Lindauer v. NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY
| Decision Date | 28 January 1969 |
| Docket Number | Docket 32401.,No. 299,299 |
| Citation | 408 F.2d 638 |
| Parties | John W. LINDAUER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. The NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Jerome H. Shapiro, Gerald E. Dwyer, New York City, for appellant; Edward J. Murphy, New York City, of counsel.
Herbert Zelenko, New York City, for appellee.
Before MOORE, FRIENDLY and KAUFMAN, Circuit Judges.
John W. Lindauer brought this action under the Federal Employers' Liability Act* to recover from the New York Central Railroad Company the Railroad for injuries he suffered as a result of frostbite incurred in the course of his employment. A jury trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for Lindauer in the amount of $62,000. The Railroad appeals, claiming (1) that the case should not have gone to the jury, since it was not liable as a matter of law, and (2) that a portion of the charge to the jury was misleading and unduly prejudicial to it. For the reasons below, we affirm.
On January 19, 1965, Lindauer worked as head brakeman on a freight train run which lasted over 15 hours. His duties as brakeman necessitated his working out of doors that day, sometimes for only a few minutes, and sometimes for several hours at a time. The temperature that day hovered around 20 degrees. During his work, Lindauer, although warmly dressed, concededly suffered frostbite in his hands and feet resulting in the injuries for which he sought damages.
The Railroad urges the simple proposition that the caboose and engine were at all times heated, and that Lindauer should have known enough to come in out of the cold when he felt chilled. Lindauer testified, however, that the caboose and engine are often quite distant from where he was working and that he did not believe he was free to leave his work whenever he wished without permission from the conductor. Moreover, he urges that since his hands and feet became numb (the usual course of frostbite), he did not know they were becoming frostbitten. In addition, the conductor on the crew, testifying for the Railroad, stated that he did not believe he had the authority to tell the men to come in from the cold because "I have to get the work finished." Thus, Lindauer's theory is that the Railroad was negligent because it failed to provide him with a reasonably safe place to work, because it failed adequately to supervise his work in prescribing no regulations for the protection of employees exposed to the cold, and because it failed to instruct and prepare him for working in such weather.
Although mere injury to an employee is not in itself proof of the Railroad's negligence, Kuberski v. New York Central R. R. Co., 359 F.2d 90, 93 (2d Cir. 1966), cert. denied, 386 U.S. 1036, 87 S.Ct....
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