Gulf Co v. Wells

• Decision Date: 03 January 1928
• Docket Number: No. 39,39
• Citation: 48 S.Ct. 151,72 L.Ed. 370,275 U.S. 455
• Parties: GULF, M. & N. R. CO. v. WELLS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

275 U.S. 455

48 S.Ct. 151

72 L.Ed. 370

GULF, M. & N. R. CO.

v WELLS.

No. 39.

Argued and Submitted Oct. 18, 1927.

Decided Jan. 3, 1928.

Mr. Ellis B. Cooper, of Laurel, Miss., for petitioner.

Mr. W. Calvin Wells, of Jackson, Miss., for respondent.

Mr. Justice SANFORD delivered the opinion of the Court.

This action was brought by Wells in a circuit court of Mississippi to recover damages for injuries suffered by him while employed as a brakeman on a freight train of the Railroad Company. The declaration alleged that these injuries were caused by the negligence of the engineer in giving a very sudden and unnecessary jerk to the train when it was moving and Wells was undertaking to get on it, which threw him on the ground. At the conclusion of the evidence the Railroad Company requested that the jury be instructed to find for the defendant. This was refused. The jury found for the plaintiff; and the judgment entered on the verdict was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the State, without opinion.

It is unquestioned that Wells was at the time employed in interstate commerce, and that the case is controlled by the federal Employers' Liability Act.¹ Hence, if it appears from the record that under the applicable principles of law as interpreted by the Federal courts, the evidence was not sufficient, in kind or amount, to warrant a finding that the negligence of the engineer was the cause of the injury, the judgment must be reversed. Seaboard Air Line v. Padgett, 236 U. S. 668, 673, 35 S. Ct. 481, 59 L. Ed. 777; Chicago, M. & P. Railroad v. Coogan, 271 U. S. 472, 474, 46 S. Ct. 564, 70 L. Ed. 1041.

Wells, who had been employed as an extra brakeman for a few months, was on the day of the injury the rear brakeman on a local freight train containing ten cars. After stopping at a station where some switching was done, the train was coupled up on the main track, on a down grade, in readiness to proceed on its journey. The engineer, fireman and hear brakeman were in the cab of the engine. The engineer was on the right side, and the fireman on the left, it being his duty to take signals from that side and pass them to the engineer. The conductor and flagman were in the caboose at the rear of the train, and Wells was standing on the left of the train, near the caboose. Wells gave a signal to the fireman for the train to go ahead; and the fireman then went down into the deck of the engine to shovel in coal. Just after this signal was given Wells was told by the conductor to throw a derail switch on the left of the main track, some fifty feet from the caboose. After doing this, finding that the train had already started, he ran back. When he reached the train it had gone about fifty feet and was moving from eight to ten miles an hour. The cars had then passed him and he started to get on the caboose. He testified that as he caught the grab iron he stepped on a big piece of coal, his foot turned and he 'went down and the engine gave an unusual jerk' which threw him loose from the train, and he fell on the ground, his knee striking on the cross ties, breaking the kneecap and otherwise injuring him. He also testified, on cross-examination, that while the running in of slack on freight trains jerks or lurches them to a certain extent, this was a severe jerk such as he had never experienced before on a train; and, finally, that although he had seen such jerks on through freight trains, he had...