Black v. Chicago Great Western Railroad

187 Iowa 904
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 22, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 187 Iowa 904 (Black v. Chicago Great Western Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Black v. Chicago Great Western Railroad, 187 Iowa 904 (iowa 1919).

Opinion

Preston, J.

The issues, as stated by appellant, are that they are the usual questions of negligence and contributory negligence, and in addition thereto, the following:

Was the plaintiff, after having received from his employer payments due him under the provisions of the Workmen’s • Compensation Act, entitled to maintain this action for damages against the defendant? One or two other questions are argued briefly, but the principal question, and the one most argued, is the one last stated. The [906]*906trial court held the issues of negligence and contributory negligence, under the evidence, to be issues of fact, and submitted the same to the jury. It also held that the recovery by plaintiff from his employer of benefits of the Compensation Act did not prevent his recovery of damages from the defendant for its negligence, and instructed the jury, in case it found for plaintiff in excess of $378, to deduct from the amount to which they found plaintiff entitled, the amount he had received as compensation. The amount .of compensation which had been paid plaintiff by his employer was $378. The verdict and judgment were for $7,197. Plaintiff has not appealed, and says in argument that he does not object to the deduction made; so that the question whether the deduction was properly made is not in the case. If it was not properly deducted, the defendant may not complain, since the prejudice, if any, in that case is against the plaintiff. Whatever may be said in the opinion by way of discussion, we shall not determine the question whether such deduction was or was not properly made, in this case. The one question involved, in so far as it involves the construction of a section of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, will be stated later. A brief statement of the facts which are undisputed, or which could have been found by the jury, will be made, in so far as they have a bearing on the questions presented.

l. negligence : contributory negligence: obstructea crossing. It appears that plaintiff was injured about 9:30 A. M., November 8th. Plaintiff, together with Young and De Fore, all employees of the Ware Transfer Company, were returning to the office of the company, after delivering a piano in South Des Moines. . .... ,, At the time of the collision, they were nding in a motor truck, which weighed 4,200 pounds, and was driven by De Fore. The truck was equipped with pneumatic tires in front, and solid rubber tires in the rear. The brakes were in order. There [907]*907was an enclosed cab over the seat where the driver and his companion sat, with wind shield, glass in the doors on either side, and a glass window in the side back of the door. De Fore, the driver, was sitting on the left, or west, side of the truck. Young was at his right, and plaintiff was sitting on Young’s lap. The railway track runs at an angle, but substantially east and west. The train was going west. The truck was going north on East Sixth Street, which crosses the railroad track near Shaw Street, a street running east and west. At the point of the collision, the street is practically level for a distance of 300 or 400 feet, and is paved with concrete. The paving is 24 feet wide. The railway is constructed upon an embankment, and the paved portion of the streets and the tracks is higher than the surrounding ground. On the east side of Sixth Street, for a distance of some 300 feet south of the tracks, there are houses and trees extending to within about 50 feet of the track, which obscure the vision to the east, of persons traveling north. There is a large tree near the northwest corner of the house nearest the track, which tree had shed its foliage. As plaintiff approached the track, the truck was going at the rate of from 8 to 10 miles per hour, and the train, 18 to 20 miles an hour, according to plaintiff’s testimony, but considerably less than that, according to defendant’s witnesses. Prior to the accident, it had been raining and snowing to some extent, and the street was wet and slippery. Both plaintiff and the driver knew they were nearing a railroad crossing. Plaintiff says:

“As we approached the crossing from the south, I looked and listened; as we got up within probably 75 feet of it; I listened to see if I could hear any sounds or any sign of anything coming, and I did not hear anything. When we got up about 40 or 50 feet, I should judge, I saw the engine coming, and I guess we must all have seen it about tho same time. I was looking ahead and sideways too, always. [908]*9081 started to look and listen about 75 or 100 feet south of the track, and 1 did not hear anything, and then we got up 40 or 50 feet, and 1 saw the engine coming, but did not hear any bell or other warning. I did not hear the bell on the locomotive ring at any time before or after I reached a point 100 feet south of the crossing; did not hear a signal of any kind. I commenced to listen when I was about 75 feet from the track. I looked all the time from the time we came within 75 feet of the track; didn’t look east all the time, but looked several times, and kept looking all the time until we came to 50 feet from the track, and saw the engine. * * * The driver put on the brakes, and it seemed as if the truck kind of started to slow down, as quick as he saw the engine. De Fore put on the brakes at the time I saw the engine, and it checked the truck or slowed it down; • * * * after the brakes were applied, the truck didn’t continue in an exactly straight course, — I don’t know whether it skidded or whether the driver turned the front wheels of it off, but it seemed like it went a little bit sidewise; the back end went a little bit to the east, when we went up to the track. The brakes were on from the time when they were first applied until the truck reached the track.”

As the truck approached the track, plaintiff did not say anything to the driver, before they reached the point where they saw the approaching train, because, as he says, he saw the driver was looking and listening for a train, the same as he was.

“I was looking, just the same as anybody riding in a car, coming up to a railroad crossing, looks to see if anything is coming, whether they are driving the car or not. I saw the train just about the time I felt the car slow down. I had no purpose to tell De Fore of the approach of the train, as long as he was looking. If he had been looking some other way when I had Seen the train, I [909]*909would have told him, but he was looking, the same as I was.”

The driver gave similar testimony, and that, when he and plaintiff saw the engine, he applied the brakes to the truck, which skidded for a distance of about 50 feet to the track, where it was struck by the locomotive; that the car stopped right on the track, practically as the engine struck. Another witness testifies that he was not in a position to see the truck skid, but that he noticed skid marks, with the first mark about 15 feet from the rail. The driver further testifies that the truck began to slide immediately as he put on the emergency; that he put on both pretty near the same time he saw the engine; that they all saw the train at the same time; that plaintiff said there was a train coming, and they all saw it at once; that he had the brakes on as he said it, and had commenced to slow down. The evidence is that, when they saw the engine, it was about 150 feet east of the crossing. There were other witnesses for both plaintiff and defendant. Defendant’s witnesses give a somewhat different version as to some of these matters which have a bearing on the question of plaintiff’s alleged contributory negligence.

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Bluebook (online)
187 Iowa 904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/black-v-chicago-great-western-railroad-iowa-1919.