Ball v. Semet-Solvay Co.

95 So. 50, 208 Ala. 648, 1923 Ala. LEXIS 627
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 11, 1923
Docket6 Div. 741.
StatusPublished

This text of 95 So. 50 (Ball v. Semet-Solvay Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ball v. Semet-Solvay Co., 95 So. 50, 208 Ala. 648, 1923 Ala. LEXIS 627 (Ala. 1923).

Opinion

MILLER, J.

Jack Ball, as administrator of the estate of William Ball, deceased, tiled this suit under the homicide statute, section 2486 of the Code, to recover damages of Semet-Solvay Company, a corporation, for the death of intestate, his son, who was killed by being- run over by a car or train of defendant while he was attempting to cross its railway track. The deceased, when killed, was a minor in the eighteenth year of his age.

The case was submitted to the jury on the evidence under nine counts in the complaint. Some of the counts based recovery on simple negligence, some subsequent negligence, and some wanton negligence and intentional injury. The defendant pleaded to each count the general issue in short by consent with leave to give in evidence anything that might be specially pleaded, on which issue was joined by the plaintiff. The general affirmative charge with hypothesis in favor of the defendant was requested in writing by the defendant, and it was given by the court. There was a verdict for the defendant and judgment thereon by the court. The plaintiff filed motion for new trial on the ground the court erred in giving that charge to the jury. The court overruled this motion for the new trial. From that judgment the plaintiff appeals. It is assigned as error, and whether the court erred in giving that charge for the defendant is the only question presented by this appeal for the consideration of the court.

The defendant is a manufacturing corporation. The injury occurred at Holt, an industrial village, and the people who live there are in the employ of tlie defendant or the Central Iron & Coal Company. The defendant operates one plant and the Central Iron & Coal Company, a corporation, operates two plants at this place. The intestate at the time of his death was an employé of the Central Iron & Coal Company, and was going from his home with his brother to the plant to work. He had to cross the railroad track of defendant, and while so doing was killed by a car propelled by a motor engine of defendant, which was being operated by Jack Boyd, an employé of the defendant. The engine was backing the car [one car] from the tipxile to its plant when the injury occurred. The engine was used to haul coke from the plant up grade to the tipple or dump, and would then run back down grade, «car in front, to the plant. This was a continuous work during the day. The deceased was killed in or near the middle of the track which was from 200 feet to 200 yards from tlie tipple; the railroad was straight from there to the tipple, and there was nothing to obstruct the view of the railroad track from the tipple to the place of the injury on the route traveled by the deceased, from 93 feet before he reached the railroad track, except a concrete pillar 8 feet high and 5 by 5 feet square, located 45 inches from the railroad track.

It is without dispute that this entire railroad track is located on land leased by the defendant; the track was used and the train was operated for .defendant’s own private use in hauling coke from its ovens to its tipple, storage works or dumps.

There were three places fixed by the defendant for persons to cross this track in going from their homes to, and returning from their work at, the plants of the Central Iron & Coal Company. Those places had steps and banisters. There was evidence that the people crossed at any place on this track, but were permitted by defendant to cross only at the three places prepared for them. Where defendant's intestate was crossing the track, when injured, was a path used by him and others. It was a new cut or cut-off path, but was not one of the three crossings fixed by the defendant.

Only one witness was examined who saw the accident. There was no evidence that any one else saw him killed. This person was his brother. They were going to their *650 work together. It was nearly 7 o’clock in the morning. The deceased was about 75 to 100 leet in front of his brother, Ed. Ball. His brother testified he did not hear the whistle blow or the bell ring. There was evidence that there was attached to the axle of the car a bell that rang and was ringing every time the axle turned that morning. There was no flagman on the rear of the car as it returned. This brother of deceased, the only eyewitness to the killing, testified for plaintiff in part on direct-examination as follows:

“That he and his said brother William were going to work between 6 and 7 o’clock in the morning, he being some 75 or 100' feet behind AVilliam when they got around to the Semet-Solvay plant to the railroad track where the motor engine came along, and he saw the motor striking his brother’William; that he broke and hollered at the motorman to stop; that they had then run over William and had dragged him, he guessed 40 or 50 feet; that he did not hear either the bell ring on the motor car nor the whistle blow; that there was a lot of fuss going on around there at the time from the works that were in operation at Holt; that his brother William was killed, and the car that killed him stopped down below the defendant’s office, just below the path where they were intending to cross the railroad track; that he was over 75 to 100 feet behind his brother on their way to work, and that his brother did not get out of his sight; that he was not keeping his eye directly on his brother, but just looked up and saw him ás the car was striking him; that his brother was then on or about the center of the track going toward his work at the furnace, which was towards the river; that he then went running behind the ear waving his hand and hollering at the motorman to stop and the motorman did stop; that he did not hear either the whistle blow or the bell ring on the car; that the path they were traveling passed over the track just below the defendant’s plant, and between there and the office; that William was on this path when the car hit him.”

The decedent had to cross over a dirt road, an open space just before reaching the track. There were no obstructions to the view. The train was running 12 to 15' miles an hour. If the plaintiff’s intestate had stopped, looked, and listened before passing the concrete pier which was 5 by 5 feet square or after passing it, which was 45 inches from the track, as it was his duty to do before attempting to cross the track, he would have seen the approaching train. L. & N. R. R. Co. v. Moran, 190 Ala. 108, 66 South. 799; Sims v. A. G. S. R. R. Co., 197 Ala. 151, 72 South. 328.

It is obvious that he was guilty of contributory negligence, which proximately contributed to his death, from the undisputed evidence, from the evidence of his brother, the only eyewitness, in failing to stop, look, and listen before attempting to cross the track or in going on the track in front of the approaching train, either with full knowledge of the situation and thus taking his chances, or else without knowing of the approaching train, under conditions where, if he had taken any precaution at all to stop and look before attempting to cross, he would have sepn the approaching ,car. Sims v. A. G. S. R. R. Co., 197 Ala. 151, 72 South. 328; Cent. of Ga. Ry. v. Foshee, 125 Ala. 199, 27 South. 1006.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 So. 50, 208 Ala. 648, 1923 Ala. LEXIS 627, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ball-v-semet-solvay-co-ala-1923.