Corbin v. Winona & St. Peter R. Co.
| Decision Date | 07 February 1896 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 9734 - (198).,s. 9734 - (198). |
| Citation | 64 Minn. 185 |
| Parties | JAMES P. CORBIN, Administrator, v. WINONA & ST. PETER RAILROAD COMPANY.<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL> |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Brown & Abbott, for appellant.
M. E. Mathews, for respondent.
Plaintiff's intestate, his son, aged about 19 years, was killed while in defendant's employ as a brakeman upon one of its freight trains, and, alleging negligence as the cause of the death, plaintiff brought this action to recover damages. A verdict was rendered against defendant, and this appeal is from an order denying its motion for a new trial.
No dispute exists over the main facts. The deceased had been in defendant's employ as a freight brakeman about four months, when killed. On the night of December 21, 1892, he was acting as head brakeman upon a freight train going westerly from Waseca, on defendant's road. The engineer, fireman, conductor, rear brakeman, and deceased composed the train crew. A flat car, loaded with steel rails which had been used elsewhere, had been taken up, and were being transported westerly, had been sidetracked the night before at what was known as "Traverse Siding." At this siding there was no depot, nor was there any person in charge. The cause or reason for leaving the car at Traverse was not shown, nor did the testimony disclose its exact condition when it was side-tracked. But the conductor and one brakeman of the train which left it noticed at the time that the ends of several of the rails projected a few inches over the west end of the deck of the car, the result of careless loading, or displacement while in transit (the latter being a common occurrence, according to the testimony of a number of railroad men). Some time during the night first mentioned, the train upon which the deceased, Corbin, was employed, came to Traverse siding. The conductor found the car, and in a box, kept for the purpose, found the way bill which accompanied it. He caused it to be put into his train immediately in rear of a box car destined for Sleepy Eye, about 40 miles west. The train reached this point after daylight, about 7:30 a. m., on December 22, and the conductor then uncoupled the box car, to be left there, from the flat car on which were the rails.
He testified that all of the rails projected more or less over the deck of the car, and that he uncoupled, in the usual and only safe way under such circumstances, by stooping under the rails, pulling the pin, and then backing out without raising his head. He also testified that at this time Corbin stood within a few feet, looking at him. Some two or three cars at the rear of the train were also uncoupled, at a street crossing, so that it was then in three sections. The locomotive was then used in switching and setting out cars billed for Sleepy Eye, for about 40 minutes, and when through with this work, the conductor told Corbin that nothing more was to be done, to couple onto the cars on the main track, and (pointing it out, a few feet distant), "to look out for that car, as the rails stick over." The locomotive, with a few box cars, the first section of the train, was then close by, on a side track. Corbin stepped on the rear car, rode out past the switch turned it, and as the section was backed down slowly he walked beside the box car to be coupled onto the flat. At this time the conductor was going to the depot. The rear brakeman stood at the street crossing, waiting for the train to back down so that he might make the coupling there.
The last seen of Corbin alive was when the box car was near the flat and he then stood outside, but close by, the track, giving to the engineer what is known as a "half-car" signal, — that is, a signal that the cars to be coupled are about half the length of a car apart. From the time the locomotive commenced to back down the main track towards the flat, its movements were under Corbin's control, and it was shown that it moved slowly and carefully.
No one saw just how the accident happened. Corbin made the coupling, but did not come out from between the cars. When found, his head was pinioned between the end of the box car and the end of a rail which projected 14 inches beyond the deck of the flat on which the rails were, his face being towards the draw bars. This particular rail was 4 feet 1 inch from the ground, while Corbin was 5 feet 11 inches in height. Counsel for appellant contends that from the evidence it clearly appears that he stooped under the projecting rails, as he should have done to do this particular work, and that while backing out after making the coupling he raised his head too quickly, and in this way was caught. The known facts indicate that...
To continue reading
Request your trial