Johnson v. Southern Pac. Co.

117 F. 462, 54 C.C.A. 508, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4455
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided August 28, 1902·No. No. 1,722·Published·Cited by 27 cases

Opinions

SANBORN, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

Under the common law the plaintiff assumed the risks and dangers of the coupling which he endeavored to make, and for that reason he is estopped from recovering the damages which resulted from his undertaking. He was an intelligent and experienced brakeman, familiar with the couplers he sought to join, and with their condition, and well aware of the difficulty and danger of his undertaking, so that he falls far within the familiar rules that the servant assumes the ordinary risks and dangers of the employment upon which he enters, so far as they are known to him, and so far as they would have been known to one of his age, experience, and capacity by the use of ordinary care, and that the risks and dangers of coupling cars provided with different kinds of well-known couplers, bumpers, brake-[464] heads, and deadwoods are the ordinary risks and dangers of a brakeman’s service. Manufacturing Co. v. Erickson, 55 Fed. 943, 946, 5 C. C. A. 341, 343; Railroad Co. v. Blake, 27 U. S. App. 190, 194, 11 C. C. A. 93, 95, 63 Fed. 45, 47; King v. Morgan, 48 C. C. A. 507, 511, 109 Fed. 446, 450; Gold Mines v. Hopkins, 111 Fed. 298, 304, 49 C. C. A. 347, 353; Railroad Co. v. McDade, 135 U. S. 554, 570, 10 Sup. Ct. 1044, 34 L. Ed. 235; Railroad Co. v. Seley, 152 U. S. 145, 152, 14 Sup. Ct. 530, 38 L. Ed. 391; Kohn v. McNulta, 147 U. S. 238, 241, 13 Sup. Ct. 298, 37 L. Ed. 150; Railroad Co. v. Voight, 176 U. S. 498, 120 Sup. Ct. 385, 44 L. Ed. 560; Sweeney v. Envelope Co., 101 N. Y. 520, 5 N. E. 358, 54 Am. St. Rep. 722; Railway Co. v. Smithson, 45 Mich. 212, 7 N. W. 791; Hodges v. Kimball, 44 C. C. A. 193, 104 Fed. 745; Whitcomb v. Oil Co. (Ind. Sup.) 55 N. E. 440, 442; Boland v. Railroad Co. (Ala.) 18 South. 99.

This proposition is not seriously challenged, but counsel base their claim for a reversal of the judgment below upon the position that the plaintiff was relieved of this assumption of risk, and of its consequences, by the provisions of the act of congress of March 2, 1893 (27 Stat. c. 196, p. 531). The title of that act, and the parts of it that are material to the consideration of this contention, are these:

“An act to promote the safety of employés and travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes and their locomotives with driving wheel brakes and for other purposes,
“Section 1. That from and after the first day of January, 1898, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad to use on its line any locomotive engine in moving interstate traffic not equipped with a power driving wheel brake and appliances for operating the train brake system. * * *
“Sec. 2. That on and after the first day of January, 1898, it shall be unlawful for any such common carrier to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car used in moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars.”
“See. 6. That any such common carrier using any locomotive engine, running any train, or hauling or permitting to be hauled or used on its line any car in violation of any of the provisions of this act shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every such violation. * * *”
“Sec. 8. That any employé of any such common carrier who may be injured by any locomotive, car or train in use contrary to the provisions of this act shall not be deemed thereby to have assumed the risk thereby occasioned, although continuing in the employment of such carrier after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car or train had been brought to his knowledge.”

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Johnson v. Southern Pac. Co., 117 F. 462, 54 C.C.A. 508, 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4455 (8th Cir. 1902).

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