Va. M. Ry. Co v. Roach

• Decision Date: 21 April 1887
• Citation: 83 Va. 375,5 S.E. 175
• Parties: Virginia M. Ry. Co. v. Roach.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

5 S.E. 175

(83 Va. 375)

Virginia M. Ry. Co.

v.Roach.

Supreme Court of Appeals' of Virginia.

April 21, 1887.

Railroad Companies — Negligence — Riding on Engine — Violation of Company

Rules.

A former fireman of a railroad accepted an invitation by one of its engineers to ride on the engine with him. The conductor saw him on the engine, and spoke to him there. He neither paid any fare nor had any demanded of him. The rules of the company, which every employe was required to learn, prohibited any one but the engineer and certain employes from riding on the engine. Held, that he was charged with notice of such rule: that he could derive no authority from the engineer or conductor for his act; and that he was a mere trespasser, and cannot recover for injuries sustained.

Error to circuit court, Pittsylvania county; H. M. Ford, Judge.

Kirkpatrick & Blackford, for plaintiff in error. E. E. Boulden, for defendant in error.

Hinton, J. This is an action of tort in which the plaintiff recovered a verdict for $500, and the sole question we have to decide now is whether the court erred in refusing to set aside that verdict, and to award a new trial in this case. As appears from the record, on the 6th day of March, 1883, E. B. Fortune, the engineer of the train on the narrow-gauge railroad from Elba, in Pittsylvania county, to Rocky Mount, in Franklin county, invited the plaintiff to ride on the engine with him. The plaintiff, Roach, accepted the invitation, and rode about seven or eight miles to Pittsville. Here he got off the engine, and got into the passenger coach attached to the train, and rode some four or five miles to Sandy Level station, where he got off, and intended leaving the train, but the engineer again invited him to ride with him on the engine, and to go as far as Rocky Mount. This invitation the plaintiff accepted, and once more got upon the engine. There he found Payne, the conductor of the train, Fortune, the engineer, and Reynolds, the fireman. Payne at once opened the throttle-valve, and started the engine forward towards Rocky Mount. It was then between 7 and 8 o'clock, very dark, and raining. As the conductor started the engine, he handed a newspaper to the engineer, calling his attention to a paragraph of a few lines about a negro mason in Texas, which amused him. The engineer read it, handed it back to the conductor, and then took charge of the engine. A mile and a half beyond Sandy Level the engine and the whole train, consisting of a box or freight car and a passenger car, ran off the track, the engine and tender on one side, and the rest of the train on the other, and all on board the engine were more or less hurt. Roach, the plaintiff, was scalded on his body and face by hot water from the engine. He was attended by a physician 10 days, and was confined to his room for a month. He paid a doctor's bill of twenty-four dollars, which the company refused to pay for him. There was a conflict of opinion as to the speed at which the train was going. The witnesses for the plaintiff thought it faster than usual, and the only two passengers on the train testified that the motion of the train alarmed them, and they moved their seats away from the stove for fear of an accident. No one except those on the engine was...