Soderlund v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. P. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 18 October 1907
• Docket Number: Nos. 15,450-(131).,s. 15,450-(131).
• Citation: 102 Minn. 240
• Parties: OLE SODERLUND v. CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY COMPANY.<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

102 Minn. 240

OLE SODERLUND v. CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY COMPANY.¹

Nos. 15,450-(131).

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

October 18, 1907.

Action in the district court for Goodhue county to recover $2,000 for personal injuries sustained by plaintiff while in the employ of defendant. The case was tried before Holt, J., and a jury, which returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $711. From an order denying a motion to set aside the verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial, defendant appealed. Affirmed.

F. W. Root and Frank M. Wilson, for appellant.

Johnson, Mohn & Mohn, for respondent.

LEWIS, J.

Appellant company was engaged in repairing its main track of railway between Lake City and a point about three miles distant. From sixteen to eighteen men were engaged in this work under the charge of a foreman. The men boarded at Lake City, and handcars were provided by the company for their use in going to and from the work. Respondent was sixty nine years old, had been in appellant's employ for the period of sixteen years, was familiar with the method of repairing railroad tracks, and had had large experience in riding upon and in propelling handcars. At the time of the accident the crew of men engaged in repairing the track left Lake City on handcars for the purpose of returning to their work. The foreman and a part of the crew were riding on the first car, and respondent, with five or six other men, were riding on the second car. Respondent and one other man stood on the front end of the car with their backs to the front of it, three of the men stood on the rear end of the car facing the direction in which they were going, and the other two men stood on either side of the handle bars. The usual speed taken in making the distance was at about the rate of sixteen miles an hour. The crew on the second car having dropped some distance behind the first car, some one on it suggested they should hurry, and so they began to pump faster and gradually increased the speed. What then occurred was described by respondent as follows:

Then the boys on my car began to pump as much as they could, and the car was running so that the dust was flying around us and I couldn't follow up with the pumping. I had to change hands, and I hollered to them that they mustn't pump so fast, and then they only laughed at me, and pumped the harder, and ran the handcar so fast that I couldn't stand it, and in the act of changing hands I fell off backwards, and struck on my head and arm, and the car passed over me. I became unconscious, and the next thing I remember I was in my house and the doctor was there.

Respondent recovered a verdict in the court below upon the ground that the handcar was operated by respondent's...