Eason v. East Tennessee, V. & G. Ry. Co.

51 F. 935, 2 C.C.A. 549, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1338
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 13, 1892
DocketNo. 24
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 51 F. 935 (Eason v. East Tennessee, V. & G. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eason v. East Tennessee, V. & G. Ry. Co., 51 F. 935, 2 C.C.A. 549, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1338 (5th Cir. 1892).

Opinion

McCormick, Circuit Judge.

This was an action to recover damages for the negligent homicide of plaintiff’s minor child, under the Georgia statute of 1887, which provides that—

“A mother, or, if no mother, a father, may recover for the homicide of a child, minor or sui juris, upon whom she or he is dependent, or who contributes to his or her support, unless said child leave a wife, husband, or child.” See Laws Ga. 1887, p. 44.

The plaintiff proved the statutory conditions essential to maintain the action, such as contribution to support and partial dependence, about which there is. no dispute. The case went to trial on the merits. Plaintiff’s evidence tended to show the following:

“The deceased child was eight years old. His mother, the plaintiff, was a laundress in Atlanta, and the child, besides contributing-to the mother’s .support by assisting in that business at home, was sent at times to collect money. On the day of his killing he was sent to collect money on Peachtree street, in Atlanta, a point which lay beyond defendant’s tracks. There was a safe passage on his route by Magnolia or Foundry streets, under defendant’s tracks, and the mother had (as she testified) bidden the child not to go on the railroad track. On said day, instead of going directly on the errand, the' child went on the high embankment of defendant’s railroad above the streets, which passed under the railroad, and played there with other children, with whom he was in the habit of playing there. The child ,was playing at Magnolia street trestle. A switch engine of defendant, pushing in front three box ears and pulling behind five or six other cars, came in the direction of the children, running at a speed of four or five miles an hour. Two men stood on the front cars. The deceased child crossed in front of the train, was knocked down, and caught up alive by the break beam or rod, or some of the projecting iron in front of the car. He was caught in the clothes, 'and his body lifted and suspended above the track. In this manner he was carried, alive and screaming, ‘ Oh, Lordy! Oh Lordy! ’ for one block, or the distance of three hundred and eighty (380) feet. During this time the engineer and crew of the train made no effort to stop it. The train ran so slowly that a person could readily get on and off it, and it could have been stopped at this point at from one to three car lengths, or from 34 to 102 feet. The companions of the child ran alongside of the train, screaming all the way. They shouted, ‘Stop that train, or you will kill a boy,’ and, ‘You have caught a boy under that car.’ One of the crew, standing on the car, looked down at the children and laughed. The engineer looked out at them, and said, ‘ I don’t care; some of them ought to be killed.’ Citizens standing across an adjacent street heard cries of, ‘ Oh, Lordy! Oh, Lordy! ’ and other cries. After rolling 380 feet - to Foundry street trestle, the boy’s clothes and hold broke, he fell across the rail, was rolled over, mangled, and killed. The engine passed over his body, and the engineer looked down and uttered an oath.
“The defendant’s evidence directly' contradicted the plaintiff’s, and tended to show that the child stepped on the track without any warning, and was [937]*937immediately run over and killed. That the children were not at Magnolia hut at Foundry street trestle. That there were no cries before the boy was run over, but after he was killed the other children screamed and holloaed and ran off the embankment. That the child was not caught up and carried, was not seen on the track, and that, if there had been cries before the boy was killed, the train crew would have heard them. That the place was no crossing. That there was a lookout on the end of the car in direction of the child. That this child had been in the habit of picking up coal on the tracks at this point, and had once before been carried to its mother by the railroad employes. The mother was in the habit of sending him there for the purpose of gathering coal and chips. That the engineer did not use the language attributed to him. That the train was stopped as soon as possible after striking the child. The road had used every effort to keep these children, including this boy, off the track at this place. That the day before, this boy got on the track before the engine, and forced it to stop and the fireman to get off and run him off, and, as soon as he returned to the engine, the boy went back, and placed his sack of coal on the track before the engine.”

On the case thus presented, the trial judge charged the jury as follows:

“This is a suit brought by the mother of a child to recover the value of his life, under a recent act of the legislature of Georgia. In order for the mother to recover at all in this ease, it would be necessary to show that the child ■contributed to her support, and that she was substantially dependent upon such child, in part, for support. It would be immaterial if the proof shows that she was likewise dependent upon her own labor for support. The inquiry is, you perceive,—and I read you the language of the supreme court of this state construing the act under which this action is brought,—that ‘the child must contribute to her support, and the proof must show that she was substantially dependent upon such child, in part, for support.’ If this fact exists, and if she is entitled to recover at all, after I have given you some principles of law which control the case, she is entitled to recover for the life of the child without any deduction therefrom for the expenses of the child through life. ‘ The full value of the life of the deceased, as shown by the evidence, shall be held to be the full value of the life of the deceased, without .any deduction of the necessary expenses of the deceased had he lived.’ Under the law, before this act, there was a deduction made; and to illustrate what the law means by that; when a wife, for instance, recovered for the death of her husband, there would be a deduction, after ascertaining what he could earn, for what his own expenses would have been. This law changes that, and the value of the life is to be considered without that. Of course, whether or not the plaintiff is entitled to recover at all depends upon what you may believe from the facts in the case, after the court has given you certain principles of law to control you in your deliberations. The jury, in arriving at the value of the life of the child, if yon get to that point, may ■consider, if you desire to do so, and it is for you to determine, some tables which have been offered in evidence,—mortality tables and annuity tables. It is for you to say from the evidence, taking it altogether, if the plaintiff is entitled to recover the value of the life of the child,—of this boy,—and you would find accordingly.
“The first inquiry of the jury upon the question of liability is whether or not the defendant in this case, by its servants and employes, was guilty of negligence. It was the duty of the defendant, by its employes in charge of this train, to have exercised ordinary care and diligence in the management ■of the train as to any person who might be upon the track, and this care and diligence would be considered by the jury in reference to the location of the [938]

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Related

Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Jones
95 F. 370 (Sixth Circuit, 1899)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 F. 935, 2 C.C.A. 549, 1892 U.S. App. LEXIS 1338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eason-v-east-tennessee-v-g-ry-co-ca5-1892.