Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Martin

41 N.E. 1051, 13 Ind. App. 485, 1895 Ind. App. LEXIS 273
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 6, 1895
DocketNo. 1,413
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 41 N.E. 1051 (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Martin) 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
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad v. Martin, 41 N.E. 1051, 13 Ind. App. 485, 1895 Ind. App. LEXIS 273 (Ind. Ct. App. 1895).

Opinions

Davis, J.

Since the rehearing was granted, the case has been fully and ably presented to the court on oral argument. Great diligence and research have also been shown by the learned counsel in the exhaustive briefs filed for our consideration. W e have given the many questions discussed careful consideration, and are of the opinion that the decision of the case turns on the question whether the special verdict shows that the decedent was in the pump house in the line of his duty by implied invitation of the appellant at the time he was injured.

•It is alleged in the complaint, in substance, that the decedent was in the employ of the appellant as a section hand engaged in the repair of the road bed and tracks, and that while engaged in that service and in the' line of his duty, he was by invitation of the appellant, eating his dinner in the pump house, where he was injured through the negligence of the appellant by reason of the explosion of a defective boiler. The complaint clearly proceeds upon the theory that he was injured while eating his dinner in the pump house. It clearly appears that he was not engaged in the actual work of repairing the road bed and tracks at the time he was injured. The controlling question the court is required to determine is whether, under the circumstances, eating Ms dinner on the premises where he was at work is [487]*487shown to have been an incident to the service of the decedent, and whether there was an invitation, express or implied, by appellant, to him to go into the pump house on the line of its railway near the place where he was engaged in such work, for the purpose of eating his dinner therein. With these preliminary observations we will proceed to the consideration of the special verdict and the question arising thereon under the issues.

The first specification of the special verdict states that the appellant owned and operated a line of railway through the town of Covington, on the 17th day of February, 1893, and that it is the owner of a pump house on the line of its railway. The other specifications of the special verdict, omitting the formal parts and the conclusion, read as follows: “(2) That at, and for a long time prior to said date, the defendant pumped water at said pump house into its water tank, and kept in said pump house a steam engine and boiler, whereby it furnished the power for pumping said water. (3) That said pump house was a small building situated about thirty (30) feet south of the main track of defendant’s road, and about thirty (30) feet distant from the west end of defendant’s depot, at said city, and was in plain sight at all times of said main track, and of trains passing-thereon, and in plain sight of the platform at the west end of said depot. (4) That said boiler was an upright boiler, about three feet in diameter, and consisted of an inclosed, cylinder of boiler iron, with a perpendicular cylinder inside thereof, said boiler being heated by fire kept and maintained in said inside cylinder; that said boiler was kept about the center of said building, so as to leave a considerable space on all sides of it, and there was in said building also a vacuum pump, and there was also kept in said building a bench. (5) That the intestate, William Manifee, entered into the employ of the de[488]*488fendant in the fall of 1892 as a section hand on the defendant’s line of railway, upon a section thereof known as section thirteen (13), extending from a point four miles east of said city of Covington to a point about two miles west of said city, and was placed by the defendant, along with three or four other men similarly employed, under the charge and control of the section boss or foreman, and subject to his orders and directions, and it became his duty to work, at the times and places indicated by such section boss or foreman, upon and along the line of said section 13, and upon the side tracks and yards of said defendant at said city of Covington, and to unload coal for the supply of ^the depot and pump house at said city, and to unload sand to be dried in said-pump house, and continued in such labor and employment until the time of receiving the fatal-injury hereinafter stated. (6) That in the winter of 1889, and ever since, up to and including the lYth day of February, 1893, the defendant has permitted its section men working on said section to eat their dinner in said pump house whenever the weather was inclement, and during all such times it has been the habit and custom of such section men tó use said pump house for said purpose whenever they worked near enough thereto to avail themselves of its warmth and comfort, provided that the condition of the weather required them to retreat to a warm and sheltered place for such purpose, all of which was done with the consent of the defendant, and without any objection whatever on the part of the defendant, and by authority of their section foreman, and with the express consent, license and invitation of the person placed by the defendant in charge of said pump house, and that during all said time the section foreman of said section had authority to and did employ and discharge the section hands upon said section of said railroad for [489]*489and on behalf of the defendant. (I) That at the time aforesaid it was necessary for the section hands npon said section to devote a considerable portion of their time at work upon the side tracks at said city of Covington, and upon the main track at and near to said city, and it was convenient for said section hands during a large portion of the time to eat their dinner on defendant’s premises at said city. (8) That said railroad, during said time, was so located with reference to the. city of Covington, and with reference to the homes of the employes upon said section, that said section hands could not go to their homes to eat their dinners during the time that was allowed them for the purpose of eating dinner, and that in the winter time the defendant only allowed the section hands an interval of half an hour in their labor for dinner, which time so allowed was too short to enable such section hands to leave the defendant’s premises for warmth or shelter and to eat their dinners; and, on account of the shortness of the time so allowed, such employes were compelled to eat their dinners upon the defendant’s premises, and it was necessary for such employes to bring their dinners with them when they came to work in the morning, and it was their custom to so do. (9) That there was not, during any of said time, on or convenient to the defendant’s premises, any place sufficiently comfortable, and at the same time suitable, in which the said section hands could eat their dinner in cold or inclement weather, except the said pump house, the only other comfortable place for such purpose being the waiting room of the defendant’s depot, which was unsuitable, for the reason that there was hut one waiting room belonging to such depot, and because a passenger train stopped at said station a few minutes after noon, and that said pump house was a suitable, comfortable and appropriate place for the pur[490]*490pose aforesaid; that said February 17, 1893, was a cold, blustery and stormy day, and was a day unfit for persons to eat dinner away from fire and shelter.

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Bluebook (online)
41 N.E. 1051, 13 Ind. App. 485, 1895 Ind. App. LEXIS 273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-cincinnati-chicago-st-louis-railroad-v-martin-indctapp-1895.