Haggerty v. Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railway Co.
| Decision Date | 07 February 1894 |
| Citation | 57 N.W. 896,90 Iowa 405 |
| Parties | HANNAH R. HAGGERTY, Administratrix, v. THE CHICAGO, ST. PAUL & KANSAS CITY RAILWAY COMPANY, Appellant |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Dubuque District Court.--HON. JOHN J. NEY, Judge.
THIS is an action to recover damages for a personal injury resulting in the death of Hugh C. Haggerty. From a judgment on a verdict for the plaintiff, the defendant appeals.
Reversed.
D. E Lyon for appellant.
J. H Shields for appellee.
Hugh C.
Haggerty was in the employ of the defendant as car accountant at Dubuque on the thirtieth day of September, 1887. On the evening of that day he was killed while riding on the ladder on the side of a box freight car. The evidence tends to show that he came to his death by contact with a switch stand at the side of and near the railroad track. There is some evidence tending to show that the deceased jumped from the ladder, but the jury were fairly warranted from all the evidence in finding that he came to his death by hanging on the ladder, and that he was knocked off the ladder by striking against the switch stand; and we think that the finding involved in the verdict, that the switch stand was too near the track, is justified by the evidence.
A number of questions were raised on the record which call in question the correctness of the court's rulings upon the admission and exclusion of evidence. But few of these questions were presented in the arguments made in this court and, in the view we take of the case, it is unnecessary to consider any of them. The main question in the case is whether the jury were authorized in finding from the evidence that the deceased was free from negligence which contributed to the injury which caused his death. In other words, did the plaintiff show, by sufficient evidence to authorize a verdict, that the deceased was not negligent in riding on the car by holding to the ladder on the side thereof? It would be impossible, by any statement of facts which we can make from the record, to reproduce the exact situation surrounding the deceased when he came in contact with the switch. It was his duty in the prosecution of his work, to take the numbers of the cars of incoming trains, and to take the seals, as some of the witnesses expressed it. The seal is a strip of tin fastened or wrapped around the fastening on one of the side doors of the car. We do not understand that it is the duty of the car accountant to remove the seal. As we understand it the seal is stamped with the number of the station from which the car is sent, and it is the duty of the car accountant to take this number. The numbers of the cars are in large figures on the side of the car and also on the end. It is impossible from the record before us to describe...
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