Branch v. Missouri Pacific Railroad

7 La. App. 257, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 591
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 21, 1927
DocketNo. 3170
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 7 La. App. 257 (Branch v. Missouri Pacific Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Branch v. Missouri Pacific Railroad, 7 La. App. 257, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 591 (La. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, J.

[258]*258OPINION

In order to reach a correct decision in this case it is only necessary to consider plaintiff’s own testimony and the physical facts at the time and place of the accident.

He testified that he and three small boys were in a Ford automobile traveling west on Rosa street; that when ,he arrived within from twenty to thirty steps of defendant’s railroad track he stopped' the automobile and looked both up and down the tracks; that the track to the south was clear, but that north, immediately beyond the freight depot, were a locomotive and some box cars which seemed not to be moving, and also north of and just clear of the crossing a box car was standing; that thereupon he proceeded [259]*259slowly to attempt to cross the tracks, and had gotten over the first or main track and was within about eight feet of the second or spur track when his attention was attracted to some one yelling to him to warn him (be ^as in danger, and that he then saw a box car moving southward toward him on the spur track at about eight miles an hour, whereupon, conceiving a collision to be inevitable, he attempted to turn his automobile to his left or parallel to the track, in the hopes that the oncoming box car would only strike at a glancing blow and knock or push his automobile away from the track, but that it seems he had gone further over on or was closer to the spur track than he had supposed, and his automobile was caught by the moving box car and dragged down the track a distance of seventy-five feet.

He further testified that he had been driving over the crossing in question four times a day for several months.

Further testifying, he said:

“Q. Now when did you first discover the moving box car?
* * * *
“A. I was in about I would say eight feet of it, going or coming west, coming down the grade; you see, when I drove up on the east side of the main line and come to a halt, !this box car that struck me was directly, must have been directly behind the car that was ‘spotted’ on the main line, and it being lower, it being on a lower track than the car (on the main line) was, (the car) that was on the main line hid the view of the (moving) car entirely; because I was lower, you see, than the car (on the main line) was * *
% * £
“Q. And the 'timbers, together with the box car, hid your view of how much of the spur track?
“A. Well, when I got in view of the timber the box car was not in my way then of seeing anything, but as my car came down over thé incline the top of my car hid the view, top view of the box car that struck me, see, and the timber hid the bottom view of it.
* * * *
“Q. Then, what did you hear?
“A. I heard a man hallooing and heard a man whistle.
“Q. You know where this man was?
“A. I did not. I could not see him.
* * % *
“Q. Mr. Branch, at what rate of speed did you say you were going,' from the time you stopped your car until you were hit — approximately?
* * * *
“A. Well, I was going — my car was in low gear and I wouldn’t say I was going over five or six miles an hour; as a rule, a Ford car won’t travel much faster than that in low gear.
“Q. Did you ever get out of low gear before you were hit?
“A. I never got out of low gear until I got on top of the track, then I turned my car in high gear when I turned down the incline.
“Q. Did your speed increase above six or eight miles an hour at any time, or-did you keep that up?
“A. Well, I suppose perhaps it did, because when you turn a Ford car into high gear it will pick up speed, especially if it is going down grade.
“Q. How fast do you think you were running at the time you were hit?
“A. Well, at the time I seen this car, my ear may have been rolling at seven or eight miles an hour, may have been rolling that fast.
* * if: *
“Q. Were you driving on the right-hand or the left-hand side of the road approaching that crossing?
“A. Well, I couldn’t say; there- was nothing else in my way; whether I was driving directly in the middle of the road or to the right of the road.
“Q. You were either one or the other?
“A. I was nearer, I suppose, the center of the road.
* * & *
“Q. There is a roadway, is there not, running between Cook’s spur and the main line?
[260]*260“A. There are south of the highway?
“Q. Running south from the highway?
“A. Yes, sir.
* * * *
“Q. Then, if you were twenty feet east of the main line, the east rail of the main line, and the main line was five feet in width, and the west rail of the main line was twenty feet or twenty-five feet east of the east rail of Cook’s spur, that would make a distance of your Car from the east rail of Cook’s spur, of approximately forty-five feet, would it not?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And you state you were traveling around between six and eight miles per hour most of that distance?
“A. Yes, sir.
* * * *
“Q. Then how do you account for the fact, Mr. Branch, that the freight ear moving, you say, approximately at the same speed, six or eight miles per hour?
“A. Best I could tell of.
“Q. * * * travel the distance immediately behind the spotted car which was only two feet from the crossing and got there at the same time that you traveled the distance of forty-five feet?
“A. Because we had something similar, the same distance to run.
* * * *
“Q. Would you mind locating on this map the approximate location of the box car, if you know,. that struck you, at the time you looked? Just mark it on there with a pencil.
“A. At the time I stopped my car?
“Q. Yes.
“A. At the time I stopped my car this box car must have been right in about this place. (Witness marks the spot XY.)
* * * *
“A. * * * This car struck me right here. (Witness indicates on the map by the letters EF.)
* * * *
“Q.

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Related

Grappe v. Tex. & Pac. Ry. Co.
133 So. 802 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1931)
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127 So. 648 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1930)

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Bluebook (online)
7 La. App. 257, 1927 La. App. LEXIS 591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/branch-v-missouri-pacific-railroad-lactapp-1927.