Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R. v. Thornhill

141 Ala. 215
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 15, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 141 Ala. 215 (Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R. v. Thornhill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R. v. Thornhill, 141 Ala. 215 (Ala. 1904).

Opinion

McCLELLAN, C. J.

The assignments of demurrer to the first count'of the complaint do not go to the deficiency of its averments in respect of McAbee’s dominance of the plaintiff in the service of the defendant. Jt does appear by the count- that McAbee was the foret-m-an and that plaintiff was under him, and that this relation between them existed in the service of the defendant, and, further that plaintiff was bound to obey the alleged negligent order of McAbee. If it were supposed that the count should have alleged McAbee’s particular foremanship, the scope of it, and plaintiff’s relation to such foremanship, or that the count should have averred that plaintiff was “bound to conform and did conform to” McAbee’s orders, the demurrer should have pointed out these defects.

We are not of opinion that the averments of count, 1 show either that Thornhill, the plaintiff, assumed the risk incident, to attempted obedience of McAbee’s order1, whereby he was injured, or that he was guilty of negligence, contributing to- his injury, in attempting to obey the order. The first proposition, that he did not assume such risk, is satisfactorily supported by the reasoning and authority of the case of Scliroeder v. Chicago & Alton Railroad Co., (Mo.) 18 L. R. A. 827.

Upon the other question, viz., whether1 the count shows contributory negligence on Thornhill’s part, several considerations are pertinent. In the first place, the act of McAbee in giving the order and the attempt of Thorn-hill to- obey it, are not to be judged in respect of negligence vel non• by the same standards. McAbee had more time and better opportunity to- consider whether he would or should .give the order than Thornhill had after it was given to- determine whether he would enter upon its execution. Then, too, though the danger of attempting to obey the order may be conceded to be shown by the count- to have been apparent to Thornhill as well as to McAbee, it cannot be said as matter of law to have been so obvious and imminent upon the facts averred as that no prudent man would have made the. attempt, according, even in the face of such danger, something to [229]*229Thornhill’s duty and ha,hit of obedience; something to the lack of time for him to consider the situation and to determine his action advisedly, especially as this sudden emergency was itself the product of McAbee’s negligence; something to his probable and not unreasonable asumption that McAbee would seasonably warn him from the attempt, and yet something more to his probable belief that the removal of the car from the track was necessary for the "safety of the trainmen — a consideration which might justify his making and persisting in the attempt to any extent short of rashness, buL which, we apprehend, would not avail to acquit McAbee of negligence in giving the order, for whether such extreme risk should be taken to' save human life, would seem to he a question personal to the man who is to take or to avoid it. On these considerations .we are come to the conclusion that the first count does not show that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence barring a recovery. — Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Orr, 121 Ala. 489, 500; Southern Ry. Co. v. Guyton, 122 Ala. 231; Roll v. Northern Central Ry. Co., 15 Hun. 496; Schroeder v. C. & A. R. R. Co., 18 L. R. A. 827 ; Stephens v. H. & St. J. R. R. Co., 96 Mo., 207.

Some of the foregoing considerations apply with like force and effect, to count B, and lead to the same conclusion, that that count is not open to the objection that it showed contributory negligence by plaintiff.

We attach no importance to the use of the word “recklessly” in conjunction Avitli the Avord “negligently,” in characterizing McAbae’s order, in the. first count, nor to the omission of that word from count B. It would no more follOAV on the facts averred that Thornhill was reckless because of the averment that McAbee was reckless than that the former Avas negligent because it is averred that the latter Avas negligent. The use of the two Avords may, indeed, be taken to mean only negligence. — Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad Co. v. Crocker, 95 Ala. 433.

We haAre stated our opinion, and the grounds of it, to the effect that plaintiff was not necessarily guilty of negligence in his attempt to remove the hand car [230]*230for that he knew the train was near and approaching, and this con elusion covers also the action of the court in sustaining the demurrer to the 2d plea.

Plea 4 presents a false issue, in a sense. It was not a question whether the train could be stopped before it reached the point where the hand car was: there was no pretence -that it could; hut the question was whether there was such probability or possibility of removing the hand car from the track before the train reached that point as justified the attempt to remove it. For the rest, what is said of plea 2 applies also to this plea, and to piea 5.

Pleas 2 and 5 as amended, and plea 3 which the court held good, fully presented the defense of contributory negligence in Thornhill’s undertaking to remove the-hand-car, and, therefore, defendant was not prejudiced by the disallowance of its proposed amendment of plea 4, which would have converted that plea also into one of contributory negligence. Moreover, the proposed amendment -would have rendered the plea bad for duplicity, had it been otherwise a good plea: as amended it would have set up both assumption of risk and contributory negligence; and furthermore the amendment was properly disallowed, all other considerations aside, under section 33 of the act “To establish the Walker County Law and Equity Court.” Acts, 1900-1901, p. 121.

On the evidence adduced at the trial, Thornhill was not in a position of peril to himself when he received the order to remove the hand car from the track and determined upon attempting to execute that order. That order was given after the hand car had been stopped and after Thornhill along with the other members of the crew had got off of it, and when he and they were standing on or near the track about the car. In this position, he had merely to step aside to avoid all danger from the approaching train. The‘train was then one hundred and fifty yards away, affording ample time for him to get entirely out of all danger from it. That he could do so was perfectly obvious to- the perceptions and comprehension of any man in his senses. He was not hurt in consequence of being at that time in that position, but [231]*231in consequence of going and remaining on the track in an effort to remove the car therefrom. He was not hurt in an effort to extricate himself from peril, but in an effort to conserve the safety of defendant’s property and trainmen. He was not. put to a, sudden choice of means, harried and confused the while by a sense of his own peril, to save himself; but only to’ a sudden decision whether he would incur the risk of attempting to obey McAbee’s order, or would avoid all risks by disobeying it. He had escaped all the danger to himself growing out of McAbee’s negligence in running the hand car’ on the time of an approaching train going in the opposite direction without safe guard against collision, and was in a place of safety in respect of such threatened collision. From this eoigne of vantage, he entered upon a course involving a new risk — not the risk of the running car with him on it colliding with the train, but the risk of removing the car after he had gotten clear of it.

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Bluebook (online)
141 Ala. 215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kansas-city-memphis-birmingham-r-r-v-thornhill-ala-1904.