Feeck v. Delaware & Hudson Co.

174 A.D. 71, 158 N.Y.S. 825, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6022
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMay 3, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 174 A.D. 71 (Feeck v. Delaware & Hudson Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Feeck v. Delaware & Hudson Co., 174 A.D. 71, 158 N.Y.S. 825, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6022 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

Woodward, J. :

This action was brought originally against the Delaware and Hudson Company and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, alleging negligence on the part of the defendants resulting in the death of the plaintiff’s intestate on the 28th day of November, 1913. Upon the trial of the action the complaint was dismissed as to the Delaware and Hudson Company, and the case comes here on an appeal by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, now known as the New York Central Railroad Company, from the judgment in favor of the plaintiff, entered upon the verdict of the jury.

It is important in the determination of this appeal to discover just what neglect is charged as against the appellant. The complaint, after alleging the incorporation of both of the defendants under the laws of the State of New York, alleges that at the time of the injuries herein complained of plaintiff’s intes[73]*73tate William B. Bartholemew was employed by the defendant D. & H. at its yards in the city of Schenectady, N. Y., and was then and there engaged in interstate commerce between the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and other States; that on or about November 28,1913, at about nine A. m., while plaintiff’s intestate was employed by the defendant D. & H.,. at its yards north of the Union Station in the city of Schenectady, N. Y., and was engaged in the performance of his duties taking the numbers of cars on the joint tracks of defendants at said place, and was lawfully on defendants’ track No. 6, without fault or negligence on his part, but solely by reason of defendants’ negligence, hereinafter specified, plaintiff’s intestate was struck by a locomotive of the defendant New York Central which was running backwards in a northerly direction, and received injuries which resulted in almost instant death.” In giving the details of the alleged negligence on the part of the Delaware and Hudson Company, the plaintiff recognizes the fact that track No. 6, involved in this action, was the property of the New York Central Railroad Company, and, in specifying the alleged negligence of the appellant, it is alleged that the death of William B. Bartholemew was due to the negligence of the defendant New York Central, which consisted, among other things, in that said tracks 5 and 6 of defendant New York Central and all tracks used in common by defendants were so constructed and placed by reason of their close proximity to defendant D. & H.’s tracks and the sharp curve to the east and various other obstructions and other of defendant New York Central’s tracks parallel thereto that it was impossible for one working in the yards of defendant D. & H. at said place to-see or hear an approaching train in time to avoid the same; that said engine of defendant New York Central that struck said William B. Bartholemew was backing in a northerly direction on track 6 of defendant New York Central’s tracks between a string of cars standing on defendant New York Central’s track 5 and a southbound freight train of defendant D. & H. on the track adjoining defendant New York Central’s track 8 on the east, at a high, excessive, unlawful and improper rate of speed, and was not under the control of the engineer thereof; that no bell was [74]*74rung or whistle blown on said engine nor was any warning whatever given to said William B. Bartholomew of the approach of said engine; that said tracks 5 and 6 of defendant New York Central and all tracks used in common by defendants at said place were so situated in view of said curve and their proximity to defendant D. & H.’s tracks to the east that a watchman should have been kept there to warn persons lawfully in said yards of defendant D. & H., and lawfully upon said tracks 5 and 6 and all' tracks used in common by defendants, or a gong erected and maintained for such purpose, none of which things was done and as to each and all of which several things defendant New York Central was guilty of negligence.”

It will be observed that the appellant had no notice from the pleadings that it was claimed that the New York Central tracks 5 and 6 were jointly used by the defendants; these tracks are referred to as “said tracks 5 and 6 of defendant New York Central and all tracks used in common by defendants were so constructed,” etc., and this expression is twice repeated in effect, but nowhere is it asserted that tracks 5 and 6 were used in common by both defendants, and the record shows that these tracks 5 and 6 were a part of the appellant’s freight yards, and that it was the custom to move freight cars over these tracks in both directions. It is important to keep these facts in mind, because the judgment now before this court on appeal is attempted to be supported upon the theory that the plaintiff’s intestate was, in fact, between track 6 of the New York Central Railroad Company and track 7 of the Delaware and Hudson Company, these tracks running parallel and in close proximity at and near the Union Station in the city of Schenectady, and the accident occurred at a point about sixty feet north of the northerly end of an open platform constructed in connection with the Union Station.

If the rule is observed that the judgment should be secundum allegata et probata, or that the judgment should be rendered in conformity with the allegations and proofs of the parties (Wright v. Delafield, 25 N. Y. 266, 268), then this judgment cannot be sustained, for the proofs not only fail to establish any one of the specified delinquencies, but they fail to estab[75]*75lish the facts as set forth in the pleadings, though the inference that the plaintiff’s intestate was upon appellant’s track No. 6, as alleged in the complaint, is very much better supported by the evidence than the suggestion now made that the decedent must have been between the tracks of the two defendants. The body was cut into two parts and the head was found between the tracks 5 and 6, while the remainder of the body was between the rails of track No. 6; and as there is no evidence whatever that he was at any other point at the time of the accident, the inference fairly to be derived from the evidence is that the intestate was either upon track 6, as alleged in the complaint, or that he was between tracks 5 and 6 at the time of the accident, and no reason is suggested in the complaint why the plaintiff’s intestate, employed in the yards of the Delaware and Hudson Company in taking the numbers of cars stationed upon the various sidings, should be found either upon the appellant’s track No. 6, nor between track 5 and 6, for these tracks concededly belong to the appellant, and were not alleged in the complaint to have been used in common by the defendants, nor is there any competent evidence in the record to show that the Delaware and Hudson Company had any right whatever upon track No. 6 belonging to the appellant. Certainly there is no evidence that this employee of the Delaware and Hudson Company, engaged in taking car numbers in the yards of the latter company, had any lawful right to be upon the right of way and between the tracks of the appellant. He was performing no service for the New York Central, and the mere fact, that the two railroads exchanged freight cars over these tracks during the day, or that a particular passenger train might have been started from one of the New York Central tracks to pass over the Delaware and Hudson Company’s lines, did not operate to give the employees of the latter a lawful right to make use of the New York Central’s right of way and tracks.

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Related

Ryan v. New York Central Railroad
210 A.D. 623 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1924)
Feeck v. New York Central Railroad
180 A.D. 253 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1917)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
174 A.D. 71, 158 N.Y.S. 825, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/feeck-v-delaware-hudson-co-nyappdiv-1916.