Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad v. Hamilton

85 N.E. 1044, 42 Ind. App. 512, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 81
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 19, 1908
DocketNo. 6,212
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 85 N.E. 1044 (Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad v. Hamilton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad v. Hamilton, 85 N.E. 1044, 42 Ind. App. 512, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 81 (Ind. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

Myers, J.

Appellee obtained judgment in the court below for personal injuries sustained by him by reason of falling from the rear platform of a caboose attached to a locomotive and tender. The appellant presents for review the action of the court in overruling its demurrer to each paragraph of the amended complaint.

1. Appellee insists that the demurrer does not challenge each paragraph of the amended complaint separately, and therefore if either paragraph is good no error was committed in overruling it. The appellant by its demurrer sought to attack the complaint as a whole, and each paragraph thereof, for want of sufficient facts in the complaint and in each paragraph. The demurrer was ambiguous, but the court, as it appears from the record, overruled it “as to each paragraph of complaint,” thereby construing it as a demurrer addressed to each paragraph separately. The construction adopted by the trial court thus certainly determined from the record will be recognized by this court in reviewing that court’s action, for by this rule alone can the trial court’s action be rightly considered. It therefore devolves upon us to seek to ascertain whether the court erred as to either paragraph of the complaint.

2. The first paragraph proceeds upon the theory that appellee’s Injury was caused by the negligent failure of appellant to inspect the caboose before sending it out on the road. It was alleged “that, with reasonable diligence and proper inspection of said car, said unsafe condition would have been discovered.” The negligence consisted in allowing and permitting the rear platform of said caboose to be and remain obstructed by a draw-bar chain, sixteen feet in length and three inches in diameter,' piled thereon in the form of a pyramid, and reaching a height of about fourteen inches; that said chain, placed as aforesaid, was loose and the links moved readily on each other. It is shown that attached to the rear platform was a brake-wheel on a vertical iron rod, and that on either [515]*515side of the platform were steps; that said platform and steps were used by appellant’s employes in the performance of the work required of them in the management, handling and controlling of the train; that appellee, for two years prior to the time of the accident, August 19, 1904, and on that day, had been and was in the employ of appellant as a brakeman on its freight-trains; it is also alleged that appellee, while in the discharge of his duties as such brakeman, and while the train was in motion and approaching a point on appellant’s line of road near the town of Swanington, Indiana, and where appellant’s tracks cross a certain other named railroad company’s tracks, it became and was the duty of the appellee to go upon the rear platform of the caboose, where said chain was so carelessly permitted to be, and upon the steps of the platform so as to be at or near the brake on said platform, and so as to see the lights and signals of the tower house and signal-station at said crossing; that, in the performance of this duty, at or about the hour of midnight, and as said train was approaching said crossing, appellee did go upon said platform and said usual way of ingress to and egress from said caboose, which was “in a defective and unsafe condition, all of which was unknown to this plaintiff,” and while attempting to go upon the steps of said platform in order to see the lights and signals of the tower house, without any fault of his, his foot came suddenly in contact with said chain so carelessly and negligently permitted to be and remain on said platform, and by reason thereof he lost his balance, fell forward and to the side, over the steps of said caboose and onto the ground, etc.

It is not charged in any manner that the caboose itself or any part of it was defective or unsafe, except so far as made unsafe by the presence of the chain which was piled near the brake and near the steps. The allegation concerning the ear inspector is not inconsistent with his having acted on the occasion in question merely in the capacity of a fellow-servant with the appellee. It does not appear from this para[516]*516graph when, where or by whom the chain was placed upon the platform. It is not shown that it constituted a part of the car or of the platform or any attachment thereto, or how long it had been upon the platform or for what purpose it was there. Its presence there is not shown to have been caused by the appellant. It does not certainly appear to whom the chain belonged. It may have been loaded upon the car by the crew, but it does not appear that this was done under the direction of the car inspector in charge of the train or with his knowledge. Nothing is shown to have been done or omitted by him in his capacity of car inspector, or by him in any capacity.

3. It certainly is the duty of the master to furnish his employes a safe place in which to work, and safe appliances with which to work, but in the úse of such place and appliances by the employes they are performing their own duty and not the duty of the master toward them. It does not appear that the appellant, or any person representing the. appellant in the capacity of vice-principal, knew of the presence of the chain upon the platform. There is no direct allegation in this paragraph that before the accident the appellee did not know of the presence of the chain. He does say he did not know of the defective and unsafe condition of the platform, but in this connection he does not refer to the chain. There does not appear to have been an insufficient or defective place to work furnished by the master, but the showing relates to a use which the employes and fellow servants were making of a sufficient place and appliance.

4. A servant must take notice of what is done by his fellow servants, that is, he assumes the risk of danger therefrom. Chicago, etc., R. Co. v. Barnes (1905), 164 Ind. 143, 151. It is not shown who placed the chain or caused it to be placed upon the platform', nor does it clearly appear that it was not the act of the appellee or any of his fellow servants. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Lightheiser (1904), 163 Ind. 247, 253,

[517]*5175. In the ease last cited it was said: ‘ ‘ There are instances where the word ‘duty’ may be used in a pleading, although perhaps not with the utmost propriety, in characterizing the nature of the plaintiff’s employment, as where the word is used as descriptive of an ultimate fact as to the character of the work which he was required to do, as that one of the duties which plaintiff was employed to perform was to inspect his locomotive. In such an instance, the allegation is one of ultimate fact, and is partially descriptive of what his contract was. But here it is sought to be shown that appellee was properly in a particular place, and he charges that it was his duty to be there under his contract of employment, thus attempting to characterize the contract without showing what the contract was.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
85 N.E. 1044, 42 Ind. App. 512, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-eastern-illinois-railroad-v-hamilton-indctapp-1908.