Moyse v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.

108 P. 1062, 41 Mont. 272, 1910 Mont. LEXIS 68
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 2, 1910
DocketNo. 2,823
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 108 P. 1062 (Moyse v. Northern Pacific Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moyse v. Northern Pacific Railway Co., 108 P. 1062, 41 Mont. 272, 1910 Mont. LEXIS 68 (Mo. 1910).

Opinion

MB. CHIEF JUSTICE BEANTLT

delivered the opinion of the court.

Action by plaintiff for damages for personal injuries. On August 17, 1906, the plaintiff was in the employ of the defendant company as a conductor. The defendant Doyle was the yard foreman of the company, in charge of other employees in the actual discharge of his duties in directing the movement and disposition of ears in the yards of the company at Butte. Defendant Whalen was also in the employ of the company as foreman having general charge of the yards. At the time of the accident plaintiff was in a caboose of the company which stood on a sidetrack in the yards. The main and sidetracks extend east and west. To the west from the point where the caboose was standing, there was -an excavation, about twenty-two feet in depth and forty feet in width. The grade of the tracks inclined sharply to the west, so that a car left standing on any of them without having the brakes properly set would of its own weight move toward the excavation. The main line and one of the other tracks crossed the excavation upon a trestle, but the track upon which the caboose was standing ended at its brink. There was at this point no block or other device to prevent a car standing thereon, if it happened to escape, from being precipitated into the excavation. In addition to the foregoing facts it is alleged that the plaintiff was in the caboose in the discharge of his duties; that the defendant company and its foreman Whalen, in the exercise of reasonable care, could have known, and in fact did know, of the existence of the excavation and the facts stated above, but nevertheless failed to obstruct the said track, or to exercise reasonable or any care to prevent a car proceeding along it from falling into the excavation; that while the caboose was standing on the track the defendant company, through its employees Whalen and Doyle, being then engaged in the discharge of their duties, moved a train of cars upon and along the track toward the caboose and toward the excavation; that they negligently permitted these ears to be upon the track without setting the brakes [279]*279■sufficiently to prevent them from descending by their own weight at a dangerous rate of speed toward and against the ■caboose, and that they negligently drove the ears against the ■caboose where the plaintiff then was, with great violence, disconnecting the brakes thereon, and driving it along the track .and into the excavation, whereby plaintiff was injured.

The answer of the company admits that plaintiff sustained ■certain injuries while in the caboose, but denies that he was at the time in the discharge of his duties as employee of the company. It alleges affirmatively that he was guilty of contributory negligence and that he assumed the risk. The separate answer of defendants Whalen and Doyle interposes the same ■defenses. As to the affirmative defenses there is issue by reply.

The evidence discloses the following: Plaintiff was at the time of his injury forty-one years of age; he was in good health, and had been in. railway service for seventeen years, during the last four of which he had been a conductor on the Montana ■division of the defendant company’s railroad. He resided with his family at Livingston. He ran freight trains from Livingston to Helena, Butte, and Billings. On August 16 he brought train No. 56 from Livingston, arriving at Butte at 11:45 P. M. ■On reaching the yards he “registered in,” that is, he delivered his waybills at the telegraph office of the company, and signed the register after noting the time of his arrival, etc. Upon registering in, his pay ceased until he was “called” to make his return trip. It began again thirty minutes before the hour stated for departure in the call. The brakemen were also off ■active duty as soon as they had set the hand-brakes on the cars .and had disconnected the engine. From that time the train, including the caboose, was in charge of the yard crew. By “yard ■crew” is meant the foreman in charge and his assistants. The term “called” means that, when the train is ready to leave, the ■call boy tells the crew to get ready to take charge of the train, and informs them of the time of starting. It is customary for .a train crew, when away from home terminals, to sleep in their vcaboose. It is provided with a “bunk” under the cupola, which [280]*280is occupied by tbe conductor, and a “bunk” in the body of the car, fitted up with cushions, which the brakemen occupy. The cushions serve for mattresses. All the members of a crew furnish their necessary bedclothes. This custom had been observed by train crews for seventeen years. After the yard crew take charge of a train they place the caboose at any convenient, place in the yard selected by the foreman, unless there is a siding specially designated for it. There was no such siding in the Butte yards. After the train crew had retired to the caboose on the night of the 16th, but while they were still awake, the yard crew took the train away and switched the caboose over to the track upon which it stood at the time of the accident. This is designated by the witnesses as track No. 4, to-the north. On the morning of the 17th the plaintiff was informed at the telegraph office that his train would not be ready to leave until early in the morning of the 18th. He and the rest of the crew, two brakemen, spent the day in the city, returning to the caboose about 5 o’clock. At that time an empty gondola car was standing on the track, five or six car-lengths, east of the caboose. The latter was standing about twelve car-lengths east from the excavation. A car-length is about thirty-six feet. The excavation had1 been made by the Butte Electric-Street Eailway Company through the yards of the defendant company, to provide a crossing for the electric cars under the-tracks of the railroad, the intention being to erect a trestle viaduct for all the tracks of the latter. Prior to the beginning-of this work the tracks had rested on a solid embankment. The viaduct had been completed in part, but was not of sufficient width to accommodate all the tracks of the railroad company. As already stated, some of them, including the one occupied by the caboose, ended at the brink of the excavation. A week before the 16th, on a prior trip to Butte, the plaintiff had noticed the excavation, and that men were at work in the construction of the viaduct. The telegraph office of the company was some fifty feet west of the excavation, and upon going to-the office to register in,, on the evening of the 16th, the plain[281]*281tiff must have passed over the excavation on the completed portion of the viaduct, or have gone around it upon the public road. He must also have pursued one or the other of these-courses in order to reach the office on the morning of the 17th,. when he went to inquire as to the hour when his train would leave. On the evening of the 17th the crew went to bed in the-caboose, about 7 o’clock. At that time the caboose and the gondola were standing as in the morning, held by the handbrakes. The brakes hold cars so placed if they are set securely and are not disturbed by impact by other cars. The yard crews. were to make up two trains that night, one of which was No. 56. About 7:45 two other cars were put upon track 4, to the east of the gondola and against it. One was a gondola and the other a flat car loaded with steel. They were left standing, held by the hand-brakes only. About 9:45 four other ears, loaded- with copper, "were pushed upon the track from the east. by the yard crew and put against the car loaded with steel. The cars thus set together were automatically coupled and were • left standing, apparently held securely by the brakes.

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Bluebook (online)
108 P. 1062, 41 Mont. 272, 1910 Mont. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moyse-v-northern-pacific-railway-co-mont-1910.