Ft. Worth & R. G. Ry. Co. v. Caskey

• Decision Date: 17 December 1904
• Citation: 84 S.W. 264
• Parties: FT. WORTH & R. G. RY. CO. v. CASKEY et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

84 S.W. 264

FT. WORTH & R. G. RY. CO. v. CASKEY et al.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

December 17, 1904.

Appeal from District Court, Erath County; W. J. Oxford, Judge.

Action by Mrs. Cora Caskey and others against the Ft. Worth & Rio Grande Railway Company. From a judgment in favor of plaintiffs, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

West, Chapman & West and Theodore Mack, for appellant. R. L. Carlock and Odell & Phillips, for appellees.

STEPHENS, J.

George M. Caskey was crushed to death between two freight cars which he had undertaken to couple in appellant's yards at Dublin, Tex. He had just entered the service of appellant, and was on his first trip out from Ft. Worth, though he was a brakeman of long experience. After rolling out from between the cars, he was heard to exclaim, "I have always been careful, but got killed at last." The track at the place of the accident had a north and south course, and its inclination towards the south was such that loose cars had to be blocked to prevent them from rolling down the track. There were two strings or blocks of cars on the track—one to the north, consisting of six cars, which deceased had blocked a short time before the accident; and one to the south, consisting of six or eight cars, with engine attached at south end. The accident undoubtedly was due to a collision between these two blocks of cars, but there was divergence and conflict in the evidence as to the manner and cause of the collision. According to the testimony of the members of the switch crew, the south string of cars, on being pushed against the north string in an unsuccessful effort to make a coupling, knocked the north string a short distance up the track, and while deceased was working with the coupler at the north end of the south string with his face towards the south he was caught by the cars rolling down on him from the north. The court instructed the jury, in effect, that if they found deceased was killed in this way to find for the railway company. On the other hand, according to the testimony of Newt Crawford, who lived near the track, and who claims to have seen and heard the fatal collision, which testimony was to some extent corroborated by that of Will Martin, a boy who happened to be looking on, deceased was working at the car coupler at the south end of the north string of cars with his back towards the south and his face towards the north when the cars to which the engine was attached were moved up at a "pretty swift"...