Olson v. Pennsylvania & Ohio Fuel Co.
| Decision Date | 01 November 1899 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 11,719, 11,796 - (41, 45).,s. 11,719, 11,796 - (41, 45). |
| Parties | TOLEF OLSON v. PENNSYLVANIA & OHIO FUEL COMPANY and Others. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Action in the district court for St. Louis county against Pennsylvania & Ohio Fuel Company, Chicago Great Western Railway Company, Eastern Railway Company of Minnesota, and John Elliot Bowles, as receiver of Duluth Transfer Railway Company, to recover $7,450 for personal injuries. From orders, Moer, J., and Cant, J., overruling separate demurrers to the complaint, defendants Chicago Great Western Railway Company and Eastern Railway Company of Minnesota appealed. Reversed.
Wm. R. Begg, for Eastern Railway Company of Minnesota, appellant.
D. W. Lawler, Davis, Hollister & Hicks, and Henry J. Grannis, for Chicago Great Western Railway Company, appellant.
John Jenswold, Jr., for respondent.
The here material facts alleged in the complaint herein are these: The defendant fuel company during all the times stated in the complaint owned and operated a coal dock at the city of Duluth, with railroad tracks which were connected with the main tracks of the Duluth Transfer Railway Company, which were in the control of the defendant Bowles as receiver of such transfer company. During such times the defendant the Chicago Great Western Railway Company was a common carrier of freight and passengers, and owned and operated a railway line in this state, and owned and used a freight car, with others, known as "No. 626." The defendant the Eastern Railway Company of Minnesota was also during such times a like carrier, and owned and operated a railway line from Hinckley to Duluth, in this state. The defendants other than the fuel company were parties to a traffic arrangement by the terms of which all the cars owned, leased, or operated by any of the parties, which were destined for any point on the railway line of any of the other parties to the contract, were to be transported and transferred over the connecting lines of the parties to their point of destination at a reasonable compensation, to be settled for between the parties on the basis of a haul load, and under which the servants of such parties were to handle the cars so transferred and transported.
Pursuant to such arrangement, the Great Western Railway Company delivered its car No. 626 to a connecting carrier to the plaintiff unknown, to be forwarded to the coal dock of the fuel company, to be there loaded with coal. The Eastern Railway Company received the car upon its line, pursuant to the contract, and delivered it to Bowles, the receiver, who, on September 29, 1897, transferred it to the coal dock, to be there loaded with coal, and returned over the same connecting lines. The fastenings and bearings, upon which hung and was moved one of the sides and doors of the car were at that time, and for a long time prior thereto had been, in a defective and unsafe condition, and insufficient to hold the door in place, and by reason thereof the door was liable to come off its bearings, and injure any person who should be engaged in loading or unloading the car, or working thereabouts, and by reason thereof it was imminently dangerous to all persons working at or about it. The defendants did at all times know of its defective and dangerous condition, or in the exercise of ordinary care and diligence they could have known thereof, but nevertheless they transferred the car, in its defective and dangerous condition, as above stated, to the coal dock, to be there loaded. Defendants were also careless and negligent in this: that they failed and omitted to use proper care in, and made no inspection or...
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