St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Enlow

• Decision Date: 14 December 1914
• Docket Number: (No. 51.)
• Citation: 171 S.W. 912
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. ENLOW.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

171 S.W. 912

ST. LOUIS, I. M. & S. RY. CO. v. ENLOW.

(No. 51.)

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

December 14, 1914.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Saline County; W. H. Evans, Judge.

Action by J. W. Enlow, administrator of the estate of Carl B. Emslie, against the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

E. B. Kinsworthy, R. E. Wiley, and T. D. Crawford, all of Little Rock, for appellant. Hoeppner & Young, of Little Rock, and W. R. Donham, of Benton, for appellee.

McCULLOCH, C. J.

The plaintiff's intestate, C. B. Emslie, while on or near the tracks of the defendant in the city of Little Rock, was struck by a moving train of cars and injured, from which injuries he died a few weeks later, and this is an action by the administrator to recover damages for the benefit of the estate and for the next of kin.

The injury was inflicted by a train of cars being switched along a track which runs through an alley in the city of Little Rock with brick buildings on each side. There are two tracks, and the one on which deceased was injured ran within about two feet of the brick walls of the buildings abutting on the alley. It occurred about 3 o'clock in the morning, while it was dark and there were no lights of any kind in the alley. A string of five cars was being backed along the track for the purpose of spotting them at the warehouses where they were to be unloaded, and a brakeman was stationed as lookout near the end of the front car. He had a lantern in his hand, and testified that he kept strict lookout for objects on the track and failed to discover any one until he heard the cries of the deceased after the latter had been struck by the train. The foreman of the switch crew testified that he walked along the alley a short distance in front of the approaching cars for the purpose of superintending the spotting of the cars and that he did not see any one in the alley. The other trainmen testified, and it appears from their testimony, that a strict lookout was kept for persons on the track, and that none was discovered until the distress cries of the deceased were heard, when the train was immediately stopped. One of the wheels of the car struck the arm of deceased and pinched the flesh off from wrist to elbow, but no bones were crushed or broken or other injuries inflicted. Deceased was carried to a hospital where his wounded arm was dressed, and he remained there until he died....