Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Gilday

16 Ohio C.C. 649
CourtOhio Circuit Courts
DecidedSeptember 15, 1890
StatusPublished

This text of 16 Ohio C.C. 649 (Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Gilday) 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
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Gilday, 16 Ohio C.C. 649 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1890).

Opinion

Scribner, J.

This is petition in error to reverse the judgment of the ■court of common pleas. On the 1st of April, 1888, William Gilday, the intestate of plaintiff below was a brakeman upon a freight train, in the employ of the railroad company. He had been in that service for several months prior to that time. On that day he was employed as a forward brakeman upon a train of coal cars made up at Elyria, consisting of about forty-five cars, which train left Elyria, bound westward,somewhere about 2 o’clock in the afternoon of that day. When it reached a station known as Lacarne,in the vicinity of Port Clinton, the freight train was required to ■enter upon a side track in order to permit of the passage of a passenger train upon the main track. It reached Lacarne somewhere from 10 to 12 o’clock in the night time — a wet and slippery night, it would seem from the testimony. It became the duty of the decedent Gilday, as the forward brakeman, and he was required, to set the brakes as the train entered upon the side track, in order to stop the train. It appears from the testimony that he had set the brakes upon the first and second car from the engine. His lamp was placed upon the rear or east end of the second car, while he stepped upon the west end of the third car, and proceeded to set the brake upon that car, upon the west end of the car. While engaged in performing that duty, while winding up the brake, the rachet which held the brake in position by reason of its entering upon the teeth of the brake-wheel, slipped: The brake being wound up to the right, the result was, as the testimony shows, the giving away of the ratchet,and the brake-wheel with the brake staff revolved violently to the left, and the decedent having hold of it,he was thrown under the wheels of the car, and was so injured that he shortly thereafter died. His sister was appointed the administratrix upon his estate by the probate court of Lucas county, and brought this action to' recover [651]*651damages alleged to have been sustained by herself and her sister by reason of the death of the young man, arising in the manner that I have stated. She alleges in her petition that the decedent furnished the bupport of herself and her sister, and that she has sustained damages by reason of his death in the manner stated, to the extent permitted to be recovered by the statute.

There are several grounds of negligence alleged in the amended petition. One is, that the locomotive engine was equipped with a steam brake, and that the steam brake was out of order at the time of the accident, and that the negligence of the company in failing to keep this steam brake in order contributed to the accident.

On the trial of the cause the court ruled cut all the testimony given upon that subject, properly, we think, because it was apparent that whatever defect may have existed in the steam brake, if any such there were, in no manner contributed to the accident. It was also alleged in the petition that one of the brake chains was so carelessly and negligently connected to the coal cars that it was impossible to set the brake to hold it, and that that contributed also to the accident. But while the testimony shows that one of the brake chains had become disconnected and unhooked from the brake, that defect, if such it was, was upon the fourth car from the engine, and as it is quite clear that the accident occurred while the young man was setting the brake upon the end of the third car, it is apparent that the disconnection of the brake chain from the brake upon the fourth car had nothing to do with the accident.

So we are brought to a consideration of the question'arising upon the facts as shown in the record as regards the condition and situation of the brake upon the west end of the third car, which, as is very correctly stated in the answer, was the occasion of the accident. The wheel connected with the brake staff is attached to and forms a part of the record, and it appears upon an inspection of this, that three of the teeth or cogs of this wheel, the cogs being intended to hold the ratchet upon the setting of the brake and winding up of the chain, are broken; .and there can be no reasonable question but what it was by reason of these defects in. the teeth of this wheel, that the ratchet, upon [652]*652being set, came in position where these brakes occurred, and slipped, and thereby the wheel and the staff rapidly revolving,the decedent was thrown from the top of the car, and that that was the cause of the accident.

The company says in regard to the alleged negligence on their part, that it had employed competent and experienced inspectors to inspect this and other trains at the yard in Elyria before the train was sent out, and that it was the duty of these inspectors to test these brakes before they were sent out; and that if they failed to apply the proper test in order to determine whether or not they were in a safe and sound condition, it was the negligence of the inspectors, and under the rulings of the supreme court in Webb’s case, 12 Ohio St., and Fitzpatrick’s case, 42 Ohio St., they were fellow servants o£ the decedent, for whose negligence the company is not responsible to the decedent, and the turning point of this controversy appears to hinge upon this position.

It is apparent upon an inspection of these broken teeth that they, at the time of the accident, were of long standing: they are worn and smooth. The testimony of witnesses introduced on behalf of the defendant — expert witnesses — ■ the foreman of the car inspectors in the Toledo yard and the man who removed the wheel from this brakestaff, is, that they are ancient brakes. So it is conclusively shown, both from an inspection and from the testimony, that these defects in this wheel which caused the accident were of long standing, and that the wheel had been dangerous with these defects for a considerable period of time.

One of the inspectors at the yard at Elyria, a man by the name of Howe, is placed upon the stand, and testifies in the case; and it appears from his testimony that there were two inspectors employed by the Lake Shore Co. at the time that this train was sent out — one a day inspector and one a night inspector, to perform this service. One other railroad company, from which perhaps this load of coal had been received — the Lorain, Cleveland & Wheeling — had also two inspectors in the yard. It is admitted in the record of the case, however, that the car was a Lake Shore car — a car belonging to the defendant company in this action. The testimony of the other inspector was not given in this connec[653]*653tion' in the case"; It seems somewhat important, therefore, to' look at the testimony of'this inspector, as bearing upon the question, perhaps, as to the character of this inspection, as-to whether it was insufficient.; and is so,‘whether the railroad company had notice of the alleged insufficient manner in which the inspection was made. In his testimony this inquiry is made of him:

“Q, When you start to inspect cars on the inspection track, what implements do you have with you? A. I generally take a hammer and a monkey wrench, when I look a train over.
“Q. And- when you go to a car, you go down "one "side and up the other? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Go over the top? A. No, sir.
“Q. State what you do. A. I look the train over. If they are all right, that settles it — ■
• The Court: “Q. You are asked to state particularly — ■
A.

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Bluebook (online)
16 Ohio C.C. 649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lake-shore-michigan-southern-railway-co-v-gilday-ohiocirct-1890.