Mast v. Illinois Cent. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 19 July 1949
• Docket Number: No. 13859.,13859.
• Parties: MAST v. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

176 F.2d 157 (1949)

MAST v. ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO.

No. 13859.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

July 19, 1949.

Oliver J. Reeve, Waverly, Iowa (Sweet & Sager, Waverly, Iowa, on the brief), for appellant.

F. H. Helsell, Fort Dodge, Iowa (Helsell, Burnquist & Bradshaw, Fort Dodge, Iowa, Swisher, Cohrt & Swisher, Waterloo, Iowa, V. W. Foster, Chicago, Ill., and C. A. Helsell, Fort Dodge, Iowa, on the brief), for appellee.

Before GARDNER, Chief Judge, and THOMAS and RIDDICK, Circuit Judges.

RIDDICK, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment on a directed jury verdict in an action brought by the executrix of the estate of Harry E. Mast who was killed in a collision between a truck owned and driven by Mast and one of appellee's trains.

The collision occurred at a grade crossing in the open country north of Cedar Falls, Iowa, at about noon on a still, clear, summer day. The highway, a secondary public road, runs east and west, was constructed of gravel, and occupied a right of way 66 feet wide. The railroad line, a single track, runs approximately north and south on a right of way 100 feet wide. The crossing was surfaced with crushed rock, was in good condition, and like the surrounding country was substantially level. For 14 years prior to the accident in which he lost his life Harry E. Mast had lived on a farm situated immediately north of the public highway and east of the railroad right of way. His farm house was situated about 128 feet north of the line of the highway right of way, and approximately the same distance east of the line of the railroad right of way.

Immediately preceding the collision Harry E. Mast left his farm home, driving his Ford truck in which his two sons then aged 12 and 9 years, respectively, were riding with him. The rear of the truck was fitted with a lime box and spreader. Mast's sons were standing in the lime box with their hands on the top of the truck cab. Mast entered the public highway from the driveway on his farm at a point approximately 175 feet east of the railroad crossing, turned his truck west toward the railroad crossing, and proceeded at a speed of 15 to 20 miles an hour without stopping until the truck struck the engine of appellee's train at a point about 2½ feet back of the pilot or cow-catcher. The train was southbound.

The Mast boys sustained serious injuries in the collision from which they recovered. They brought separate actions against the railroad company, which were consolidated with this case for trial. At the conclusion of all the evidence the trial judge sustained the motion of the railroad company for a directed verdict in the case of Harry E. Mast, and submitted the cases of the Mast boys to the jury. The record shows that in the boys' cases the jury disagreed, being equally divided. The sole question on this appeal is whether there was sufficient evidence of Harry E. Mast's freedom from contributory negligence to require the submission of that issue to the jury.

Under Iowa law, which controls in this case, the burden was upon the appellant to establish negligence of the railroad company as the proximate cause of Mast's injury and death, and also Mast's freedom from negligence contributing in any manner or any degree to cause the collision in which he lost his life. This rule of Iowa law is too well established to require citations of authority. See Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Ruan Transport Corporation, 8 Cir., 171 F.2d 781, 784, a case in which this court only recently considered the pertinent Iowa cases. We are therefore concerned with the evidence tending to show the negligence of the railroad company in the operation of its train at the time and place of the accident only insofar as it bears upon the question of the deceased's freedom from contributory negligence.

The evidence on behalf of appellant was devoted almost exclusively to establishing the failure of the train crew to give the warning of the approach of the train required by the statutes of Iowa, Code Iowa 1946, § 478.19, and to proving that the view of a motorist on the highway approaching the crossing from the east was so obstructed as to make it impossible for the motorist to see a train approaching from the north until his automobile was almost on the railroad track.

