Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 23 April 1932
• Docket Number: No. 21196.,21196.
• Citation: 348 Ill. 355,180 N.E. 912
• Parties: MISSOURI PAC. R. CO. v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

348 Ill. 355

180 N.E. 912

MISSOURI PAC. R. CO.

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 21196.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 23, 1932.

Error to Circuit Court, St. Clair County; Jesse R. Brown, Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, employer, opposed by James R. Alexander, employee. A decision of the Industrial Commission finding that employee was engaged in interstate commerce and that the Commission was without jurisdiction was confirmed by the circuit court, which quashed the writ of certiorari issued by that court, and employer brings error.

Reversed and remanded, with directions.Josiah Whitnel and H. L. Browning, both of East St. Louis (Edward J. White and Thomas J. Cole, both of St. Louis, Mo., Edgar P. Holly, of East St. Louis, and D. A. Butler, of St. Louis, Mo., of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

Norman & Norman, of Joplin, Mo. (Wheeler & Oehmke, of East St. Louis, of counsel), for defendant in error.

JONES, J.

The Missouri Pacific Railroad Company filed an application with the Industrial Commission for an adjustment of compensation, representing that on December 16, 1929, James R. Alexander, a freight conductor in its employ, was injured in an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. Alexander resists the application by contending that the Workmen's Compensation Act (Smith-Hurd Rev. St. 1929, c. 48, § 138 et seq.) does not control the liability because he was engaged in interstate commerce at the time of the accident. The Industrial Commission found that he was so engaged and that the commission was without jurisdiction. Upon petition of the railroad company, the cause was removed by writ of certiorari to the circuit court of St. Clair county. That court quashed the writ and confirmed the decision of the Industrial Commission. The cause comes to this court by writ of error.

The Missouri Pacific Railroad Company has a large terminal at Dupo, Ill., a short distance south of East St. Louis. Trains are made up and disassembled there. Cars are classified and distributed in the train yards. The railroad company also maintains yards farther south, at Bush, Ill., where trains and cars are handled en route to and from the coal fields of Southern Illinois. On December 16, 1929, Alexander was in charge of a south-bound Missouri Pacific freight train running from Dupo to Bush. The train consisted of an engine, 116 empty coal cars, one empty boxcar, and a caboose. It had been assembled in the Dupo yards. The boxcar belonged to the Minneapolis, St. Paul, & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad Company (Soo Line). It was received by the Missouri Pacific at Dupo, without any bill of lading, at 9:55 a. m. on that day from the Terminal Railroad Association, which had hauled it acrose the river at St. Louis, Mo. Empty cars arriving at Dupo without billing are inspected, classified, and assigned for use according to their physical condition and the kind of commodity they are fitted to carry. The superintendent of the Dupo yards had general instructions from his superior as to the distribution and disposition of cars. One was, to send all Soo Line box cars fit for coal loading to the coal fields. The superintendent ascertains each morning how many coal cars are available in the yards and estimates the number which will come in during the day. From the trainmaster at Bush he learns how many cars will be needed in the coal fields and where they are to be sent. Each evening the trainmaster learns from the mines the number of cars each mine will require for loading the next day. Such needs are anticipated by placing cars on the mine switches the day before the orders are received. Such a plan requires a frequent movement of coal cars into the Bush yards. When the train left Dupo, the Soo Line car was the only one which had a waybill. It was called an ‘empty-car way-bill and home-route card.’ It showed the car was billed from Dupo to Herrin for Soo Line coal loading on authority of the superintendent of transportation of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Home route cards are attachedto empty foreign cars in order that they may be expeditiously returned to the proper place to save a per diem charge of $1. Herrin, Ill., is in the southern coal fields of the state, near the Bush terminal, and the billing to that point was indicated on the waybill as ‘first local move.’ The billing did not confine the trip and the use of the car to the terms of the waybill. If the trainmaster had occasion to do so, he could divert it to some other point to be loaded with some other commodity. Such diversions were practiced. On December 18, two days after the accident to Alexander, the Soo Line car was loaded with coal and billed from Jeffries, Ill., to the Soo Line at Wheeling, Ill., a short distance north of Chicago. Alexander received a train order to meet and pass Missouri Pacific interstate train No. 1314 at Flinton, about forty-three miles south of Dupo. This train was bound from Poplar Bluff, Mo., to Dupo. At Flinton, Alexander was in the caboose of his train, which was moving slowly along the passing track. He heard another train approaching from the south and saw the reflection of its headlight in the south windows of his caboose. He testified that he had two duties: First, to observe the number on the engine so as to ascertain if it was the train he was to meet at that point; and, second, to make a ‘running inspection’ of the passing train-that is, to watch for anything wrong, such as hot boxes and broken wheels. Upon discovering any such defect, it would become his duty to signal the passing train to stop. When Alexander heard the train approaching, he got up from his desk and started to walk toward the side door of the caboose to carry out his duties. Just before he reached the door, and before the approaching engine had reached his caboose, a sudden jerk of his train threw him against a washstand, resulting in his injury.

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