Doyle v. Union Pac Ry Co

• Decision Date: 23 January 1893
• Docket Number: 101,Nos. 100,s. 100
• Citation: 147 U.S. 413,37 L.Ed. 223,13 S.Ct. 333
• Parties: DOYLE v. UNION PAC. RY. CO., (two cases.)
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

147 U.S. 413

13 S.Ct. 333

37 L.Ed. 223

DOYLE

v UNION PAC. RY. CO., (two cases.)

Nos. 100, 101.

January 23, 1893.

T. M. Patterson, for plaintiff in error.

John F. Dillon and Harry Hubbard, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice SHIRAS delivered the opinion of the court.

In the early part of November, A. D. 1883, Marcella Doyle, a widow with a family of six children, agreed with the Union Pacific Railway Company to occupy the company's section house situated on the line of the railroad at or near Woodstock, in the county of Chaffee and state of Colorado, and to board at said section house such section hands and other employes of the company as it should desire at the rate of $4.50 per week, to be paid by the persons so to be boarded, and the company agreed to aid her in collecting her pay for such board by retaining the same for her out of the wages of the employes so to be boarded.

Mrs. Doyle moved with her children into the section house, and continued in the discharge of her duties as boarding housekeeper until the 10th day of March, A. D. 1884, when a snowslide overwhelmed the section house, injured Mrs. Doyle, and crushed to death the six children residing with her.

Subsequently, Marcella Doyle brought, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Colorado, two actions against the Union Pacific Railway Company,—one for her personal injuries; the other for damages suffered by her in the loss of her children,—and which latter action was based on a statute of the state of Colorado.

The actions resulted in verdicts and judgments in favor of the defendant company, and the cases have been brought to this court by writs of error. As the cases turn upon the same facts and principles of law, they can be disposed of together.

The record discloses that the facts of the case, as claimed by the respective parties, and certain admission by the defendant company, were stated in a bill of exceptions, and upon which instructions by the court were given which are made the subject of the assignments of error.

The bill of exceptions was as follows:

'Be it remembered that on the trial of this cause, at the November term, A. D. 1886, of the said circuit court, the defendant admitted, and such admissions were received in evidence before the jury:

'That the plaintiff was at the several times named in the complaint a widow and the mother of the said Martin Doyle, Andrew Doyle, Christopher Doyle, Catharine Doyle, Marcella Doyle, and Maggie Doyle, mentioned and named in the complaint as the children of the plaintiff, and as having each and all been killed by a snowslide at Woodstock in the month of March, A. D. 1884.

'That her husband and the father of said children had died previously to their death. That each of said children was of the age and sex stated in the complaint; was each unmarried and had no child nor children, and had each lived with their said mother, making their home with her, up to the time of their death; and were each then living with the plaintiff, aiding and assisting her in and about making a living, and in and about her duties and labors in the keeping of the section house of the defendant at Woodstock, in the county of Chaffee and state of Colorado, where said children were killed. That said children were all killed while in said section house, on the 10th day of March, A. D. 1884, by a snowslide, which then and there occurred from the mountain side above said section house. That said section house was built and used by the defendant as and for a section house and a place at which the section hands of the defendant who should work on said section could board and lodge.

