Missouri Pacific Railroad Company v. Grady

• Decision Date: 04 December 1933
• Docket Number: 4-3224
• Citation: 65 S.W.2d 539,188 Ark. 302
• Parties: MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY v. GRADY
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

65 S.W.2d 539

188 Ark. 302

MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY v. GRADY

4-3224

Supreme Court of Arkansas

December 4, 1933

Appeal from St. Francis Circuit Court; W. D. Davenport, Judge affirmed.

STATEMENT BY THE COURT.

This appeal is prosecuted from a judgment for damages for the wrongful death of administratrix's decedent, Robert Grady, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of appellant in failing to keep a lookout and avoid injury to decedent, a trespasser on its railroad track.

Robert Grady was about 30 years of age, in good health and physical condition engaged in farming and trading and as a day laborer with an earning capacity of about $ 1,200 per year, virtually all of which was contributed to the support of his wife and aged mother, who was entirely dependent on him, contributing approximately $ 100 of his earnings to her and the remainder to his wife. He resided at Caldwell, Arkansas, some miles from Forrest City, and was in Forrest City on business on Saturday, and on that night started walking back to his home along the tracks of appellant and about a quarter of a mile north of the water tank on the right-of-way sat down on the track and was struck by one of the appellant's trains operating on said track between the hours of 8 P. M. and 4 A M.

It was alleged that appellant's engineer and fireman operating said northbound train saw, or by the exercise of the statutory duty to keep a lookout could have seen, the decedent on the track in time to have avoided striking him. That the roadbed of appellant for a long distance north and south of the water tank is straight and unobstructed; that appellant, its agents and servants, were negligent and careless in the operation of the train and struck the decedent and knocked or dragged his body for some 75 to 100 yards mangling and mutilating it almost beyond recognition and left the body with its face down between the rails of the track, not discovering the death caused by the negligent act of the said employees or reporting it upon arrival at the next station.

The testimony shows that decedent was walking along the track toward his home from Forrest City when he was struck by one of appellant's trains and knocked or dragged about 100 to 150 yards the top of his head being crushed off and his face mutilated almost beyond recognition and otherwise broken and mangled; that blood and brains and fragments of flesh and clothing were found along the ends of the ties where the body had been dragged.

There was an attempt to show that the body had two incised wounds as though made with a knife one on the inside of the collar bone in the neck and one near the nipple on the right side of the chest. One of the coroner's jury that held the inquest to determine the cause of death stated that he examined the body carefully and did not see anything that indicated a knife wound. Other witnesses testified that the wounds appeared to be made by a cutting instrument, while still other witnesses said it was jagged as though made when the body was dragged along the ties. The coroner said that several men were of the opinion that they might be knife wounds or some other kind of wounds; said he did not see much blood anywhere except on the rails near where the body was found. The health officer said he made an examination of the body and discovered two wounds he thought had been made by a knife or sharp instrument, one in the breast and the other on the neck; that the wound in the neck was...