Hungerford v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company
| Decision Date | 02 October 1889 |
| Citation | 43 N.W. 324,41 Minn. 444 |
| Parties | George R. Hungerford v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Appeal by defendant from an order of the district court for Mower county, Farmer, J., presiding, refusing a new trial after verdict of $ 1,100 for plaintiff.
Order affirmed.
Kingsley & Shepherd, for appellant.
French & Wright, Lovely & Morgan, and Walter J. Trask, for respondent.
The defendant herein moved for a new trial upon the sole ground that the verdict was not justified by the evidence. From an order refusing to grant the motion an appeal is taken.
In the fall of 1887 plaintiff was employed by the defendant for a few days as head brakeman upon one of its freight trains. Prior to this he was wholly without actual experience as a brakeman, although he had obtained some knowledge of the duties by observing others while they were engaged in that kind of work. After a few days' absence from the road, he was again employed for the same service, and a few minutes afterwards, while attempting his first coupling, lost the forefinger of his right hand. This action was brought to recover damages for the loss. The coupling which plaintiff endeavored to make was that between the locomotive and the train, which consisted of box-cars, provided with the common coupler or draft-iron, and a caboose, the latter in the rear. The locomotive had previously been fitted up for passenger train service, with a so-called "goose-neck" draft-iron. This goose-neck is a large casting, bolted upon the rear of the tender in place of the ordinary draft-iron and its name suggests its form and shape. It projects above and its face or end service, which is 7 by 12 inches, is beyond or further to the rear than is the face or end of the draft-iron usually found upon freight locomotives; so far, in fact, that, whenever a locomotive so equipped is brought up with but slight force for coupling to a freight-car, the end of the neck passes over the iron upon the car and strikes the dead-wood always found just above it thus inevitably crushing any susceptible object which may be between the end surface of the neck and the wood upon the car. The plaintiff rode upon the tender, evidently in close proximity to the coupling appliance of which he now complains, and in the middle pocket of which he saw a link, through two switches. As the locomotive backed down to the train he took a coupling-pin, walked to the car, closely followed by the locomotive, and, when it came back upon him, stood holding the pin above the draft-iron of the car, in the usual, proper, and ordinarily safe position for making the connection had a common iron been upon the tender, instead of the goose-neck. As it was, his manner turned out to be unsafe and dangerous, for the pin and part of his hand were caught between the end of the neck and the dead-wood, causing the injury for which he claims damages. It seems to be admitted that, had an engine of the customary pattern for the freight service been used, plaintiff would not have been injured, for he was attempting the task in the usual way; and it is also admitted that had he been instructed as to the proper manner of coupling under such circumstances, or had he been accustomed to the goose-neck in combination with the freight-car, he would have changed the link from the tender to the car before they came together, or, as the former approached, would have directed the link in the goose-neck into its place in the draft-iron upon the car, completing the coupling, in either case, by dropping the pin from above through an aperture in the neck. This style of draft-iron is of no value whatever upon a freight engine, is rarely found upon one, and where so used is manifestly much more dangerous than the iron with which such engines are commonly supplied. It was designed expressly for passenger trains, to be used in connection with the Miller coupler and buffer universally found in the passenger service of the present day. A locomotive with such a draft-iron can be readily coupled from the platform of the baggage car or passenger coach, and, when in place upon the train, the end surface of the neck rests...
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