Josephine Deserant v. Cerillos Coal Railroad Company

• Citation: 178 U.S. 409,20 S.Ct. 967,44 L.Ed. 1127
• Decision Date: 28 May 1900
• Docket Number: No. 269,269
• Parties: JOSEPHINE DESERANT, Administratrix of the Estates of Henri Deserant, Jules Deserant, and Henri Deserant, Jr., Plff. in Err. , v. CERILLOS COAL RAILROAD COMPANY
• Court: United States Supreme Court

178 U.S. 409

20 S.Ct. 967

44 L.Ed. 1127

JOSEPHINE DESERANT, Administratrix of the Estates of Henri Deserant, Jules Deserant, and Henri Deserant, Jr., Plff. in Err.,

v CERILLOS COAL RAILROAD COMPANY.

No. 269.

Argued April 27, 1900.

Decided May 28, 1900.

Messrs. Neill B. Field and F. W. Clancy for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Robert Dunlap, E. D. Kenna, and R. E. Twitchell for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

This action is consolidated of three, brought by plaintiff in error, who was plaintiff in the court below and may be so called here, as administratrix of the estates respectively of her husband, Henri Deserant, and her sons Jules Deserant and Henri Deserant, Jr.

The actions were for damages for the deaths of her said intestates by an explosion in a mine owned by defendant, and which explosion was alleged to have been caused by the negligence of plant iff in error. The action was based upon a statute of New Mexico, which gives an action for damages to the personal representatives of a person whose death is caused by the wrongful act of another, if the person causing the injury would have been liable to an action for damages if death had not ensued.

There were two trials, both by jury, in the district court of the territory. The first resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff. They were reversed by the supreme court of the territory. 9 N. M. 49, 49 Pac. 807. The second resulted in a verdict and judgment for defendant. They were affirmed by the supreme court of the territory. 9 N. M. 495, 55 Pac. 290. This writ of error was then sued out.

There is no dispute about the explosion or that the deaths of plaintiff's intestates were caused by it. The dispute is as to the cause of the explosion and the responsibility of defendant for it.

The evidence presents long and elaborate descriptions of the mine, with its 'slopes, air shafts, entries, cross cuts, air courses, conduits, and break throughs.'

We do not think that it is necessary to repeat the descriptions. There is no controversy about them. The issue between the parties is as to the amount and sufficiency of ventilation, its obstruction, the accumulation of explosive gases, their negligent ignition, whether by a fellow servant of plaintiff's intestates or by a representative of the defendant, making it liable, or whether the explosion was of powder accidentally ignited.

The method of ventilation was by machinery causing a circulation of air through the mine and up to the face of the working places, for the purpose of rendering harmless or expelling the noxious gases.

It is contended by plaintiff that the machinery was insufficient for that purpose, the employees of the defendant inefficient and negligent, and that the air shafts had been permitted to become obstructed, whereby gases accumulated, and stood in the mine and exploded on the 27th of February, 1895, causing the deaths of plaintiff's intestates.

The means of ventilation was a fan at the entrance of the mine, which by its revolutions exhausted the air in the mine, and outside air rushed in and through the passages of the mine, and was directed where desired by means of curtains called 'brattices.'

It is claimed there were defects in those applicances, whereby there were leaks in the circulation of the air, and besides that water had been allowed to accumulate in the fourth left air course, which so interrupted the quantity of air which passed into room 8 of the fourth left entry that the air did not go to the face of that room, but feebly passed around the brattice at a distance of 12 or 14 feet, thus permitting the accumulation of a dangerous body of gas, until it passed beyond the danger signals, which may have been put into the room by the fire boss, and that Donahoe, the day foreman, and Flick and Kelly, all miners, entered the room on the day of the explosion, with naked lamps, and ignited the gas before they saw or had an opportunity to see the danger signal. The employees of the mine consisted of miners, rope riders, mule drivers, track men, and 'company men.' The latter were paid by the day, and worked under the order and immediate supervision of the forman or pit boss, while the miners were paid by the ton, and were subject to general supervision by the foreman. Besides these, there was a mine superintendent, day foreman or pit boss, night foreman or pit boss, day fire boss and night boss. There was also a mine inspector, who lived in Kansas, and periodically visited the mine and other mines owned by defendant.

