Alexander v. Great Northern Ry. Co.

154 P. 914, 51 Mont. 565, 1916 Mont. LEXIS 7
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 20, 1916
DocketNo. 3,574
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 154 P. 914 (Alexander v. Great Northern Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alexander v. Great Northern Ry. Co., 154 P. 914, 51 Mont. 565, 1916 Mont. LEXIS 7 (Mo. 1916).

Opinion

MB. JUSTICE SANNEB

delivered the opinion of the court.

On October 11, 1911, John P. Hall, a conductor in the service of the Great Northern Bailway Company, was killed near Batavia, in Flathead county, this state, as the result of a derailment of his caboose consequent upon a collision of his train with a cow. This action, brought to recover for his death, resulted in a verdict against the company, upon which verdict judgment was duly entered. From that judgment as well as from an order denying it a new trial, the company has appealed.

A reversal is sought upon four grounds, viz.: (1) The complaint alleges, but the proof does not establish, that Hall Avas employed in interstate commerce at the time of his death; (2) no actionable negligence on the part of the appellant is alleged or proved; (3) the evidence shows a clear case of assumed risk, and (4) substantial errors of law prejudicial to the appellant, occurring at the trial.

1. The allegations of the complaint stamp the case as brought under the provisions of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, [1] and, to maintain it as such, evidence that at the time con[572]*572cerned, the company was engaged, and the decedent was employed, in interstate commerce was indispensable. (North Carolina R. R. Co. v. Zachary, 232 U. S. 248, 58 L. Ed. 591, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 305.) The facts established touching this phase of the case are: The defendant company is a common carrier whose main line extends from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the Puget Sound, Washington, traversing this and other states; it owns and operates a branch line called the Marion Branch, running from its main line at Columbia Falls through Kalispell, Batavia and Kila to Marion, and from this branch a shorter branch or tributary connects Kalispell with Somers; this Marion Branch with its tributary lies wholly within Montana, but it is the source as well as the ultimate destination of both interstate and intrastate traffic. The decedent was killed while in charge of one of defendant’s work trains, his particular duty with such train being to load ties from various places along the branch where they had been left by the persons who had cut the same, and to take the cars so loaded to Kalispell or leave them at Kila or other convenient siding; from such places of deposit the ties would later be taken by other trains to the defendant’s tie-treating plant at Somers, whence, after treatment to increase their durability, they would be sent to various points upon the main line or branches of the appellant or its affiliated companies within or without this state as might be required for construction, renewals or repairs.

Did the work of the decedent constitute employment in interstate commerce? The answer may be found, we think, in the decisions of that great tribunal whose pronouncements are final in matters of this kind, and particularly in Pederson v. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co., 229 U. S. 146, 57 L. Ed. 1125, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 648, cited by the respondent, where the following criterion is suggested: “Was that work being done independently of the interstate commerce in which the defendant was engaged, or was it so closely connected therewith as to be part of it? Was its performance a matter of indifference so far as that commerce was concerned, or was it in the nature of a duty [573]*573imposed upon the carrier ? ’ Interdependence to some extent pervades all activity, and it is true, for instance, that an interstate railroad cannot perform its functions without fuel or without ties; but this does not justify the inference that persons hired by it to mine coal or to cut ties are employed in interstate commerce. (Delaware, L. & W. R. Co. v. Yurkonis, 238 U. S. 439, 59 L. Ed. 1397, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 902; Bravis v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 217 Fed. 234, 133 C. C. A. 228.) In the chain of events by which the standing timber should be connected with the appellant’s roadbed, the decedent was one step nearer to the latter than the man who furnished the ties; but considering that the decedent had nothing to do with the ties further than to load them upon cars, leaving the cars so loaded at convenient sidings to be removed by others, that the ties so loaded were not to be marketed or used, but were to be taken to Somers and made ready for use, that no one knew when, where or how they would ultimately be used, and that so far as exigency or duty is-shown, the appellant’s interstate commerce might go on unaffected whether these ties were -gathered or not, the connection of his work with such commerce still appears to have been rather remote. No case has been called to our attention which in its facts closely resembles the one at bar; but in Illinois Cent. Ry. Co. v. Behrens, 233 U. S. 473, 58 L. Ed. 1051, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 646, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 163, it was held that employment in interstate commerce was not shown where the fireman of a switch engine operating within the city of New Orleans was killed while moving cars loaded with intrastate freight, notwithstanding that his general duties had to do with cars of all classes, often commingling those loaded with interstate freight and those empty or loaded with freight of an intrastate character, or rapidly passing from one class to the other. Accepting this as authoritative, we are impelled to the view that the decedent was not at the time of his death employed in interstate commerce, and therefore the action was not sustained under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.

[574]*574It does not follow from this, however, that the appellant was [2] or is entitled to a reversal. It is now settled that where the complaint declares under the federal law, failure to sustain it under such law is not fatal, but recovery may still be had under the state law, if the pleadings and proof are sufficient under the state law. (Wabash R. R. Co. v. Hayes, 234 U. S. 86, 58 L. Ed. 1226, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 729; Jones v. Chesapeake, & O. Ry. Co., 149 Ky. 566, 149 S. W. 951.) We recall but one respect in which a defendant can be seriously prejudiced in [3] such a situation, and that is where, by reason of diverse citizenship, removal of the cause to the federal court might be in order. In such a situation, however, the defendant must assert its right, under penalty of waiver, by filing a petition to remove at the first opportunity. (Powers v. Railway Co., 169 U. S. 92, 42 L. Ed. 673, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 264; Kansas City etc. Ry. Co. v. Daughtry, 138 U. S. 298, 34 L. Ed. 963, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 306; Golden v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co., 39 Mont. 435, 18 Ann. Cas. 886, 34 L. R. A. (n. s.) 1154, 104 Pac. 549; Dempster v. Oregon Short Line R. R. Co., 37 Mont. 335, 96 Pac.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp. v. Hane
56 F.2d 989 (Tenth Circuit, 1932)
Nelson & Witt v. Texas Co.
239 N.W. 289 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1931)
Wabash Railway Co. v. Whitcomb
154 N.E. 885 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1927)
Rosandich v. Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad
201 N.W. 391 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1924)
Kowalski v. Chicago & North Western Railway Co.
199 N.W. 178 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1924)
Davis v. Payne
216 P. 195 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1923)
Hunt v. White Sulphur Springs & Yellowstone Park Railway Co.
208 P. 917 (Montana Supreme Court, 1922)
Thornhill v. Davis, Director General
113 S.E. 370 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1922)
Matson v. Hines
207 P. 474 (Montana Supreme Court, 1922)
Foley v. Hines
111 A. 715 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1920)
Glover v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry. Co.
171 P. 278 (Montana Supreme Court, 1918)
Morelli v. Twohy Bros.
170 P. 757 (Montana Supreme Court, 1918)
McBain v. Northern Pacific Ry. Co.
160 P. 654 (Montana Supreme Court, 1916)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 P. 914, 51 Mont. 565, 1916 Mont. LEXIS 7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alexander-v-great-northern-ry-co-mont-1916.