Miller v. Mo. Pac. R. R.

121 So. 241, 9 La. App. 477, 1928 La. App. LEXIS 334
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 8, 1928
DocketNo. 3205
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 121 So. 241 (Miller v. Mo. Pac. R. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Mo. Pac. R. R., 121 So. 241, 9 La. App. 477, 1928 La. App. LEXIS 334 (La. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

ODOM, J.

The plaintiff in this suit asks judgment for $35,000.00 against the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company and the Texas & Pacific Railway Company in solido for personal injuries which he received while at work as Engine Foreman for the Texas & Pacific Railway Company on March 22, 1925.

He alleges that while at work in charge of a switch engine belonging to the Texas & Pacific Railway Company, in the switch yards at Alexandria, Louisiana, he was struck and run over by a Missouri Pacific switch engine and seriously and permanently injured; and that he himself was guilty of no fault or negligence, but that the accident and injury were brought on solely through the fault and negligence of the defendant railroad .companies.

The switch yards at Alexandria, where the accident occurred, are owned, it seems, by the Texas & Pacific Company, but, under an arrangement between the two companies, they were used and operated jointly and, it is conceded, that if there is liability on the part of either company, they are both liable. It is agreed that as both roads were engaged in interstate commerce at the time of the accident, the provisions of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (45 U. S. C. A., Pars. 51-59) are applicable.

In addition to the main line of the Texas & Pacific Railway Company, which runs through the yards a.t Alexandria, there are numerous switch tracks and among them one known as “Texas & Pacific No. 2”, which runs parallel with the main line and, approximately ten feet from it. On the morning of the accident, plaintiff was ordered by the' Yard Foreman to switch three cars from the main line to a switch track called “Short No. 1”, which branches off from the main line at a point about 400 feet south of the south edge of Murray Street and on the opposite side from “T. & P. No. 2.” Plaintiff picked up the three cars, which he was ordered to switch over to “Short No. 1,” in the yards north of Murray Street, which crosses the main line and switch track at right angles, and proceeded south across Murray Street on the main line, riding on the front end of the engine. At the same time, the switch engine belonging to the Missouri Pacific was following in the same direction on “T. & P. No. 2”. At some point, the exact location of which is in dispute, between Murray Street and where “Short No. 1” branches off from the main line, plaintiff stepped from his engine, which was running about eight miles per hour, to the ground in the space between the main line, on which his engine was running, and “T. & P. No. 2,” on which the Missouri Pacific engine was running. When he stepped to the ground, he stumbled ‘ and fell over towards “T. & P. No. 2” track and was hit by the end of the pilot beam of the Missouri Pacific engine, knocked over on the track in front of the engine and was run over.

Plaintiff alleged and testified that he was caused to stumble by the presence of loose, washed gravel on the surface of the pathway between the two tracks, which gravel had been negligently allowed to accumulate in said spaces by the defendant companies.

Counsel for plaintiff in brief says:

“The main, if not the only, issue in-i olved is whether or not defendants were guilty of any actionable negligence in the cperation of the Missouri Pacific engipe and in allowing the gravel to accumulate at the point where Miller alighted from his engine.”

It will thus be seen that, according to the view of plaintiff’s counsel, this case [479]*479hinges on the question of negligence. Accepting plaintiff’s theory of the case, we shall consider it from that standpoint.

It is needless to recount all the points of negligence which plaintiff in his petition charged against these defendants, as all of them have either been abandoned or not pressed before this Court, except two, which are as follows:

First: that the defendant companies were negligent in allowing loose gravel to accumulate between the tracks and in the paths where workmen alighted from moving engines and cars in the switch yards; and

Second: that the defendant, Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, was negligent in running its engine at an excessive rate of speed, and that the members of its crew were careless — paying no attention to their duties.

In addition to these points of negligence charged against the defendant companies, plaintiff invokes the last clear chance doctrine, contending that, if the crew in charge of the Missouri Pacific engine had been keeping the proper lookout ahead and had used proper precautions otherwise, they could and would have seen plaintiff in peril on the track and could have stopped the engine in time to avert the accident.

The defense of the defendant companies is, mainly, that they were guilty of no negligence whatever, either in respect to the loose gravel or the operation of the Missouri Pacific engine. They also set up the defense of assumed risk, the Missouri Pacific especially denying that it had the last clear chance to avoid the accident.

The first point of negligence upon which plaintiff relies is that the defendant companies had permitted loose gravel to acmulate in the space between the two tracks to such an extent that its presence constituted a hazard to those in charge of switching operations in the yards, it being customary for the men to jump on and off moving engines and cars, the theory being that the presence of gravel on the surface of the ground rendered one’s foothold thereon less secure.

The facts are that the defendant companies had used loose, washed gravel to ballast the tracks, both main line and switch tracks in the yards. The tracks are slightly elevated above the surface of the ground so that the footpath, or space between them, is lower than the shoulders of the track. The gravel was piled up on the shoulders of said tracks and probably between the rails. It was not intended •that any should remain in the space between the tracks, but some of it found its way there, in the ordinary and usual use of the yards by the employees. Counsel for plaintiff correctly state in brief that' “the gravel where Miller alighted was loose gravel which had been knocked off the shoulders of the tracks into the path and had not been cleaned up.”

In the switch yards, where plaintiff was hurt, those who did the switching were constantly jumping on and off moving engines and cars, and, in doing so, stepped on the loose gravel and kicked or knocked some of it from the shoulders of the track down into the footpath. The gravel, which plaintiff says was in the footpath and which is claimed to have constituted a hazard, and which plaintiff says caused him to stumble and fall, was not dumped into the pathway and allowed to remain. It was scattered over the pathway as a mere incident to the ordinary use of the yards by the employees. It is not charged er contended that it was negligence on the [480]*480part of the defendants to ballast the tracks with loose gravel. The particular charge of negligence is that defendants allowed this gravel to accumulate and remain in the footpath. .

We are not convinced that the loose gravel on the surface of the ground where plaintiff alighted from his moving engine was necessarily a hazard. It is no doubt true, however, that if the surface of the ground was covered to any considerable depth with loose gravel, one’s foothold on the ground, when stepping from a moving train, would be rendered less secure.

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Bluebook (online)
121 So. 241, 9 La. App. 477, 1928 La. App. LEXIS 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-mo-pac-r-r-lactapp-1928.