Minneapolis St Louis Railroad Company v. Nora Gotschall
| Citation | 244 U.S. 66,37 S.Ct. 598,61 L.Ed. 995 |
| Decision Date | 21 May 1917 |
| Docket Number | No. 251,251 |
| Parties | MINNEAPOLIS & ST. LOUIS RAILROAD COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. NORA GOTSCHALL, as Administratrix of the Estate of Merlin E. Gotschall, Deceased |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Messrs. William H. Bremner and Frederick M. Miner for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Lyle Pettijohn and W. R. Duxbury for defendant in error.
Basing her cause of action upon the Federal Employers' Liability Act, the defendant in error, as administratrix of the estate of Merlin E. Gotschall, deceased, sued to recover from the railroad company, plaintiff in error, damages resulting from his death, alleged to have been occasioned by the negligence of the company while he was in its employ, engaged in interstate commerce. On this writ of error a reversal is sought of the action of the court below in affirming a judgment entered by the trial court on the verdict of a jury in favor of the plaintiff.
The evidence tended to show the following facts: Gotschall, a minor, twenty years old, at the time in question was head brakeman on an extra freight train running from Albert Lea, Minnesota, to Minneapolis, and transporting interstate commerce merchandise. As the train left Jordan, an intermediate station, Gotschall boarded a car toward the rear end and was proceeding along the tops of the cars toward the locomotive when the train separated because of the opening of a coupler on one of the cars, resulting in an automatic setting of the emergency brakes and a sudden jerk, which threw Gotschall off the train and under the wheels.
The jury, under an instruction of the court, was permitted to infer negligence on the part of the company from the fact that the coupler failed to perform its function, there being no other proof of negligence. It is insisted this was error, since, as there was no other evidence of negligence on the part of the company, the instruction of the court was erroneous as, from whatever point of view looked at, it was but an application of the principle designated as res ipsa loquitur, a doctrine the unsoundness of which, it is said, plainly results from the decisions in Patton v. Texas & P. R. Co. 179 U. S. 658, 45 L. ed. 361, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 275, and Looney v. Metropolitan R. Co. 200 U. S. 480, 50 L. ed. 564, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 303, 19 Am. Neg. Rep. 627. We think the contention is without merit because, conceding in the fullest measure the...
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