Delk v. St Louis San Francisco Railroad Company

• Decision Date: 15 May 1911
• Docket Number: No. 88,88
• Parties: E. M. DELK, Petitioner, v. ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO RAILROAD COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

220 U.S. 580

31 S.Ct. 617

55 L.Ed. 590

E. M. DELK, Petitioner,

v ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO RAILROAD COMPANY.

No. 88.

Argued March 9, 1911.

Decided May 15, 1911.

Messrs. Luther M. Walter, W. A. Percy, and T. F. Kelley for petitioner.

Messrs. Edward T. Miller and W. F. Evans for respondent.

Assistant Attorney General Fowler and Mr. Barton Corneau for the United States as amicus curioe.

Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the court:

The St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, a Missouri corporation engaged in commerce as a carrier of freight and passengers through Tennessee and other states, was sued in one of the courts of Tennessee by the petitioner, Delk, for damages alleged to have been sustained by him while engaged in the discharge of his duties as an employee of the company. On the petition of the railroad company the case was removed to the circuit court of the United States on the ground of diversity of citizenship.

The declaration contained several counts, but the basis of the plaintiff's claim is the alleged failure of the railroad company to provide proper automatic couplers, as required by the act of Congress of March 2d, 1893, known as the original safety appliance act. 27 Stat. at L. 531, chap. 196, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3174. The company filed a plea, putting in issue the material allegations of the declaration. It also proceeded on the ground that the injuries complained of were caused by the plaintiff's own fault in not observing proper care in doing the work in which he was engaged when injured.

Upon a trial of the case in the Federal court there was a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $7,500. The company moved for a new trial, and the trial court indicated its purpose to grant that motion unless the plaintiff by remittitur reduced the verdict and judgment to $5,000. The plaintiff complied with that condition, and judgment was entered against the company for the sum last mentioned. In the circuit court of appeals the judgment was reversed and the case remanded for a new trial. 86 C. C. A. 95, 158 Fed. 931, 939, 940, 14 A. & E. Ann. Cas. 233. Thereafter this court allowed a writ of certiorari.

The title of the safety appliance statute declared it to be 'An Act to Promote the Safety of Employees and Travelers upon Railroads by Compelling Common Carriers Engaged in Interstate Commerce to Equip Their Cars with Automatic Couplers and Continuous Brakes, and Their Locomotives with Driving-wheel Brakes, and for Other Purposes.' 27 Stat. at L. 531, chap. 196, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3174.

The provisions of the act, so far as it is material to set them out, appear in the opinion of Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. United States, just decided. [220 U. S. 559, 55 L. ed. ——, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 612.] The circuit court of appeals well said, in the present case, that while the general purpose of the statute was to promote the safety of employees and travelers, its immediate purpose was to provide a particular mode to effect that result; namely, the equipping of each car used in moving interstate traffic with couplers, coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars.

The material facts out of which the suit arises, and as to which there seems to be no dispute, are these: The defendant company received lumber to be carried from Giles, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee. In order that the consignee might receive the lumber, the car containing it was delivered, October 2d, 1906, to the Union Railway Company, known as the Belt Line. But it was promptly returned the next day to the present defendant because of a defect in the coupling and uncoupling appliance on one end of it. The car in question was in a new yard of the defendant company, and was in a 'string' of nine cars on what is known as 'the dead track' in that yard. This track was called a team track, because it was so arranged that teams might be loaded and unloaded from alongside it.

On the morning after the return of the car, October 4th, 1906, Delk, acting under instructions of the agent of the defendant company, undertook to switch certain cars out of the string of nine cars, so as to get two empty cars and three coal cars for removal to some other part of the company's line. The remaining facts upon which the circuit court of appeals proceeded cannot, that court said, be better stated than they are in the brief for the Interstate Commerce Commission, in whose behalf special counsel appeared in that court. Those facts are set out in the opinion of the court below as follows: 'The cars were on the track, extending in the general direction of east and west, the engine being on the western end of the nine cars. The nine cars were drawn off this team track onto the lead track. The easternmost two cars, being empties, were left on the lead track. The remaining seven cars were then pushed back on the team track. The easternmost two cars of the seven cars, loaded with brick, were left on the team track. The remaining five cars were again drawn onto the lead track, and three cars loaded with coal were left thereon. The engine, with the remaining two cars, again went upon the team track, and defendant in error undertook to couple the eastern end of the two cars attached to the engine to the western end of the two cars just left on the team track, but, owing to a defect in the coupler on the eastern end of the two cars attached to the engine, the coupling could not be made without a man going between the ends of the cars. The defect on car K. C., F. S. & M. No. 21,696, was this: The chain connecting the uncoupling lever to the lock pin or lock block was disconnected, owing to a break in the lock pin or lock block. The drawbar also had a lateral motion of 4 inches. Defendant in error undertook to hold the drawbar away with his foot from the side upon which he stood so that the two couplers could couple by impact. In so doing, his foot was badly injured. Plaintiff in error had what is known as a car inspector or light repair man in the new yard. It was his duty to make repairs of the kind necessary on this car whenever found by him. When the car was returned by the Belt Railway on account of the defect in the coupler, plaintiff in error's inspector placed a red card about 3 inches by 6 inches upon the car, and with a blue pencil wrote on said card, 'Out of Order.' This card is what is commonly known as a 'bad order' card. The car had been on this team track from 7:30 A. M., on the 3d, until 10 or 11 o'clock on the 4th, when the accident to defendant in error occurred. There was evidence tending to show that the inspection was made in the latter part of the 3d, and that the inspector thereupon ordered an employee to go to the repair shops which were some 2 1/2 miles distant, and get the material for repairing the coupler, but that the employee did not return until after the accident. The trial court held that the safety appliance act applied to the car with the defective coupler, and that by virtue of § 8 of said act, plaintiff in error was denied the defense of assumption of risk on the part of defendant in error, and stated the language of the act to the jury.'

The majority of the circuit court of appeals (Judges Severens and Richards) held that the car, with the defective coupler, was, at the time of the injury in question, and within the meaning of the act, engaged in interstate commerce. Judge Severens said: 'The plaintiff in error claims that it was not, and was laid by for repairs. But we are inclined to think otherwise. Its cargo had not reached its destination, and was not then ready for the delivery to the consignee, wherewith the commerce would have ended. Its stoppage in the yard was an incident to the transportation. The injury to the coupler was one easily repaired without being taken to a repair shop, and the car was being hauled upon the track when...