Mellish v. Pere Marquette Railroad

132 N.W. 513, 167 Mich. 86, 1911 Mich. LEXIS 598
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 2, 1911
DocketDocket No. 72
StatusPublished

This text of 132 N.W. 513 (Mellish v. Pere Marquette Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mellish v. Pere Marquette Railroad, 132 N.W. 513, 167 Mich. 86, 1911 Mich. LEXIS 598 (Mich. 1911).

Opinion

Blair, J.

This action arises out of an accident which occurred at Baldwin, Lake county, Mich., on March 14, 1905, in which plaintiff’s intestate, an engineer in the employ of defendant’s predecessor, was instantly killed.

In 1889, the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad ran from Ludington and Manistee to Saginaw, passing through Baldwin. The Chicago & West Michigan Railroad Company made application to cross the tracks of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad at grade, and, in July, 1889, the board of railroad crossings made an order that the crossing should be made at grade, and that an interlocking and derailing switch and signal appliance, to be thereafter approved by the commissioner of railroads before the same was adopted for use, be procured and erected by the Chicago & West Michigan Company, and thereafter efficiently maintained and operated at the joint and equal expense of [88]*88both companies. This interlocking and derailing switch and signal appliance was duly installed and approved by an order of the commissioner of railroads on November 22, 1889. This order of approval was modified, at the request of both of the companies, by the commissioner of railroads on March 25, 1896; the wire connections of all distance signals being ordered dispensed with, and each of the distance signals disconnected from its lever and permanently fixed in a position indicating caution. From that time up to the time of the accident, there were no other or further orders made regarding this crossing or the appliances thereat by the board of railroad crossings or the commissioner of railroads. The appliance so installed consisted of (a) derails, about 250 to 300 feet on each side of the crossing; (6) the home signal, about 50 feet outside the derails; (c) the four distance signals; the one at the west, the only one material to the issue in this case, being 2,064.9 feet from the crossing.

The two railroads mentioned were consolidated in 1900. The interlocker was taken out on June 25, 1903, without any order from, or authority of; the railroad crossing board or the commissioner of railroads. It was discontinued and done away with, and the home and distance semaphores and the derails were removed and taken out entirely, and an ordinary diamond crossing installed in its place. The defendant installed over the southwest corner of the diamond a target on a pole 20 to 25 feet high; such pole being about 9 feet from the center of each main line track. This target was operated by the target man in the tower. At first a T target with two red lights was placed on this pole, and later, on January 1, 1905, a two-bladed crossing signal was installed in place thereof, which, at the time of the accident, was operated at night by means of red and white lights; a red light indicating stop, that a train had no right to cross the diamond, and a white light indicating proceed, that a train had the right to cross. This light was 25 feet 4-g- inches above the rail. .

West of the diamond, 610.6 feet on the north side of the [89]*89Ludington main line, is a coal dock, or hoist. Engines could take coal from the south side of this coal dock on the Ludington main line, or from the north side of the dock, when standing on the northwest wye," without going on the Ludington main line. On the south side of the Ludington division main line, 589.4 feet west from the crossing, was a standpipe 6 feet south of the south rail. There was also a standpipe on the Petoskey division south of the crossing. This was east of the Petoskey main line, and was situated between the main line and the side track, or wye. Petoskey division engines could obtain water at this standpipe on their own line without being on the Ludington main line.

After the coal dock was built, it was the general practice for Petoskey division engines to go over on the main line of the Ludington division and take coal and water, as well as taking coal on the northwest wye and water at the standpipe on their own division, without coming onto the Ludington main line. The freighthouse was in the southeast corner of the diamond. The target house, from which this crossing signal was operated, was in the corner of the freighthouse next to the diamond, in the southeast corner. The order board at Baldwin was situated at the target house, east of the diamond.

There was a snowbank on the south side of the track, extending east and west from the standpipe, around which a path had been shoveled. The bank extended about 15 feet east of the standpipe. It began at the end of the ties, about 16 or 18 inches from the rail, and sloped up gradually; the highest point being about four feet from the south rail. At the deepest point, this bank was estimated by various witnesses as being from 8£ to 4 feet deep. The bank was highest around the standpipe, and there ice had formed on its surface on account of the dripping from the pipe. There was a similar bank west of the pipe. This bank had been there since the early part of the winter.

About 4 o’clock on the morning of the accident, two engines were standing in the vicinity of the coal dock, [90]*90both having taken coal. Engine 166 was on the southwest wye about opposite the coal dock, standing with its headlight toward the west. Engine 186, which had brought a train from Petoskey, had worked in the eastern part of the yard and come west to the coal dock along the Ludington main line, and was standing near the waterspout. The weather was, in the language of the witnesses, “muggy, dull, and heavy — a bad night; and the smoke of the engines tended to settle to the ground.” The plaintiff’s testimony tended to show that her intestate approached the crossing from the west with his engine under control. When Mr. Mellish’s train was a very short distance west of the coal dock, the head brakeman and the fireman saw the headlight of engine 186 in front of them. At that instant, according to the plaintiff’s testimony, Mr. Mellish applied his emergency brake and did all that he could to stop his train. He was unable to stop it, however, until it had gone an engine length and a car length over the intersection, and had collided on the way with engine 186, inflicting considerable damage on both engines. The testimony was that the engines collided at a point between the waterspout and the intersection. When the engines stopped, engine 334 was found to be derailed, and Mr. Mellish’s body was found under the train at the intersection. It does not appear how, or exactly when, he left his engine, or whether he fell or jumped; but from the marks on the snow and traces of blood along the track the plaintiff claimed the right to go to the jury on the theory that after he had done all he could to stop his train he jumped from his engine, struck the snowbank near the standpipe, and rolled back under the wheels. The testimony as to the speed at which he was going when he passed the coal dock and struck the other engine is stated by various witnesses at from 6 to 18 miles an hour. Mr. Mellish was familiar with the Baldwin yards, having run through them as an engineer for many years, having been through them 161 times in the preceding year, and hav[91]*91ing switched in the yards 74 times during the same period.

The trial court submitted the case to the jury for their consideration upon two principal grounds of negligence on the part of defendant, stated to be the negligence relied upon by plaintiff, viz., first, the unlawful removal of the interlocking plant, substituting therefor an ordinary diamond with a single signal. The second claim is stated by the court as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 N.W. 513, 167 Mich. 86, 1911 Mich. LEXIS 598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mellish-v-pere-marquette-railroad-mich-1911.