Colorado Midland Railway Co. v. Edwards

24 Colo. App. 350
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 10, 1913
DocketNo. 3656
StatusPublished

This text of 24 Colo. App. 350 (Colorado Midland Railway Co. v. Edwards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colorado Midland Railway Co. v. Edwards, 24 Colo. App. 350 (Colo. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Cunningham, Presiding Judge.

On the 17th day of December, 1908, plaintiff was injnred by a car of the defendant company running over his right foot and leg, so injuring that member as to require amputation. On September 3, 1909, plaintiff filed -his amended complaint, on which the case was tried, in the district court against appellant and the Golden Cycle Mining Company. On the trial he dismissed his suit as to the latter defendant. The jury awarded plaintiff a verdict of $5,000. The record discloses the following facts: The Golden Cycle Mining Company owns a reduction works at or near Colorado City, and in close prox[352]*352unity to tlie main line of the appellant company. The Golden Cycle Company had laid a spnr track connecting its reduction works with the main line of appellant’s railway, said track being the sole property of the Golden Cycle Company. It was the custom of appellant to run its ears and engines over these spur tracks for the purpose of switching cars of ore consigned to the Golden Cycle Company into the yards of said company, and placing such cars as directed by the Golden Cycle Company. On the morning of the 17th of December, and immediately before the accident, Edwards, who was an ore shoveller in the employ of the Golden Cycle Company, emerged from an ore bin or chute which was located beneath the surrounding surface. One or two cars belonging to the defendant company stood at the mouth of the ore chute from which plaintiff emerged. These cars were entirely disconnected from any train or engine. The opening of the ore chute through which Edwards reached the surface was located very near to- the end of one of these cars, and, as he straightened up after clambering upon the platform, his body appears to have been in the line of these cars. At any rate, an engine propelling one or more cars, and coming from the west, struck the end of one of the cars, opposite from the end where Edwards was, and shunted the disconnected car over plaintiff’s limb, resulting in the damages sued -for.

1. One of the contentions of the defendant is that while its switching crew was operating in the yards of the Golden Cycle Company, it was not in the employ of the railroad company. This contention is based upon the theory that the railroad company simply loaned its switching crew and equipments to the Golden Cycle Company whenever the latter company desired work done in its yards which required such crew and equipments, hence, it is contended by appellant, if there was any liability to [353]*353the appellee in this case the Golden Cycle Company, and not the railroad company, must respond. We cannot yield assent to this contention. The switching crew consisted of an engineer, a fireman, two brakemen or switch-men, and a switching boss or foreman. All of the equipment used by this crew was the property of appellant, and the.crew was on its payrolls. It is true the evidence discloses that while switching ore cars and doing work of that sort upon the premises of the Golden Cycle Company the crew acted under the direction of that company, to the extent of placing and moving cars pursuant to a switching list furnished by the representatives of the Golden Cycle Company. But we are persuaded that this is not sufficient evidence to warrant us in holding that the switching crew was loaned by the railroad company to the mining compány, and that the' said crew pro haec vice became the employes of the latter company. Authorities are cited by appellant to support this contention, but we are convinced by a careful reading of them that; in most instances at least, the facts involved in this case and the facts upon which the cases cited by counsel for appellant turn are so substantially different as to make these authorities inapplicable. Take, for instance, the case of Sexton v. New York Central Co., 114 App. Div., 678, 99 N. Y. S., 1111, which counsel for appellant asserts is closely in point, and from which he quotes at length: it appears in that case that the engine of the railroad company had been employed in the yards- of a foundry company exclusively for some weeks prior to the accident; that in the operation of its business at the time of the accident the foundry company employed two engines, one of which belonged to it, and the other to the New York Central railroad; that “the crew, although hired and paid by the defendant (the railway company), were under the direction of the then foreman of the Corrigan Company, to whom they re[354]*354ported in the morning, and to whom they looked for all instructions in regard to the work each day. ’ ’ The record in this case discloses no such state of facts. It was the custom of the switching crew of the railroad company to go upon the premises of the reduction works and do whatever switching was required to be done, so as to complete it, if possible, by eight o’clock in the morning, but there is nothing in the record to indicate that the reduction company had any authority to order the switching crew when to appear, or when to cease its work of switching in its yards; there is nothing to indicate that there was an officer of that company known as a “yard foreman;” the reduction company, so far as the evidence indicates, had no engine of its own, but relied entirely upon the railroad company for such work. Moreover, it appears conclusively that the reduction company; not under rules and regulations formulated by that company, but under the general rules and regulations formulated by its employer, the railroad company, and precisely as the crew operated when in the yards of the railroad company. We quote the following from the testimony of witness Russell, the engineer, who was in charge of the switch engine at the time of the accident:

“I have a book of rules of the company in regard to the signals that should be given. (It is evident from what follows and from the admissions of counsel for appellant in the brief that the witness here refers by the use of the word ‘company’ to the railroad company.) Before going to work switching in the Golden Cycle Mill I was required to sign a schedule of rules. (Referring to the book in his possession.) This one. This is the only one that I had to sign. There is nothing in the set of rules regulating the signals that must be given in entering an ore house where men are at work. There is no rule, in the book of rules' by which I am working for the Colorado Midland, at any one place for any one movement in any place; in the [355]*355Golden Cycle Mill, or anywhere else. I work only under the direction of the company at all times; both on the road and at places of that kind. There were no rules especially belonging to this particular place where the accident occurred. (Which was on the premises of the Golden Cycle Company.) Before backing the cars into the ore sheds the rule requires me to ring the bell. ’ ’

Witness is here referring to rules furnished him by the railroad company. The supreme court of New York, in the Sexton case, supra, lays stress upon the fact that the employment of the engine and crew of the railroad company in the yards of the foundry company was permanent, and, commenting upon the exclusiveness of the foundry company’s control over the crew, uses this lan'guage:

“The defendant, for the period in which it loaned the use of its engine and crew, surrendered the entire control of its employes to the Corrigan Company. The railroad company could not, during such use, direct its employes as to the manner in which the work for the Corrigan Company should be performed, or make rules and regulations for their guidance.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 Colo. App. 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colorado-midland-railway-co-v-edwards-coloctapp-1913.