Knahtla v. Oregon Short Line, etc., Ry. Co.

27 P. 91, 21 Or. 136, 1891 Ore. LEXIS 22
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 24, 1891
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 27 P. 91 (Knahtla v. Oregon Short Line, etc., Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Knahtla v. Oregon Short Line, etc., Ry. Co., 27 P. 91, 21 Or. 136, 1891 Ore. LEXIS 22 (Or. 1891).

Opinion

Beaít, J.

The record contains numerous assignments of error based upon exceptions duly taken to the ruling of the court during the progress of the trial on the admission of testimony and the giving and refusing instructions to the jury. We shall proceed to examine such of these as we deem material.

It is contended by appellant that the court below lost jurisdiction of this cause by the petition of defendant for removal to the circuit court of the United States and by the order approving the bond and transferring the cause to that court. The circuit court of Wasco county had, under the constitution and laws of the United States and of this state, original jurisdiction of the subject matter and of the parties in this case. That jurisdiction was formally invoked by the filing of a complaint and service of process on defendant, and the court was in the exercise of its unquestioned powers in the premises when the petition for removal was filed by defendant. Upon the filing of the petition and bond, the circuit court for Wasco county passed the order required by the statute of the United States governing the removal of causes from the state to the federal courts, but the federal court refused to entertain jurisdiction and remanded the cause to the state court, and its decision on that question is final. (In re Penn. Co. 137 U. S. 451.) It follows, therefore, that the cause never has in fact been removed to the circuit court of the United' States. The removal is not complete until the United States court has taken jurisdiction, and this it has refused to do, so that the state court never lost its jurisdiction. When the circuit [141]*141court of Wasco county granted the application for removal of the cause, it simply declined to proceed further in the matter; but when it was ascertained that the order for removal was improper and that the United States court did not have jurisdiction, the cause revived in the state court and should have been proceeded with as though no order of removal had been made. (Thacker v. McWilliams, 47 Ga. 306; Ex parte State Ins. Co. 50 Ala. 464.) In R. R. Co. v. Koontz, 104 U. S. 15, Mr. Chief Justice Waite, in discussing the proceedings in the United States court on a motion to remand a cause removed from the state court, said: When the suit is docketed in the circuit court, the adverse party may move to remand. If his motion is decided against him, he may save the point on the record, and after final judgment bring the case here for review if the amount involved is sufficient for our jurisdiction. If in such a case we think his motion should have been granted we reverse the judgment of the circuit court and direct that the suit be sent back to the state court to be proceeded with there as if no removal had been had.” So in Germania Fire Ins. Co. v. Francis, 52 Miss. 466; 24 Am. Rep. 674, Mr. Justice Campbell says : An order for removal in a case not embraced by act of congress is void and has no effect in legal contemplation; and although its practical effect may he an interruption improperly of the prosecution of the cause in the state court, the cause is to be considered as having been all the time pending in the state court, which delayed to see if the United States court would take jurisdiction, and finding it would not, proceeds to try the case thus remitted to it as though no interruption had occurred.”

The next contention of appellant is, that evidence was received and a verdict permitted by instructions upon a ground of liability not pleaded. On the trial, evidence was given and received under defendant’s objection, which it was claimed tended to show that the bridge which fell and caused plaintiff’s injury was a defective structure and originally improperly and negligently constructed. At the [142]*142proper time the defendant requested the court to charge the jury that in so far as this case is concerned the bridge in question must be assumed to have been constructed in a proper manner. This the court refused to do, but at the request of plaintiff instructed the jury that if it appeared from the evidence that the bridge had been improperly or negligently constructed, and by reason thereof the plaintiff was precipitated through the same and injured while being carried by the defendant to the place where he was to be employed, he was entitled to recover.

The point of the objection is, that the complaint only charges negligence in keeping the bridge in repair and in failing to keep a proper watch and oversight over it in order to ascertain its condition. This brings us to the allegations of the complaint. The cause of action stated in the complaint is that “ defendant negligently and carelessly permitted it (bridge) to become and remain out of repair and in an unsafe condition, and negligently and carelessly failed to keep a proper watch and oversight over the same, and negligently and carelessly failed and omitted to ascertain the condition of the same, and to report it to the officers in charge of the train upon which plaintiff was being carried.” These are the only acts of negligence charged in the complaint so far as the bridge is concerned and the only ones that defendant was called upon to defend against; and as a necessary consequence the evidence on the part of plaintiff must be directed to the proof of the negligent acts charged, and the instructions of the court must be confined to its allegations and proof. The plaintiff cannot aver negligence in one particular, and on the trial prove that defendant was negligent in another particular.

The object of a complaint is to apprise the court and opposite party of the facts relied upon for a recovery so plainly that the defendant may be prepared to meet them. This object of a pleading would be entirely defeated if a plaintiff had the right to aver in his declaration one ground of action and on the trial prove another and different one. [143]*143As was said by Eab,l, J., in Southwick v. Bank of Memphis, 84 N. Y. 429, “pleadings and a distinct issue are essential in every system of jurisprudence, and there can be no orderly administration of justice without them. If a party can allege one cause of action and then recover upon another, his complaint will serve no useful purpose but rather to ensnare and mislead his adversary.”

There is no doubt that it is the duty of a railroad company to furnish for the use of its employés a reasonably safe track, which necessarily includes bridges, and to exercise reasonable care to keep and maintain the same in a good and safe condition; to cause as frequent and thorough inspection of its roadbed and track as under the circumstances may reasonably be necessary for the purpose of discovering any defects therein; to exercise care in the selection and retention of its servants, and to adopt such rules and regulations as may reasonably be necessary to guard against accident; and if the master fail to perform any of these duties and a servant is injured, he is liable in an action for damages suffered by such servant, and any duty which the master is required to perform for the safety of his servant cannot be delegated to any servant of any grade so as to exempt the master from liability for an injury resulting to a servant from its non-performance. (Anderson v. Bennett, 16 Or. 515; 8 Am. St. Rep. 311; Hartvig v. N. P. L. Co. 19 Or. 522; Miller v. Southern Pac. Co. 20 Or. 285.)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 P. 91, 21 Or. 136, 1891 Ore. LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knahtla-v-oregon-short-line-etc-ry-co-or-1891.