'That on or about the 5th day of November, A. D. 1883, at the instance and request of the defendant, and for the mutual benefit of herself and the defendant, the plaintiff undertook and agreed with the defendant to keep for it, during its will and pleasure, its section house situated at or near Woodstock, on the line of its railroad, in the county of Chaffee and state of Colorado. That by the said agreement between her and the defendant the plaintiff was to provide and furnish board at said section house for such section hands and other employes of the defendant as it should desire, at the rate of four and one-half dollars per week, to be paid by the persons so fur- nished with such board; but the defendant was to aid and assist the plaintiff in collecting her pay for such board by stopping and retaining the same for her out of the wages of those so furnished with such board. That plaintiff thereupon, to wit, on the said 5th day of November, A. D. 1883, moved into said section house with her family, and entered upon the discharge of her duties as the keeper thereof, and remained there in the discharge of such duties until the occurrence of the snowslide, on the 10th of March, A. D. 1884. That the defendant did not at any time notify or apprise the plaintiff or either of her said children, or cause her or either of them to be notified or apprised, of the danger of a snowslide or snowslides or of the liability of a snowslide or snowslides at such place where said section house then was, or in that locality. And the plaintiff, further to maintain the issues on her part, introduced evidence tending to show that said section house was a one-story frame building, and was constructed in 1882, about the time that said railroad was first operated in that section of the country; was situated in the mountains, near the base of a high and steep mountain, and in a place subject to snowslides, and dangerous on that account. That the sides of the mountain at the base of which was the house in question were marked by the tracks of former snowslides, but only those familiar with snowslides and their effects would know what they meant. That the defendant was aware of said danger at and before the time it engaged the plaintiff to keep its said section house. That the plaintiff and her said children had never before resided in a region of country subject to snowslides, and had no knowledge of snowslides or of their indications, or of the dangers incident thereto, and was not aware of the particular danger in question. That there was a prominence or hip on this mountain side, about ten or twelve hundred feet above the section house, which cut off a view of the mountain side above said hip from the section house or its immediate vicinity. That above said hip there was a large depression or draw on the mountain side extending from said hip to the summit, into which great quantities of snow fell and drifted during the winter season of each year, thus tend- ing to create snowslides of danger to persons in said section house or its vicinity. That this danger was not apparent even to a person having knowledge of snowslides and their causes without a view or examination of this mountain side above said hip. That the altitude of said section house was about 10,200 feet, and of the summit of said mount in nearly 12,000 feet. That the snowfall there was great in the winter season of each year, and that depressions on the mountain side were filled with snow by drifting. That the snowslide of March 10, 1884, which killed the said children, proceeded from this dep ession above said hip. That a snowslide of less dimensions, and of less scope and extent, occurred there in February, 1883, in the same place and from the same source, which reached to within about two hundred feet of said section house, and of which the defendant had knowledge at the time thereof.

'That the attention of the superintendent of the construction of said railroad and of said section house was called to the fact of such danger, at or about the time said section house was built, by one of the civil engineers of said defendant who assisted in locating the line of said railroad.

'That her said son Andrew Doyle was an employe of the defendant—a section hand on the same section where said section house was located—at the time he was so killed by said snowslide. That the plaintiff and her said children were in said section house at the time the said children were killed, and that neither of said children were aware of said danger before the said snowslide of March 10, 1884, occurred.

'That through this prominence or hip on the mountain side there was a chasm or draw from twenty to thirty feet wide, which continued on down to the section house, but became wider after leaving the hip. That with this draw another draw united about midway between the section house and the said hip, and formed one draw from their point of union to the section house.

'That this mountain is a part of the range of mountains known as the 'Continental Divide,' which divides the waters of the Atlantic from those of the Pacific. At this point above Woodstock station the course of the mountain is nearly east and west. This railroad passes this mountain by means of a tunnel called 'Alpine Tunnel,' which is to the westward of a line north of Woodstock, and descends this mountain at a heavy grade, along the side thereof, about midway between the section house and the said hip on the mountain, (which hip is termed a 'projection of rocks' by some of the witnesses,) and passes on to the eastward of Woodstock a considerable distance, where it turns, and, forming a kind of horseshoe shape, runs back again past Woodstock, but between the section house and said hip,—the section house being below and distant from this lower track about two hundred and thirty feet; and the two tracks forming this horseshoe are both between the section house and said hip, and on a direct line from the section house up to the hip. The two tracks are about five hundred feet apart, the upper track being about seventy feet higher in point of altitude where they cross this line from the section house to the hip on the mountain side above. That there was a water tank on the upper side of the lower track fifty or sixty feet to the westward...