It is claimed that the mine foreman and fire bosses knew of the gas in room 8, and that the deceased miners did not know it, nor have means of knowing it.

The mine was inspected day and night respectively by the day and night fire bosses, and it was the duty of each to advise each miner as he came in of the condition of his working place, and no miner was permitted into the mine to wok until so advised.

The gas is explosive when mixed with certain proportions of atmospheric air. It is lighter than air, and therefore dispelled by a current of air, and this was the means necessary to be employed to disperse the gas. The gas when it explodes moves against the opposing current of air. In other words, expends its force in the direction from which the air comes.

On Sunday night Kilpatrick, the foreman, discovered enough gas in room 8 to crack his safety lamp, but he did not regard it as sufficient to mark the place dangerous.

On Monday morning (the explosion was on Wednesday) the day fire boss found gas in room 8, and put a danger mark above the last cross cut, but did not go back to the room again, although he knew that it was one of the worst rooms in the mine for gas. He testified that he considered the danger mark sufficient.

On Monday night before the explosion, Ray, the night fire boss, was at the face of room 8, and found no fire marks, but found a little gas, and put fire marks in the room. He inspected the mine on Tuesday, but did not visit room 8.

Donahoe, mine foreman, Flick and Kelly, two 'company men,' were killed by the explosion, and their bodies were found in or near room 8.

The conclusion which plaintiff claimed to be established by the evidence is, that Flick and Kelly went with Donahoe, under whose direction they worked, into room 8 with naked lights, and that an explosion was caused by the gas in the room coming in contact with the lights.

The defendant, on the contrary, contended that the 'explosion was of some kind or other at or in the neighborhood of room 16 in the fourth left entry of the mine, where the deceased were working as coal miners.' It is claimed that the cause of the explosion is altogether of conjecture and surmise, and that the greatest evidence or effect of explosion and fire appeared in the neighborhood of rooms 16 and 17, in the entry way thereabout, and that some powder cans were found exploded, and coal dust was found coked on some of the pillars on the back of a car, and a car loaded with coal was moved several feet off the track. It is hence conjectured that the explosion was caused by some negligent or accidental ignition of powder which instantly set fire to the coal dust, which more or less impregnated the air and the entry ways, and of particles of gas which might be found in the hollows and crevices; so that death would be caused by concussion, or by the after damp caused by the explosion. Or it is conjectured again that the explosion might have been caused by some miner, while working, suddenly striking a seam or body of gas, which was ignited by his light, and thus ignited powder near at hand.

At the close of the testimony the plaintiff and the defendant asked for peremptory instructions for their respective sides, which was refused.

The assignments of error are based on exceptions to evidence and on exceptions to instructions.

In passing on the case the supreme court of the territory said that it was 'unnecessary for us to consider the objections urged to the instructions given by the court below. In our opinion they were all in favor of the plaintiff, as the court should have granted the motion of the defendant, and instructed the jury to find the defendant not guilty.'

In support of this conclusion it stated the theory of the plaintiff to be that the explosion was caused by an 'accumulation of water previous to the explosion in a low place in the fourth left air course,—a sufficient quantity of pure air was not going to the face of the workings in the fourth left entry to remove and expel the noxious gases; that Kelly and Flick, who were company men, that is, men who were paid by the day and not according to what work they did, acting under instructions from Donahoe, the day pitboss, went with him or by his direction into room 8 to remove a railroad track, carrying naked lights, and that such lights set fire to the gas which had accumulated there by ea son of the insufficiency of air, and caused the explosion. This theory is purely speculative, and is not supported by the evidence. It cannot be positively proved what was the initial point of the explosion or what caused it. In fact, the evidence goes to show, from measurements taken at various times by the superintendent of the mine, the pit-boss, and the United States inspector, that sufficient air was going through the fourth air course and mine to make it safe. Indeed, the evidence goes further, and shows that after the explosion and on the day of the investigation by the coroner's jury, and while much of the debris caused by the explosion was still in the fourth left air course, a sufficiency of air was passing through it over the water and debris through the low place, which is claimed by the plaintiff to have been obstructed by water, for the proper ventilation of the entry and its rooms and the expulsion of all harmful gases, and for the men and animals working there at the time of the explosion. ...