Keim v. Gilmore & Pittsburg R. R. Co.

131 P. 656, 23 Idaho 511, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 98
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 5, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 131 P. 656 (Keim v. Gilmore & Pittsburg R. R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keim v. Gilmore & Pittsburg R. R. Co., 131 P. 656, 23 Idaho 511, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 98 (Idaho 1913).

Opinions

AILSHIE, C. J.

— This is an appeal from a judgment awarding respondent $10,000 damages. The respondent was injured by á moving train on appellant’s road. The accident [516]*516occurred on the station grounds at the town of Leadore on about the 28th of August, 1911. Keim, the respondent, lived at the village of Junction, which is about one mile distant from the depot at Leadore. On the morning that the accident occurred, respondent left his home and went over to a meat market on Galena street, which is a short distance south of the depot in Leadore. After he got through at the meat market he started home, and it was necessary for him to cross the railroad track. The wagon road extended diagonally northwesterly across the railroad right of way and to the south and west of the depot, crossing the track about 250 feet west of the depot. Eespondent, however, left the wagon road south of the depot and traveled north to the depot, passing between the depot and the railroad track and parallel with the track the length of the depot and some forty or fifty feet down the track, where he met wi'th the accident which inflicted serious injuries upon his person. When he reached the depot, he saw a train of ears on the track, either moving westward or just about starting up. A plank walk of from five to seven feet wide extended parallel with the track in front of the depot from the easterly end of the depot to a point some distance beyond the westerly end thereof. Between the platform and the depot was a space of several feet filled with gravel. Eespondent, as he walked past the depot and on to the west, kept off the platform and walked on the gravel. He was therefore from five to seven feet from the track. About forty or fifty feet down the track from the depot there stood a baggage truck. Just as he walked past this truck, leaving it between him and the passing train, a projecting jackarm on a moving steam shovel ear which was attached to the train struck the truck and threw it with violence against respondent, knocking him over, severely injuring him, and rendering him unconscious and permanently maimed and disabled.

Appellant has annexed to his brief a map or diagram showing the location of the streets, roads and buildings at Lead-ore and Junction, and on this map a line is traced from the meat market down the street across the right of way and in front of the depot to the point where respondent was injured'. [517]*517This line is supposed to represent the course taken by Keim on his way home. We shall insert this map for the benefit of the illustration it will afford anyone who may have occasion to examine this case. It is as follows:

Bhows Keim’s course as described by himself.

[518]*518A great many assignments of error have been made, but the real and vital questions necessary to be determined may be reduced to a very few propositions.

The first question to be considered is the alleged negligence of the appellant. Appellant insists that no negligence is shown on the part' of the railroad company. Now, it appears, and is undisputed; that the whole mischief was caused by this projecting jackarm on the moving steam shovel car. It appears that these arms are placed on each side of such a ear to be used in steadying the car when it is in operation, and that they are ordinarily either .turned back or taken off when the car is being hauled over the road. On this occasion the jackarm on the side of the car next to the depot and to respondent was projecting. It is uncertain as to the exact distance of this projection, but it seems quite clear from the evidence in the record that it was anywhere from eleven to twenty-two inches. It is clear that the fault here was not with the employee who left the truck alongside the track. The truck was far enough away from the track to clear any ordinary car which was accustomed to pass over the track, and, indeed, it was not touched, so far‘as the evidence shows, by any ears until the steam shovel car came along. Clearly there was no negligence on the part of the man who left the truck at this place, unless he had notice that the steam shovel car was going to be pulled over the road at this time in the condition in which it was when it passed this truck. The whole trouble in this matter lay with those who were operating the train. If they were going to pull a car over the road with projections on the sides extending from eleven to twenty-two-inches farther out than any of the cars usually transported over the road, then it was clearly the duty of such operators to notify other employees to govern their actions accordingly in the matter of leaving freight, baggage, trucks, etc., along the side of the track, and it was likewise the duty of such operatives to maintain a lookout for the protection of those who might be injured or taken unawares by reason of this increased danger from the projections from the steam shovel car. An employee or even a trespasser at the station grounds [519]*519may know with almost exact accuracy the distance to which the cars which the company hauls over its road project over the track or beyond the rail. He may accordingly leave freight, baggage or other articles along the track where it would entail no danger upon anyone except for just such an unforeseen condition as arose in this case. The only persons who had it in their absolute power to prevent such an accident as this were the operatives of the train. They might warn other employees or in this ease they might have taken off these arms and reduced the car to the standard'width, and in the latter event no injury would have befallen the respondent and no damage would have been entailed.

It has been argued with a great deal of force and ingenuity that the operatives of this train could not possibly foresee that Keim would be immediately opposite this truck when the steam shovel ear would pass the truck and that they are therefore guilty of no negligence. This argument, however, confesses that the operatives of that train knew that the jackarm would strike the truck, and that they were carrying along with them a danger which might inflict injury upon Keim or any other person similarly situated either at a station ground or anywhere else along the track. The negligence lies back of and prior to the hitting of this truck by the jackarm of the steam shovel car. The real negligence was in carrying this car over the road in a train of cars without maintaining a proper lookout to prevent just such injuries as this. It is clear that they were maintaining no lookout to prevent accidents from the special hazard of this car. It is testified by a competent witness that one railroad company would not accept a car from another railroad company for shipment over its line in the condition this car was in, namely, with the jack-arms in place and projecting as was the case with this car.

It is insisted that respondent was guilty of contributory negligence. Now, there might be something in this contention if it were shown that respondent knew that the steam shovel car was attached to the passing train and that the jackarms were projecting, or if he had notice that the company was accustomed to pull such a car over its road with the jackarms [520]*520projecting, as was the case on this day. It is clear, however, that appellant was not aware of these facts. Neither did he have any information which would put a reasonably prudent man on notice that such thing was likely to take place. He was walking down the track at a reasonable distance from a train of ears.

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Bluebook (online)
131 P. 656, 23 Idaho 511, 1913 Ida. LEXIS 98, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keim-v-gilmore-pittsburg-r-r-co-idaho-1913.