The record contains the conflict usual in crossing accident cases concerning the statutory crossing warnings. On the question of the obscured view at the crossing, appellant's evidence was that the view north of the crossing was obstructed by large trees standing in the yard of Mast's home near the line of the railroad right of way, by berry and plum brush growing along the fence between the Mast property and the railroad right of way, and by tall weeds along the right of way near the track. Witnesses for the appellant estimated the height of the berry and plum brush at from 6 to 16 feet. The brush was 30 or 40 feet from the east rail of the railroad track. Estimates as to the height of the weeds varied from 3 to 8 feet. The witnesses also testified that running along the right of way at a distance of from 3 to 10 feet from the track there was a mound or ridge from 3 to 5 feet high on which tall weeds were standing. The overall height of the engine was 15 feet, 9 inches.

According to the widow of Harry E. Mast, at a point on the highway 150 feet east of the track, the view of the railroad track to the north was totally obstructed by the foliage on the trees, brush, and weeds; at a distance of 100 feet east of the railroad track, a motorist approaching the track had a view to the north of 30 to 40 feet; and at a distance of 20 feet from the track, a view of 70 to 75 feet. A brother of Harry E. Mast testified that at a point on the highway 25 feet from the east rail of the track a motorist had a view to the north of 100 feet. This witness also testified that at this distance from the east rail a motorist could see over the weeds to the north "a considerable distance." The testimony of other witnesses for appellant was to the same effect. None of the witnesses for appellant made any actual measurements, their testimony being estimates based on their familiarity with the crossing.

The evidence on behalf of the appellee contradicted, if it did not completely refute, that of appellant concerning the obstruction of the view at the crossing. An engineer in the employ of the appellee, who made a survey of the area surrounding the crossing two days after the collision, testified that at a point in the center of the highway 40 feet east of the center of the railroad track a traveler on the highway had an unobstructed view to the north of at least one-half a mile; at a point 50 feet east, a view up the track of 650 feet; at 70 feet east of the center of the track, a view of 300 feet; and at a point 100 feet east of the crossing, a view to the north of 200 feet. This testimony based on actual measurements was supported by that of a commercial photographer, a witness for the appellee. Photographs taken on the day of the engineer's survey confirm the testimony of the engineer. At the time the photographs were taken, the railroad company sent to the scene of the accident an engine of the same type as that involved in the collision. Among these photographs was one taken at a point on the highway 42 feet from the crossing. The camera was set in the middle of the highway at an elevation 5 feet above the road surface, facing north. The engine is clearly shown in the photograph at a distance from the crossing of approximately one-half a mile. Another photograph taken under the same conditions at a point 75 feet east of the center of the track also shows the engine at some distance from the crossing. Other photographs taken by the witness and introduced in evidence reveal a view to the north far in excess of that testified to by witnesses for appellant.

Appellant's only criticism of the evidence of the railroad surveyor and photographer is that the survey made by the engineer and the photographs taken by the photographer two days after the accident did not reveal the conditions as they were at the time of the accident, because the weeds on the right of way at the scene of the accident had been broken down by persons who came to the crossing after the accident and by the removal of the wreckage of the truck from the right of way. It appears, however, that the wreckage of the truck was scattered south of the highway for distances of 75 to 200 feet from the crossing. Nothing in the record indicates that the removal of that wreckage or the inspection of the scene by the persons who gathered after the accident would have broken down the weeds north of the crossing. The brush and trees were not disturbed. It is clear from appellant's evidence that at a point 20 or 30 feet from the east rail of the track the weeds were the only obstruction to the view of a motorist. The height of the engine exceeded that of the weeds by several feet.

The trial court, however, was of the opinion that the evidence concerning the obstruction of the view at the crossing and the absence of statutory signals, viewed in the light most favorable to appellant, was so conflicting as to justify the submission to the jury of the negligence of the railroad company. But the question of the negligence of the railroad company, as the trial court pointed out, was not the decisive question in the case. For, conceding that negligence as a cause of the collision, the burden was still upon the appellant to prove Harry E. Mast's freedom from contributory negligence, and on this question the appellant offered no material evidence. All that the appellant's evidence concerning the action of the deceased at the time of the collision tends to show is that he entered the highway at a point 175 feet from the railroad crossing with which he was entirely familiar, having lived by it for 14 years and having crossed it from day to day during that time, and drove...