Southern Pacific Company v. Mahl
| Citation | 406 F.2d 1201 |
| Decision Date | 24 March 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 25937.,25937. |
| Parties | SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY, Appellant, v. Lloyd M. MAHL, Sr., Appellee. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit) |
Harry McCall, Jr., Chaffe McCall, Phillips, Burke, Toler & Sarpy, New Orleans, La., for Southern Pac. Co.
Ivor A. Trapolin, New Orleans, La., for Lloyd M. Mahl, Sr.
Before WISDOM, THORNBERRY and GOLDBERG, Circuit Judges.
Opinion On Rehearing March 24, 1969. See 409 F.2d 229.
These appeals arise out of an action instituted by Lloyd Mahl to recover damages for personal injuries sustained while he was attempting to uncouple two railroad cars in the course of his employment for the defendant railroad. The evidence indicates that Mahl, after signalling the engineer for slack, attempted to uncouple the cars by pulling a lever which extends from the outside corner of the car and is linked to the coupler pin between the cars, but the uncoupling mechanism failed to release. He again called for slack and repeated the process, but again the mechanism failed to release. He signalled the engineer for a third try, when he applied "great but reasonable force," still without success, and in the process suffered a severe strain to his body.
The complaint specified two counts under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, one alleging negligence,1 the other alleging that the uncoupling device was defective in violation of the Federal Safety Appliance Act. The case was tried to a jury who found that the defendant was not negligent, but that it had violated the Safety Appliance Act, that the injury resulted from this violation, and that the total amount of plaintiff's damages was $65,000. Judgment was entered accordingly. The railroad appeals, alleging that the trial court erred in its charge on the Safety Appliance Act.2 The plaintiff cross-appeals, alleging error by the trial court in its treatment of the negligence count of the complaint. Finding no error in the trial court's charge on the Safety Appliance Act, we affirm the judgment awarding damages to the plaintiff and therefore do not consider his cross-appeal on the negligence count.
The applicable provision of the Federal Safety Appliance Act provides:
It shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad to haul or permit to be hauled or used in its line any car used in moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars. (Emphasis added.)
The trial judge instructed the jury that:
The railroad argues that a violation of the Safety Appliance Act predicated upon the failure of a mechanism to uncouple cannot be established without proof of "the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars." Although the Act requires that coupling be accomplished automatically, there is no requirement that uncoupling be automatic, and the mere failure to uncouple, as distinguished from failure to couple, does not constitute a violation of the Act. The failure of a coupling device to uncouple may result from the absence of slack, rather than from a defect in the mechanism. Accordingly, Congress did not require that uncoupling be automatic, but instead made the necessity of going between the cars the criterion of the statutory violation. Therefore, it is argued, plaintiff's failure to show that it was necessary for him to go between the ends of the cars in order to uncouple them obviates his claim for relief under the Act, and the trial judge's instructions to the contrary constitute reversible error.
We think that this position is foreclosed by the broad purpose of the Safety Appliance Act to assure the safety of railroad employees by requiring the railroads to furnish safe appliances for the coupling of cars. See Minneapolis & St. Louis R. Co. v. Gotschall, 1917, 244 U.S. 66, 37 S.Ct. 598, 61 L.Ed. 995. "The risk in coupling and uncoupling was the evil sought to be remedied," Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co., 1904, 196 U.S. 1, 19, 25 S.Ct. 158, 162, 49 L.Ed. 363, and that risk was to be obviated by the use of couplers coupling automatically by impact and uncoupling without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars. The duty to furnish the type of couplers specified by the statute is plainly imposed. But we think the statute requires more. As one court has stated:
It is not only the duty of the railroad to provide such couplers, but to keep them in such operative conditions that they will always perform their functions. The test of compliance is the operating efficiency of the couplers with which the car is equipped. (Emphasis added.)
Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co. v. Muldowney, 8th Cir. 1942, 130 F.2d 971, 975. In short, the railroad is obligated to provide safe couplers that function without exposing employees who operate them to the risk of bodily harm. But under the interpretation urged upon us by the railroad, the use of a coupling device, no matter how dangerous it might prove on occasion to the employees charged with its operation, would not constitute a violation of the Act so long as its operation did not require men to go between the cars. This interpretation is unduly narrow.
The failure of a coupler to uncouple due to a defect therein is sufficient to establish liability under the Safety Appliance Act, regardless of whether it was necessary for the employee to go between the ends of the cars. Stated another way: In order to establish that the coupler was defective, proof of the necessity of going between the cars is not required.
We find ample authority to support our holding. In Penn v. Chicago & N. W. Ry. Co., 1948, 335 U.S. 849...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
United Transp. Union v. Lewis
...if he is injured because of a defective coupler, he may recover without even having gone between the cars at all. Southern Pacific Co. v. Mahl, 406 F.2d 1201 (5th Cir.1969). But these cases cannot support the proposition that a violation of section 2 can be made out without proving that equ......
-
Bohannon v. Kan. City S. Ry. Co.
...the safety of railroad employees by requiring the railroads to furnish safe appliances for the coupling of cars." S. Pac. Co. v. Mahl, 406 F.2d 1201, 1203 (5th Cir. 1969). Moreover, Bohannon need not show he went "between the cars in order to uncouple them." Id. at 1205. Rather, "[t]he fail......
-
Maldonado v. Missouri Pacific Ry. Co.
...S.Ct. 785, 786, 59 L.Ed. 1290 (1915); United Transportation Union v. Lewis, 711 F.2d 233, 243-47 (D.C.Cir.1983); Southern Pacific Co. v. Mahl, 406 F.2d 1201, 1203 (5th Cir.1969). Section 2 imposes absolute liability upon a railroad for injuries sustained when the automatic couplers fail to ......
-
Reynolds v. Alton & Southern Ry. Co.
...between cars to effect a coupling that did not take place automatically. (Buskirk v. Burlington Northern, Inc.; Southern Pacific Co. v. Mahl (5th Cir.1969), 406 F.2d 1201.) This section encompasses the plaintiff's actions in the instant case, and we find no error in the trial court's direct......