Clifford v. Old Colony R. Co.

• Decision Date: 07 May 1886
• Citation: 141 Mass. 564,6 N.E. 751
• Parties: CLIFFORD v. OLD COLONY R. CO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

141 Mass. 564

6 N.E. 751

CLIFFORD

v.OLD COLONY R. CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

May 7, 1886.

This was an action of tort in which the plaintiff sought to recover damages for personal injuries received by him while in the employ of the defendant corporation, as a section hand. Trial in the superior court, before KNOWLTON, J., where the following facts were in evidence:

The plaintiff was injured on the morning of October 29, 1884, while working on a hand car belonging to the defendant corporation, by a collision occurring between the hand car and an engine operated and managed by defendant's servants and agents. The hand car, under the direction of a section boss, and containing the section boss, the plaintiff, and two other section hands, left Weymouth landing at about half past 7 o'clock in the morning, and was proceeding to East Weymouth, where repairs were to be made on the track. The plaintiff, with one other section hand, was engaged in turning the cranks of the hand car. The engine, with a caboose containing laborers, was proceeding to Marshfield for the purpose of being attached to a gravel train; was what is called a wild train, being run according to no schedule time or notice; and was in charge of an engineer in the service of the defendant; was running at a high rate of speed; and was coming from the same direction as the hand car. No notice of the approach of this engine of any kind was given. The hand car had just passed North Weymouth, and entered a deep and narrow cut about 200 feet in length, through which the road passed at a considerable curve, which curve extended about 1,400 feet, when, without any warning, the wild engine came quickly around the curve, and struck the hand car then on the same track, and moving in the same direction, and threw the plaintiff into a ditch near by, whereby he was injured. It was in evidence that the following were among the rules and regulations of the defendant corporation; that the same were printed on the time-tables furnished employes of the company, and were within the knowledge of the section boss, the plaintiff, and the engineer running the wild engine: “Wild extras will keep out of the way of regular trains, and of extras running by notice or flag, and will be run with the utmost care, especially on curves and at obscure places, and keeping a vigilant outlook for the cars and obstruction of track-men, and the whistle must be sounded at curves. No notice of an extra train, by flag or otherwise, is to be expected by road repairers. Section-men must expect and be on the watch for flagged or wild extra trains and engines at all times.”

The plaintiff claimed, on these facts, gross negligence on the part of the defendant corporation in sending this wild engine over the road under the circumstances, and asked the court to rule that the plaintiff was entitled to recover, among other grounds, on the ground that the corporation in thus doing was grossly negligent; but the court declined so to rule, and found as a matter of fact that there was no negligence on the part of the...