Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific R. Co. v. Hawes

1967 OK 26, 424 P.2d 6
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 31, 1967
Docket41475
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1967 OK 26 (Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific R. Co. v. Hawes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific R. Co. v. Hawes, 1967 OK 26, 424 P.2d 6 (Okla. 1967).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Justice.

This appeal involves an action instituted by defendant in error, as plaintiff, against the plaintiff in error, as defendant, to recover damages, under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 51 et seq., for personal injuries plaintiff sustained on July 10, 1961, during the attempted transporting of a large Burrow crane on two of defendant’s flat cars coupled together. The crane, whose chasis had on it steel wheels that could move forward on a length of railroad track laid the length of, and on top, of the rear car, was to be unloaded and employed in the installation of railroad rails on the west end of a side track used by defendant’s passenger trains at Yukon. The parties will hereinafter be referred to by their trial court designations of “plaintiff” and “defendant”.

. On the day plaintiff was .injured, he was 49 years of age, had been employed by defendant 22 years, and his regular position was that of a “conductor”, but, for the rail-installation job, he had been “called” to be “pilot” for the Burrow crane.

On the evening previous to plaintiff’s injury, the crane-carrying two-car unit was standing on a section of curved track. Before plaintiff arrived there the next morning, another of defendant’s employees, Mr. Green, the crane operator, had preceded him there, and had removed the chains from around the crane’s wheels and the wooden chocking, or scotching, blocks that had been placed under them to keep them from turning and the crane from moving forward on the rails extending across the flat car’s floor. By the time plaintiff arrived there, defendant’s road-master, Mr. Winters, who was in charge of installing the track extension, noticed that the track, on which the crane-carrying flat cars were standing, was curved. Knowing that the ramp used as a runway in moving the - crane thereon from its perch on the flat car, to the train track below, could not be employed successfully on curved tracks, Mr. Winters decided that the crane-carrying two-car unit should be propelled forward about 15 to 20 feet to a place where the roadbed was straight and the crane’s ramp would guide it straight from the floor of its flat car to the railroad track below. It was decided to propel the crane-carrying two-car unit this few feet by tying the crane’s cable to the track out in front of the unit, and then have the crane’s motor pull the unit forward by tightening the cable extending out of the crane’s boom.

To start the car-propelling operation, Mr. Green, from his position in the crane’s cab, and using the crane’s motor for power, raised its boom up off the ramp in front of the crane, and swung it over to the side of the two-car unit, so that a section hand could fasten the end of the boom’s cable to the railroad track ahead of the cars. The plaintiff ascended from the ground to the floor of the front, or “trailer”, car of the two-car unit, and released that car’s brakes, then he stepped across the coupling to the rear car, and standing on this car’s front end, astraddle the heavy cross tie fastened across that end to keep the crane from running off of it, referred to as a “buffer”, “bumper”, or “header”, he released this car’s brakes and signaled to Mr. Green, in the crane’s cab behind him, to start tightening the cable. When the crane’s motor began to wind up, or tighten, the cable, the two flat cars did not move, and the roadmaster, who was on the ground (apparently observing the operation) “bled air off of the air cylinder.” Thereupon, the crane operator, Green, “made another pull on the cable” with the crane’s motor, and *9 the crane, rather than the two flat cars, moved forward on its tracks and shoved the ramp forward, pinning plaintiff’s right foot and ankle (where he stood on the flat car’s floor) between the ramp’s front end and the header. The crane operator applied the crane’s brakes, but the crane’s wheels slid on its tracks, and, before plaintiff could be freed from the place where his foot and ankle were trapped, he had suffered the injuries which precipitated his commencement of this action, in June, 1964.

In his petition, plaintiff alleged his injury resulted in his loss of the distal end of the tibia in the vicinity of the medial mal-leolus, causing a restriction of the foot in lateral movement of the ankle and foot, with resulting damage to the soft tissue structure about the ankle joint and causing traumatic arthritis in the ankle joint. Plaintiff further alleged that, as a result of the injury, surgery had to be performed on the ankle, and he has a 35% permanent partial disability to his right foot.

Plaintiff further alleged that the disability would cause him a loss of future earnings, and prayed for his costs, and for damages in the total sum of $50,000.00, including loss of future earnings and pain and suffering, as well as an item of $8,000.00 for lost earnings since his injury. In his petition, plaintiff attributed his injury to defendant’s negligence in failing (1) to provide him a reasonably safe place to work; (2) to provide him a reasonably safe and proper method to perform his work, as required by the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (hereinafter sometimes referred to by the initials “FELA”), and (3) in failing to properly secure the crane and ramp, thus allowing them to move forward on the flat car during the wenching operation.

Defendant’s answer consisted of both a qualified general denial, special denials, a plea of contributory negligence, and an admission that plaintiff was injured in the course of his employment. One of the special denials was that plaintiff was ordered to perform the task in which he was engaged when injured, in the manner in which he performed it. In this connection, defendant further alleged that plaintiff voluntarily chose that method, when a safer one was available, and, in thus unnecessarily placing himself in a hazardous position, was contributorily negligent. Another of defendant’s denials was that plaintiff had suffered any “dollar damages.”., Defendant further alleged that it had pro-1 vided plaintiff with medical attention and that he had recovered sufficiently to resume his normal work, without any loss of wages. Defendant also pleaded that anyj damages the jury found plaintiff suffered 1 from negligence on its part, should be diminished by reason of his contributory negligence. j

Upon the issues joined by the above described pleadings, this case went to trial before a jury in December, 1964. At the 1 close of the evidence, when both parties had rested, defendant interposed a motion j for a directed verdict, which was overruled,! with allowance of an exception. After de-' fendant had submitted seventeen requested instructions, all of which were refused, the court instructed the jury and submitted the i case to its consideration. After its de-i liberations, the jury returned a general verdict for plaintiff in the amount of $30,000.00 and judgment was rendered accordingly.

Defendant submits its arguments 'for reversal under two Propositions. Those directed at the trial court’s assigned error in rejecting its challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence are set forth under “PROPOSITION I”, which is:

“The evidence as a whole is insufficient to establish negligence on the part of defendant, which was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury.”

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Bluebook (online)
1967 OK 26, 424 P.2d 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-rock-island-and-pacific-r-co-v-hawes-okla-1967.