Sliwowski v. N.Y., N. H. & H. R. Co.

Decision Date20 January 1920
CourtConnecticut Supreme Court
PartiesSLIWOWSKI v. NEW YORK, N. H. & H. R. CO.
108 A. 805

SLIWOWSKI
v.
NEW YORK, N. H. & H. R.CO.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Jan. 20, 1920.


108 A. 805

Appeal from Superior Court, Fairfield County; Howard J. Curtis, Judge.

Action by M. Walter Sliwowski against the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company to recover damages for negligently causing the death of the plaintiff's intestate, brought to the superior court in Fairfield county. Facts found and judgment rendered for the plaintiff to recover $4,521, apportioned under the federal Employers' Liability Act between the intestate's widow and minor son. No error.

The defendant maintains in its railroad yard at Bridgeport a coal pocket, at which locomotives coming in from use on the road are supplied with coal before being placed in the engine house. This coal pocket is supplied with 14 chutes designed to discharge the coal from the pocket into the engine tenders. Each of these chutes is fastened to the frame of the coal pocket by a hinge in such a manner that its outer end can be raised and lowered; when not in use, the chute can be swung up until it is out of the way of passing engines; when in use, it is lowered until the outer end is in position above the tender to be filled. At the outer end, swinging from a ring, is a rod about 4 feet 4 inches long, which, when the chute is in use, is placed in a socket on the frame of the coal pocket in such a way as to brace the chute, and which, when not in use, should be held in place by a catch on the under side of the chute. These chutes are under the general supervision of the bridge department of the defendant and are inspected about once a month by its building supervisor. They are operated, however, by employes of the company called fuel handlers, whose duty it is to see to the coaling of the engines when placed in front of the particular chute then in use. In order to make their work easier, although the rules of the defendant forbade the practice, the fuel handlers were accustomed to hang to the outer end of the chutes pieces of old iron which were called by the defendant's employes "hangers." These would weigh in the neighborhood of 16 pounds, and would hang down about a foot or 18 inches from the end of the chute. If the chute after use was properly pushed up by the fuel handler, there would be no danger to any one upon a passing engine from these hangers; and if the rods used to brace it were properly secured and held by the catches designed for them, there would be no danger from them. But if a chute were not pushed up a sufficient distance, the hangers would be in a position where any one riding upon the engine tender might stride against them; and the same is true of the rods, if the catches should fail to hold them.

Plaintiff's decedent was employed by the defendant as one of the fuel handlers working at this coal pocket. On the night of July 3, 1917, or early the next morning, he suffered an injury while in the performance of his duties, causing a rupture of the kidney, from Which he...

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