Hill v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co.

22 Ohio C.C. 291
CourtOhio Circuit Courts
DecidedApril 15, 1901
StatusPublished

This text of 22 Ohio C.C. 291 (Hill v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Circuit Courts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hill v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co., 22 Ohio C.C. 291 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1901).

Opinion

Parksr, J.

This action was brought by Euíu Hill, plaintiff in error here [293]*293and plaintiff in the court below, as administratrix of the estate of William Hill, to recover from the defendant railroad company on account of the death of William Hill, occurring on the east side of the river in 'the city of Toledo, on the railroad of the defendant company, and it was charged that his death resulted from the negligence of the railroad company.

It appears that the decedent was a brakeihan upon a freight train consisting of over seventy cars, which was proceeding-westward and approaching the river at Toledo and the junction of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad with the defendant company’s, railroad; that he was sitting upon the caboose at the rear end of the train; that the engineer of the tram was apprised that the semaphore some distance ahead of the train was turned so as to require him to bring his train to a. stop and ihat he did bring his train to a stop; that the stoppage of the train resulted in the deceased being thrown from the train and killed. It is said that the railroad company was negligent in this, that the engineer was negligent in bringing the train to a sudden stop unnecessarily;'that he had plenty of time and distance within which to bring the train safely to a stop by doing it gradually by the appliance of what is called the “service brake,” instead of the application that is said to have been made, i. e., the “emergency brake.” It is said also that the defendant company was negligent in that it did not provide a rule whereby the engineer should give warning to the trainmen when about to make the application of the brakes, since it is said the application of the service brake is liable to result in the application of an emergency brake, though not intended, and that the emergency stop is very dangerous and gives a very hard jolt to the train and is likely to throw one from the train; and it is urged that since this is likely to occur from any stop, the' company should provide a rule for a notification by signal from the engine that the brakes are going to be applied, so that the trainmen may be upon their guard against an emergency stop, whether intentionally applied or whether inadvertently applied in the effort to apply the service stop. •

It is said that the railroad company was also negligent in that the brakes, were.out of order or defective; .that there is [294]*294testimony tending to show that the engineer did not purposely apply the emergency stop, but that he intended to apply the service stop, and that on account of the defective condition of the brakes, the emergency stop was applied, bringing the. train to a sudden stand and throwing the decedent therefrom.

The company denied all negligence and averred that the deceased was guilty of contributory negligence.

Upon the issues thus presented, the case was submitted to a jury that returned a verdict in favor of the defendant be«low. A motion for a new trial was made and overruled and the plaintiff in error complains of various0alleged errors, which, he says resulted to his prejudice and on account of which he seeks a reversal of the judgment of'the court below.

One of the questions which arose upon the trial of the case and which is presented here is, whether the engineer and the deceased brakoman were fellow servants, they both being servants of the defendant company upon the same train, it being contended bj the railroad company that if there was any negligence other than the negligence of the deceased which resulted in his injury and death, it was the negligence of the engineer in needlessly applying the emergency brake, and that the engineer being a fellow servant of the deceased, no right of action accrued on that account.

The court, at the request of the defendant, charged the jury as follows:

“The engineer upon the train was the fellow servant of the deceased, and the deceased assumed the risk of injury'resulting from any negligence of the engineer; and the plaintiff cannot recover for any injury resulting to the deceased from the engineer’s negligence.” To the giving of the above request by the court to the jury the plaintiff by her counsel at the time excepted.

It is contended on behalf of the plaintiff in error that under the statutes, section 3365-21, Revised Statutes, these two servants were in separate departments of service, and that therefore the plaintiff might have recovered, on account of the negligence of the engineer and that this instruction, that they were fellow servants, should not have been given.

Section 3365-22, 87.0. L,., 149, reads as follows:

“That in all actions against a railroad company for per[295]*295sonal injury to, or death resulting from personal injury, of any person, while in the employ of such company, arising from the negligence of such company or its officers or employes, it shall be held in addition to the liability now existing by law, that every person in the employ of such company, actually having power or authority to direct or control any other employe of such company, is not the fellow servant, but superior of such other employe, also that every person in the.ent ploy of such company having charge or control of employes in any separate branch or department, shall be held to be the superior and not fellow servant of employes in any other branch or department who have no power to direct or control in the branch or department in which they are employed.”

There was testimony here tending to show that the deceased did not have the power to control or direct in any branch whatever while the engineer did have power to direct and control at least the fireman upon the train. So that the question is directly presented, whether or not the engineer and the rear brakeman, or the deceased, were in separate departments or branches of the service within the purview of this statute.

That an engineer upon one train is in a separate branch or department from a brakeman upon another train has béen held in C. H. & D. R. R. Co. v. Margrat, 51 Ohio St., 130. But it is urged by the defendant in error that a very different question is presented here, where both are trainmen upon the same train.

The doctrine upon the subject of what is called the different ■departments of service amounting to a limitation upon the .•doctrine of fellow servants had grown up and been applied in -various parts of the United States before the adoption of this ■statute by our legislature, and it seems apparent to us that in ■using the term “separate branch or department,” and in providing these rules the legislature must have had in view the doc•trine and rules theretofore applied in other states; for the legislature does not undertake to define what shall be deemed •a different department or branch of service, but leaves that to be determined by the courts, as we think, upon principles ■analogous to those laid down in the cases where this departmental limitation had theretofore been adopted and applied.

[296]*296I will read from 12 Am. and Eng. Ency.

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Bluebook (online)
22 Ohio C.C. 291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-v-lake-shore-michigan-southern-railway-co-ohiocirct-1901.