Twitchell v. Grand Trunk Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 06 August 1889
• Citation: 39 F. 419
• Parties: TWITCHELL v. GRAND TRUNK RY. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Hampshire

39 F. 419

TWITCHELL v. GRAND TRUNK RY. CO.

United States Circuit Court, D. New Hampshire.

August 6, 1889

Aldrich & Remick, Ladd & Fletcher, and Mr. Frink, for plaintiff.

Ossian Ray, Mr. Strout, and Drew & Jordan, for defendant.

COLT J.

This is a motion for a new trial. The action was brought against the defendant railway company for negligence, which resulted in the death of the plaintiff's intestate, Henry F. Noyes who was at the time a freight conductor in the employment of the company. The accident was caused by a collision of a freight train in charge of Noyes with a freight-car which had drifted from a side track. For several years Noyes had been in charge of the freight train which ran from Gorham, N.H to Island Pond, Vt., a distance of about 48 miles, and the accident happened at a place called 'Stratford Hollow.' The question of negligence on the part of the defendant company turned largely on two points, namely, the defective construction of the side track at Stratford Hollow and the failure of the company to employ stop-blocks or proper means for blocking the cars when upon the side track. The presiding judge, against the objection of the defendant permitted the evidence to go to the jury on both these points. The presiding judge also, in his charge to the jury, said:

'Next, gentlemen, you will take up the question of whether the railroad company was negligent or not in the construction of the siding at Stratford Hollow, and in the instruments of protection which were employed there. * * * You must say (in view, of course, that this happened in 1883) whether the siding was constructed in accordance with scientific railroad construction, and whether in its construction, with respect to stop-blocks, or to securities against a car being blown out onto the main track, the company exercised ordinary care.'

At the time of the trial the recent case of Tuttle v. Railway Co., 122 U.S. 189, 7 S.Ct. 1166, was not brought to the attention of the court. That was a suit brought by an employe against the railroad company for negligence in the construction of a curve in the track in the yard of the company. The court, speaking through Mr. Justice BRADLEY, says:

'We have carefully read the evidence presented by the bill of exceptions, and, although it appears that the curve was a very sharp one at the place where the accident happened, yet we do not think that public policy requires the courts

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