Arizona & N. M. Ry. Co. v. Clark

207 F. 817, 125 C.C.A. 305, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1662
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 8, 1913
DocketNo. 2,259
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 207 F. 817 (Arizona & N. M. Ry. Co. v. Clark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arizona & N. M. Ry. Co. v. Clark, 207 F. 817, 125 C.C.A. 305, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1662 (9th Cir. 1913).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge.

The complaint in this action, which is for damages for personal injuries alleged to have been received by the plaintiff below, defendant in error here, through the alleged negligence of the defendant to the action, was twice amended; the sufficiency of that upon which the case was tried being questioned by two demurrers, one general, and the other special, and by two motions, in support of each of which are cited in the brief here filed for the plaintiff in error a large number, of authorities. It is readily conceded that the complaint might well have been more concise, logical, and clear; but we are of the opinion that its manifest defects are not fatal.

In addition to the jurisdictional facts, it alleges, in effect, that at the times in question the defendant to the action was the owner of and engaged in operating a railroad from Clifton, Ariz., to Hachita, N. M. (then territories, but since become states), carrying both passengers and freight for hire over its road between the points mentioned; that at Clifton it owned and maintained as a part of its road a large number of tracks, turnouts, and switches, for the storage of cars, and for the making up of trains, which tracks and switches extended from [819]*819the company's depot in Clifton southerly about a quarter of a mile to where die company’s bridge crosses the San Francisco river; that about 800 feet north of the bridge one of the company’s switches left its main track and extended a distance of about one-half mile to die smelter of the Shannon Copper Company, the grade of which switch is so steep that the engine upon which the plaintiff was engineer could haul only four of the company’s cars at any one trip; that the company's main line from the bridge to the smelter switch is downgrade to such an extent that cars placed thereon, without brakes set, or without being well chocked, would not remain still, but would run to and past the switch; that at the time of the accident in question, to wit, March 15, 1911, the company had in its yards at Clifton 12 freight cars, brought from without the then territory of Arizona over its road, which were loaded with coke and merchandise and consigned to the Shannon Copper Company; that the plaintiff was then engaged as engineer of the company’s switch engine used by it in moving such interstate commerce; that in moving the 12 freight cars mentioned the company, furnished the plaintiff with a crew of helpers consisting of a fireman, the yardmaster, the foreman, and two brakemen, and that, when the plaintiff and the said crew began the removal of the 12 cars, eight of them were brought down the main track to a point about 450 feet north of the bridge and 200 feet south of the smelter switch, where four of the cars were uncoupled and left on the main track, and four of them were coupled to the switch engine; that,, when the four cars were uncoupled and left at the point about 200 feet south of the switch, it became and was the duty of the three helpers left in charge of them to set the brakes thereon and securely chock and fasten them, so that they would not run down the track to the point where the plaintiff was engaged in hauling the other four of the cars onto the switch, which duties the said helpers wholly failed to perform, on account of which negligence the four cars so left standing began to move and run down the track towards the switch, which the plaintiff was entering with his engine and the four cars attached thereto, when the said foreman and one of the brakemen carelessly and wrongfully signalled the plaintiff to stop his engine, which he did within eight seconds, resulting in the tender of the engine cab in which the plaintiff was at the time sitting being struck with great force by the four cars that had been left on the main track, resulting, in the loss of one of the plaintiff’s eyes and other serious bodily .injuries to him. The complaint also alleged that the company’s roadbed was defective and unsafe; that the brakes on the said cars and their eoupling apparatus were out of repair and unsafe; that there were not enough brakemen furnished by the company to manage the cars, of all of which the company was well aware, and that the cars were negligently and carelessly managed and operated; and that the negligence alleged was the direct and proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury.

In its answer the defendant put in issue all the allegations in respect, to its negligence, and alleged that the plaintiff’s injuries were caused by his own negligence and want of care, and also set up that the in[820]*820juries received by him were tlie result wholly of the ordinary risks of his employment, which risks were known to him or would have been known to him 'by the use of ordinary care.

[ 1 ] At the trial, upon the conclusion of the plaintiff’s evidence, the defendant moved the court for a directed verdict in its favor, the denial of which motion constitutes one of the assignments of error. A conclusive answer to the point is that the defendant proceeded to introduce testimony in its own behalf upon the issues in the case, and did not renew the motion upon the conclusion of all of the evidence. Sigafus v. Porter, 179 U. S. 121, 21 Sup. Ct. 34, 45 L. Ed. 113; Columbia, etc., v. Hawthorne, 144 U. S. 202, 12 Sup. Ct. 591, 36 L. Ed. 405; Robertson v. Perkins, 129 U. S. 233, 9 Sup. Ct. 279, 32 L. Ed. 686; Grand Trunk Railway v. Cummings, 106 U. S. 700, 1 Sup. Ct. 493, 27 L. Ed. 266; American Smelting Co. v. Karapa, 173 Fed. 607, 97 C. C. A. 517, and cases there cited.

The ruling of the trial court refusing to permit the defendant to introduce the testimony of two witnesses—Kelly and Kline—is also assigned as error.

[2] In respect to Kelly, the record shows that the defendant asked the witness whether the plaintiff was a careful or negligent man in the operation of his engine in switching cars, and whether he knew of any instances prior to the accident and within the space of two years where he was negligent in the operation of his engine in respect to obeying signals, and offered to show by the witness that the plaintiff for two years previous to the accident in question “was habitually careless and negligent in obeying signals given him while operating his engine in switching cars in the yards of the defendant”; and of the witness Kline the defendant asked the question, “Do you know his (plaintiff’s) general reputation as to being a safe and conservative engineer, or as to his reputation of being a reckless engineer in the operation of his engine?” objections to all of which the court sustained, to which rulings the defendant excepted.

We think the rulings right. So far as concerns the signals, the evidence showed that the plaintiff strictly obeyed the signals given him in the instance in question by stopping his engine within eight seconds after receiving it, resulting in the injuries complained of, and we find nothing in the evidence to the contrary. Whether he failed to obey some other signal at some other time was manifestly immaterial.

[3] In 29 Cyc. 619, it is said:

“By the weight, of authority evidence of plaintiff’s habits and usual conduct as to a particular act, or of his character for prudence or recklessness, is not-admissible on the question of contributory negligence”—citing numerous cases.

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Bluebook (online)
207 F. 817, 125 C.C.A. 305, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1662, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arizona-n-m-ry-co-v-clark-ca9-1913.