Denbeigh v. Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co.

132 P. 112, 23 Idaho 663, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 106
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 132 P. 112 (Denbeigh v. Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Denbeigh v. Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Co., 132 P. 112, 23 Idaho 663, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 106 (Idaho 1913).

Opinions

STEWART, J.

— This is an action to recover damages sustained by plaintiff for personal injuries. The cause was tried to a jury and a verdict rendered in favor of respondent for the sum of $15,510. Judgment was rendered in accordance with the verdict. A motion for a new trial was made and overruled and this appeal is from the judgment and from the order overruling the motion for a new trial.

The facts are as follows: The appellant railroad company has for a number of years operated a railroad in the county of Shoshone, Idaho, from Wallace along what is known as Canyon creek to the town of Burke. Between the towns of Wallace and Burke are several small hamlets or villages. The canyon is very narrow and circuitous, and on the sides of said canyon are a number of producing mines where the residents of the hamlets and villages are engaged in employment. Along and through the canyon the appellant and also the Northern Pacific Railroad Company have lines of railroads^ and such railroads and the creek take up a large part of the entire width of the canyon. The complaint alleges, and the answer admits, that the railroad of the appellant from Burke to Gem and between Burke and Mace, including the place, where the respondent was injured, had been openly, constantly, habitually, notoriously and customarily used by large numbers of pedestrians and persons living along and going along the canyon during all seasons of the year and all hours of the day and night, as a foot-path and thoroughfare and roadway, along which the children went to school, p'eoplp went to and from the postoffice and mercantile establishments and to and from their homes, and that the company knew of that use.

The respondent, Prank E. Denbeigh, a miner working in the Standard mine located on the hills running down to Canyon creek, on the morning of the 9th of October, 1911, left his boarding-house in the lower part of Burke to go to Mace postoffice, situated between the boarding-house and Wallace. He went upon the track of the appellant at a place where a road crosses the track and proceeded thence in the direction of Mace for a distance of from 100 to 150 feet,. where [669]*669he met another miner by the name of Perry, and upon meeting Perry the respondent stopped upon the track and conversed with Perry for a few minutes, and while standing on the track during the conversation looked up the track in the direction of Burke and at that time there was no train in sight, and the approach of a train was not heard by the respondent. The railroad track at the point where the conversation was had was steep and rises at a grade of approximately three and one-half or four per cent in the direction of Burke. From the time Denbeigh left Perry until he was struck by the train of the appellant coasting down from Burke by him, he describes his course and the conditions- and what happened to him which resulted in the injury. The respondent says: ■“There is a wagon road crossing that track near where we stood talking, somewheres near 100 feet and probably a little further, 125 feet it might be; I don’t know exactly; anyway from 100 to 125 feet up toward Burke from where we stood •on the track talking. I walked down toward Mace after leaving Perry about 50 yards. I had good hearing, or I considered I had. I had had no defects in hearing or sight at that time. At that time if there had been any sounds I would have heard them. When I stood and talked to Perry I saw no train or heard no train. I heard no whistle nor bell, nor did not hear any whistle or any bell until I heard that shrill whistle at me, and I turned my head and saw the fender right at me, and I jumped; that is the last I remember. I jumped immediately upon hearing that whistle.” The respondent also testified that he was familiar with the fact that the railroad company observed the practice of blowing a whistle or ringing a bell up the canyon beyond the highway crossing, and that the train always blew for the bridges and the big curves and cuts, especially when anyone was on the track; that it was the custom of the train to whistle for that road crossing and for the bridge above.

The evidence of the respondent Denbeigh and Percy above referred to, that there was no signal either by whistle or bell until the danger signal was given immediately before Denbeigh was struck, was corroborated by seven other witnesses. [670]*670Some of these witnesses were persons who lived along the railroad and near by and within hearing distance of the passing trains, and some were passing over and .along the railroad, and two of them were school children eleven and fourteen years of age, going to school, who were- eye-witnesses of the accident.

The engineer who had charge of the train which caused the accident testifies: That he has been an engineer in the employ of the appellant for six years, and that for the last three years he had charge of a train, as engineer, running the train between Burke and Mace, and that he was in charge of the train on the morning of October 9, 1911; that he was running from Burke to Gem at the time of the accident; that the train consisted of five cars loaded with ore; that the cars were ahead of the engine and the engine was backing down the track;' that he left Burke about 8:45 or 8:50. He says: ‘ ‘ The road curves beyond the schoolhouse, and it curves on by the schoolhouse, and there is a straight piece of track from the bridge down to the road crossing, and curves from the road crossing around through the cut to Mace. As I came to the curve above the Mace schoolhouse on the morning of the accident I blew two long and two short blasts of the whistle, which is required by rule-and law, and as I come on to this bridge some distance here, 400 feet from this public road crossing, I blew two long and two short blasts of the whistle, and shortly after I blew those whistles I seen a man walking down the track in this curve. It is nothing unusual to see a man walking down the track and I don’t always stop when I see a man walking down the track. I seen that the' man had not noticed the — apparently had not noticed the whistle I had blown for the crossing, so I blew another whistle in addition to warn him, which was two long and two short blasts of the whistle. At this time I was on the road crossing ; still the man did not seem to pay any attention, and as I was coming along at the rate of ten miles an hour I was gaining on him rapidly. I blew another blast of the whistle and immediately gave the emergency application, which is a quick brake to stop in case that the man did not get off, [671]*671which he had time to get off if he had heeded the whistle, and at the same time I was whistling all that I possibly could all the time I was not busy at other things. Shortly after that Mr. Denbeigh went out of sight by me. I could not see right around the tank, it being square. He was possibly 30 feet out of sight before I struck him. I still had hopes that he would get out of the way, because the train being somewhat slacked and the noise we made. After he was struck the train stopped about a train’s length, somewhere about 250 feet. I must have been about one hundred feet from him when I put on the emergency brake. What I mean by the emergency brake is a quick brake that is used in an emergency. It is everything that can be done in a ease of danger. It applies all the brakes that are to be had and the power within the power of the engineer on the locomotive. I was above the crossing when I first saw Mr. Denbeigh on the track. When the train was stopped the rear end of the train was about 30 feet from Mr. Denbeigh. The bell was rung on the crossing.

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Bluebook (online)
132 P. 112, 23 Idaho 663, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/denbeigh-v-oregon-washington-railroad-navigation-co-idaho-1913.