Jesionowski v. Boston

• Decision Date: 13 January 1947
• Docket Number: No. 88,88
• Citation: 91 L.Ed. 416,329 U.S. 452,67 S.Ct. 401
• Parties: JESIONOWSKI v. BOSTON & M.R.R
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

329 U.S. 452

67 S.Ct. 401

91 L.Ed. 416

JESIONOWSKI

v BOSTON & M.R.R.

No. 88.

Argued Dec. 16, 1946.

Decided Jan. 13, 1947.

Mr.Thomas C. O'Brien, of Boston, Mass., for petitioner.

Mr. Francis P. Garland, of Boston, Mass., for respondent.

Mr. Justice BLACK delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner brought this action for damages in the Federal District Court under the Federal Employers Liability Act, 35 Stat. 65, 53 Stat. 1404, 45 U.S.C. § 51 et seq., 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq., for causing the death of her intestate. Count I alleged that 'By reason of a defect or insufficiency, due to the negligence of the defendant, in its car, track, or roadbed, the car upon which the plaintiff decedent was riding was derailed * * *,' causing the decedent to be thrown from the car and killed. Count II, without specifying any particular acts of negligence, charged generally that the derailment and decedent's death were the 'result of the negligence of the defendant.' After the evidence was in, the Court, at the request of the respondent, directed the jury to return a verdict for the respondent on the first count. Respondent's motion for directed verdict, on the second count on the ground that the evidence failed to justify a finding of negligence, and that it showed that deceased was killed as the sole result of his own negligence, was overruled. The jury rendered a verdict for petitioner and judgment was entered on it. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded to the District Court with directions to render judgment for the respondent. 154 F.2d 703.

The trial court charged the jury that the burden was upon petitioner to prove by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the deceased's death was caused by respondent's negligence. It invoked the trial rule under which negligence may be inferred from unusual happenings growing out of conditions under a defendant's control. Referring to this rule under the name of res ipsa loquitur, the court charged: 'Of course if the deceased's negligence was the sole cause of the accident the plaintiff here cannot recover. And since there can be no application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur if other causes than the negligence of the defendant, its agents or servants, might have produced the accident, the plaintiff is bound, she has the burden, to exclude the operation of such causes by a fair preponderance of the evidence before the rule can be applied. This is so because if there are other causes than the negligence of the defendant that might have caused the accident, the defendant cannot be said o be in exclusive control—one of the prerequisites to the application of the rule here invoked.' The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed because it thought that the jury should not be permitted to draw an inference of defendant's negligence from an extraordinary accident growing out of a general set of circumstances which included activities of the injured person, even though a jury, under proper instructions, could find from the evidence that the injured person's activities did not cause the injury. The Circuit Court's limitation of the jury's province by this interpretation of a doctrine of res ipsa loquitur raised a question of impor- tance in the trial of cases arising under federal law. We granted certiorari to consider this question. 328 U.S. 830, 66 S.Ct. 1121.

The testimony, so far as relevant, to point the issues may be briefly summarized. Four railroad cars were being pushed backward and eastward by an engine in order to put them on a siding north of the main track. It was the duty of deceased, a brakeman, to throw the switch before the first car reached it in order that the four cars would take the siding. There was evidence that he threw the switch and gave a signal to the engineer to back the cars. Respondent's evidence was sufficient to authorize but not to compel the jury to find that the deceased negligently threw the switch while the lead car in the backward movement straddled the switch with one set of the car wheels on one side of the switch and one on the other. If true, this could mean that the wheels east of the switch would move down the main line and the others would enter the siding when the switch was thrown and the backward movement took place, thus probably causing derailment. If the jury had believed respondent's evidence that this last car was astride the switch when it was thrown, it would have been authorized, under the court's charge, to find for the respondent. But about 75 feet east of this switch, at a point where the south rail of the siding track intersected the north rail of the main track, there was a frog. There was testimony that this frog operated with a spring mechanism, and that if the spring failed to work when the wheels passed over it, the cars might be derailed. Some other evidence tended to show that, at the time the derailment occurred, splinters and planks were thrown into the air near the frog. Other evidence tended to show that planks and splinters were found on the track. Some testimony showed that they were close to the switch, and some that they were close to the frog. There was evidence that the frog and switch had been in good condi- tion before the derailment and after the derailment. The cars had been operated and the tracks had been used previously, so far as the evidence showed, without any similar mishap.

In San Juan Light & Transit Co. v. Requena, 224 U.S. 89, 98, 99, 32 S.Ct. 399, 401, 56 L.Ed. 680, this Court said: 'When a thing which causes injury, without fault of the injured person, is shown to be under the exclusive control of the defendant, and the injury is such, as in the ordinary course of things, does not occur if the one having such control uses proper care, it affords reasonable evidence, in the absence of an explanation, that the injury arose from the defendant's want of care.' Both prior to and after that case was decided, this Court has acted...