Kansas City S. Ry. Co. v. Wiggins
| Citation | 234 F.2d 128 |
| Decision Date | 28 June 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 15920.,15920. |
| Parties | The KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Appellant, v. Mrs. Elva WIGGINS, Individually and as Guardian Ad Litem for Paula Wiggins and Gene Wiggins, Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
Thos. F. Porter, Porter & Stewart, Lake Charles, La., for defendant-appellant, the Kansas City Southern Ry. Co.
John A. Patin, Lake Charles, La., Carl Waldman, Beaumont, Tex., for plaintiffs-appellees.
Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and CAMERON and BROWN, Circuit Judges.
The Railroad, appealing from adverse judgment on a jury verdict allowing recovery for the death of Sgt. Wiggins whose car was hit broadside as it crossed the track at Cooper Station, Louisiana, during the "dark dusk" of an October evening, contends that it should have had an instructed verdict both because of the absence of negligence on its part and because of contributory negligence as a matter of law on the part of the driver, Sgt. Wiggins.
The Railroad starts with the well accepted Louisiana doctrines often voiced by this Court: that a train crew need not anticipate that an approaching vehicle will negligently fail to stop1 but may ordinarily assume2 that the vehicle will stop in time and, accordingly, the train is permitted to proceed at a speed consistent with its own safety;3 but that, correlatively, proceeding across a known railroad crossing without seeing or hearing that which, in prudence could have been seen or heard, may convict the driver of contributory negligence as a matter of law.4
It then emphasizes uncontradicted evidence which gives an apparent factual basis for the application of these doctrines: The engine headlight was burning, the airhorn was blown, and the bell rung. The highway approach and crossing was so located that from the time the vehicle was about 200 feet from the crossing, the headlight of the engine, then 400 feet from the crossing, was clearly visible and was shining on the crossing for at least 250 feet. The speed of the car (not over 10 to 15 mph) within 50 feet of the crossing was such that it could have been stopped, as several actual demonstrations proved, almost instantly. The engineer, after first sighting the lights of the oncoming car when the engine was 600 feet away, became apprehensive that the car was coming on when the engine was approximately 100 feet from the crossing; since he was then blowing signals and ringing bells, all he could do was make an emergency stop which, executed efficiently, did and would, at that speed (35 to 40 mph) take about 1500 feet.
But this disregards the main thrust of the plaintiff's case and the abundant evidence supporting it which the jury could, and did, credit: — the crossing was one of unusual and extraordinary hazards imposing on the Railroad the duties of adequate warning and prudent physical operation of trains in the light of these special hazards.
Cooper's Station is in fact nothing but a crossing and that crossing is a dirt or gravel road. Scattered on both sides of the track over an area of one hundred fifty yards or so along it, there are but three or four houses and a small store. Approaching it as did Sgt. Wiggins from the north, there was nothing to indicate either a small rural settlement or a railroad crossing. The track runs practically north and south, and the road, at the actual crossing, intersects at right angles but only for a short distance. There is little specific testimony reflecting the volume of travel on this country road, but there was substantial agreement that it was frequently used as it was one of two ways to get from Camp Polk (about 3 miles to the east) to the main north-south highway, U.S. 171, leading to De Ridder, approximately 15 miles to the south, where apparently may soldiers and civilian camp employees lived.
For about a quarter of a mile this country road runs along the east side of the track converging at about a 20-degree angle. This triangular area between the track and the road is heavily wooded. At a point approximately 50 feet east of the tracks, the road turns almost at right angles to the west, proceeds across the main line and a spur track for about 175 feet where it makes a T intersection with U.S. 171 which parallels the railroad track. A few feet beyond the sharp turn to the right and located 40 feet from the crossing is a statutory warning sign reading "Louisiana Law STOP." However, the bottom of the sign was over 9 feet above the ground and generally, it was agreed, out of an automobile driver's normal line of nighttime vision. In any case the sign faced east so that its warning legend would not be seen until after the turn and when a vehicle would be nearly on top of the track.
Nothing about the roadway gave indication that there was a railroad crossing. Some testimony referred to it as a "steep" incline, but the physical facts are undisputed that the difference in grade was but 5½ feet over 100 feet (about 6%). Photographs reflect that this was a typical soft-surfaced country road with usual bumps, small dips, traffic ruts, and humps. After the turn, there were no sharp or well-defined ditches or shoulders, nor was the incline itself so steep or situated as to serve as a warning that this was a railroad crossing rather than an ordinary rise in the road.
This setting gave special significance to the area west of the tracks. The main highway, U.S. 171, paralleling the railroad tracks, carried a large volume of north-south traffic, including large diesel highway trucks using airhorns. Light from vehicle lights of northbound traffic could be seen readily by a driver of a southbound car on the little road. The sound of blasts from an airhorn or the presence of light from the south could well have been interpreted as indicating the approach, not of a train, but highway vehicles from that direction. This would be especially true in the dusk when natural light is inadequate to reflect distant objects, but artificial light does not throw sharply defined beams.
From expert testimony characterizing the crossing as unusually hazardous, and this combination of factors which would have permitted men in the light of their common experience to draw the same conclusions, the jury, under proper instructions not complained of, held, by the verdict for plaintiff, that the crossing was unsafe. The Louisiana doctrine that ordinarily a railroad need not maintain gates, flagmen, or special warning devices for open country crossings, Eggleston v. Louisiana & A. R. Co., La.App., 192 So. 774, 778; Alanza v. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co., La.App., 32 So. 2d 341, 344, contains its own reflex where reasonable men can say that peculiar and...
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...new rule of law. The court merely held that under the facts this was not a case for the direction of a verdict. Kansas City Southern R. Co. v. Wiggins, 5 Cir., 234 F.2d 128, 132, written by the same panel that wrote Brown v. Louisville & N. Ry. Co., appearing in the same volume at page 204,......
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...of negligence primarily one for the jury to determine, under proper instructions from the court." As was said in Kansas City S. Ry. Co. v. Wiggins, (5 Cir.), 234 F.2d 128, 132, 'reasonable minds might well say of the facts here, as did the jury, that the underlying cause of this event was i......
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