchell, one of them, knew some people at another place and thought they might get some work there. They boarded one of appellant's freight trains about 10 or 11 o'clock on Thursday night when the train was running about 6 to 8 miles per hour, appellee, Floyd Glascock, going first up the ladder, being followed by Butcher. Glascock was near the top of the fourth car from the engine, his head and shoulders being over or above the top of the car. The trestle was about one quarter of a mile from where the boys boarded the train, and there was a curve in the track near the point where the two boys were forced from the train.
The special agent, Fore, had gotten into the engine cab after seeing the boys near the train when it started out. He left the cab and was walking down on the top of the cars and flashed a strong light in Glascock's face and told him to get off the train or he would shoot him off. The Butcher boy jumped from the train, which was going about 10 to 20 miles per hour and was over the trestle, and when Glascock jumped he fell on the hard earth about 10 feet beyond where the Butcher boy struck the mud at the edge of the bayou. The special agent was about six feet, seven inches tall and was wearing a large white hat and had a gun strapped about his waist. When he reached the Mitchell boy, who got the car ahead of the one upon which Glascock and the Butcher boy had boarded, and ordered him off, Mitchell told him they were on the trestle, and he did not require Mitchell to get off. He forced the other boys on the next car to jump off, however threatening to shoot them. They had not heard the remarks of Mitchell to the special agent and did not know the trestle was there, it being dark and the strong light of the agent's flash being in their faces blinding them.
The special agent admitted that he had been on that route for some time, was familiar with the existence and condition of the trestle, and that it was his business to look over the cars and protect the shipments from being broken into and looted, and to keep trespassers off the train.
The boys had seen the special agent in the yards with a gun buckled on his person in a holster. They did not see the gun at the time they were forced off the train by the agent's threat to shoot them, as it was dark and the gun was on the other side of the agent, to the rear of the light, which was flashed and held in the faces of Glascock and Butcher. The Mitchell boy had gone to the yards where the train was being made up and talked to some of the trainmen, who told him to keep out of the sight of the special agent, and, acting on the information, he took the other two boys some distance away so they could board the train near the main line.
The evidence of the Mitchell boy showed that, immediately after the special agent had forced appellee, Glascock, from the train running over the trestle, he remarked to the special agent, "You probably killed both of the boys," to which the special agent replied: "The damn boys should not have been on the train." The Mitchell boy attempted to get off the train after it had left the trestle to look for the other boys and the special agent forbade him to leave the train. He did leave the train, however, stepping from the lower rung of the car ladder. He returned to the trestle and went down under it and found both the boys near the creek. One of the boys was wholly unconscious and practically lifeless, and the Mitchell boy thought him dead. The other boy was writhing in pain. The railroad company sent an engine and car out to return the boys to Haleyville, where they kept both of them from 11 or 12 o'clock that night until 4 o'clock the next afternoon. The Mitchell boy testified that he repeatedly tried to get the company to give medical aid to the injured boys, and it was also shown that the Butcher boy, although only half conscious, was begging for help. The Mitchell boy thought the delay was due in part to the endeavor of the railroad company to get its claim agent back from Texas to Haleyville. He did not see the telegram but heard the agent and other employees talking about getting the claim agent and about wiring him.
There is no claim made of the excessiveness of the verdict, and the testimony relating to the injury was not set out in the brief.
The railroad's two employees testified that the special agent got on the train in the cab of the engine with them and sat there, not...
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