St. Louis, A. & T. Ry. Co. v. Mara

• Decision Date: 02 May 1891
• Parties: ST. LOUIS, A. & T. RY. CO. v. MARA.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

16 S.W. 196

ST. LOUIS, A. & T. RY. CO. v. MARA.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

May 2, 1891.

Appeal from circuit court, Craighead county; J. E. REDDICK, Judge.

J. C. Hawthorne and Sam. H. West, for appellant. E. F. Brown, for appellee.

HUGHES, J.

The appellee recovered a judgment against the appellant for damages, which he alleged he suffered on account of injury received by him by the derailment of a hand-car on appellant's road, of which car the appellee was at the time in charge as section foreman, as also of some railroad laborers, who were operating the car. The car was defective, one end being four or five inches lower than the other, by reason of the fact that a cross-beam at the lower end was broken. The defect was known to appellee, for some days before the accident, which caused the damage. The appellee was at the time section foreman, and had complete control of the car and the crew operating it. The evidence shows that the hand-car could have been run with either end in front. On the day of the accident the appellee directed one of his men to place a couple of fish-plates on the car. They placed the fish-plates on one side of the car, a little nearer the front than the rear. One of the fish-plates slid off at the front end of the car. One of the car wheels struck it, and the car was thereby derailed. "If the fish-plates had been placed on the rear end behind the lever, they would not have fallen off at the front end." These facts appear from appellee's own statement, and they convict him of negligence, which was the cause of the injury. There were other questions raised, and several instructions given and refused, at the trial, but it is unnecessary to discuss them. The judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded for a new trial.