NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY v. Fincham

189 S.E.2d 380, 213 Va. 122, 1972 Va. LEXIS 317
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJune 12, 1972
DocketRecord 7648 and 7649
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 189 S.E.2d 380 (NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY v. Fincham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY v. Fincham, 189 S.E.2d 380, 213 Va. 122, 1972 Va. LEXIS 317 (Va. 1972).

Opinions

Harman, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

On March 23, 1967, Danny D. Fincham, nine years old, was severely injured when his right leg was crushed beneath the wheels of a railroad car and had to be amputated below the knee. The accident occurred in the Carolina Yard of the Norfolk Southern Railway Company in the city of Chesapeake. An action was brought against the railroad to recover damages for Danny’s personal injuries. His father, Wood R. Fincham, brought a separate action to recover medical expenses he incurred on Danny’s behalf.

The two actions were tried together pursuant to Code § 8-629. On December 1, 1969, the jury returned what was purported to be a verdict in the father’s case in the amount of $17,000. The trial court later reduced this amount to $6,000.

At the time the jury found for the father, it had not reached a verdict in Danny’s case. At the request of counsel for the parties, the trial court questioned the jury foreman on whether the jury had reached a unanimous opinion on the question of the railroad’s liability to Danny. The jury foreman replied, in the presence of the other jurors, that they all agreed the railroad was liable to Danny, but were unable to agree on the amount of his damages. The trial court declared a mistrial in Danny’s case, dismissed the jury, and continued the case generally to hear motions counsel desired to make.

Thereafter, the court ordered a new trial in Danny’s case restricted solely to the issue of damages. It delayed entering a judgment on the father’s verdict until Danny’s trial on damages was had. At that trial, a verdict for $450,592 was rendered. On July 8, 1970, the court entered judgment in each case. We granted the railroad a writ of error to those judgments.

Although a number of questions are presented in these appeals, only four warrant our consideration. First, was there sufficient evidence to establish primary negligence on the part of the railroad proximately causing Danny’s injury? Second, was Danny guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law? Third, did the court err in ordering a new trial in Danny’s case restricted solely to the issue of damages? Fourth, did the court err in entering judgment in the father’s case?

[124]*124Carolina Yard of the Norfolk Southern railroad is generally used for malting up and breaking down trains. It extends about 5000 feet in a north-south direction and spreads out in width from tapered ends. The widest portion of the yard is at its center. There are two main line tracks on the east side and ten storage tracks in the yard as well as railroad shops and other structures.

The accident happened on track two, a storage track, at about 6:00 p.m. near the north end of the yard. On the whole, the storage tracks were “clogged” with cars. Two crews were shifting cars in the yard at the time of the accident. One was in the south end of the yard and the other in the north end. The south crew, composed of four men, had been at work most of the day. The north crew, composed of five men, had been on duty about 30 minutes before the accident.

Both crews were involved in the routine work of shifting cars to various storage tracks to make up trains. Generally, the cars are shifted into place by “bumping” or “kicking” them with the engine. The cars then roll along the tracks freely until they either come to rest voluntarily or until they strike another car on the track. A crew member operates the track switches and thereby determines where a car will be located. The crews were working independently of each other, but the north crew knew that the south crew was “kicking” cars onto the storage tracks. The engines in use at the time were equipped with radiophones, which made communication possible between the crews and between a crew and the yardmaster.

The evidence discloses that the yard was a dangerous place for persons to be. It was customary for trainmen who observed a child in the yard to report this information to the yard office. The yard office would then notify special officers employed by the railroad who would go into the yard to look for and remove the child.

On the day of the accident, Danny and his fourteen year old brother, Gregory, decided to run away from home. They set out to walk to their grandmother’s home in Front Royal. When they came upon the railroad yard, they decided to “stop off and play.” At about 4:00 p.m. B. E. Moore, a brakeman on the south crew, discovered two unidentified, small boys playing in the yard near the main line tracks. He started toward the boys and “hollered” at them, and they ran into some bushes near the main line tracks. Moore said he told Benjamin Gray, his conductor, he had seen two boys in the yard. Gray stated, however, that he did not recall being informed [125]*125of the boys’ presence. If he had seen the boys, he said he would have reported it to the office so that special officers would look for them.

Danny and Gregory entered a small building located in the yard and played with a telephone. After this, they went deeper into the yard and climbed into a boxcar, where they stayed five or ten minutes. Upon leaving the boxcar, Danny saw a man with a flashlight looking in cars. According to Danny, this man warned him to leave the yard.

Soon after Danny was warned, Gregory noticed a car rolling slowly on one of the storage tracks and jumped on it for a ride. Danny did not get on the car. After Gregory got off the car, they saw the north crew’s engine as it went by them on another track.

At about 5:45 p.m. B. R. Jacobs, a member of the north crew, saw Danny and his brother standing between storage tracks six and seven. When he first saw them, they were about 200 yards away. After the north crew shifted some cars, Jacobs told his conductor, Chester McClanahan, he had seen two boys.

McClanahan testified that he first saw the boys about 5:50 p.m. as he was standing with Jacobs at the switch on track six. When he first observed them one boy was between tracks five and six and the other was hanging on the side of a rolling boxcar his crew had just released. He said, “I took it for granted they were playing” but he took no action at that time although he was only 200 yards from the boys, within 200 feet of the radio telephone in the engine and 125 yards from a telephone in the yard.

A few minutes later, the north crew engine moved closer to Danny and Gregory. McClanahan, who was then on the engine, saw them between tracks five and six at the end of a boxcar “peeping” at the engine. The boys were only 12 or 13 feet from the engine. Mc-Clanahan yelled at Danny and Gregory, “Get out of the yard before you get killed or a leg cut off.”

After the warning, Danny and Gregory disappeared from sight. They ran around the end of some cars and crawled under others. Between two and five minutes after they had been warned by Mc-Clanahan, he heard a scream. Soon after he heard the scream, Gregory appeared and asked a member of the north crew for help because his brother’s leg had been cut off.

Members of the north crew went to Danny, who was found beneath a boxcar on track two. The conductor of the crew ordered [126]*126his engineer to call the south crew and tell them to stop “kicking” cars and to call an ambulance. At the time the accident occurred, the south crew was unaware that Danny and his brother were in the yard. It was stipulated that Danny was not injured by any operation or movement of cars under the control of the north crew.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Miller v. P. G. Harris Construction Co.
80 Va. Cir. 317 (Norfolk County Circuit Court, 2010)
Riggins v. Andrews
79 Va. Cir. 340 (Virginia Beach County Circuit Court, 2009)
Cooper v. Adler
604 S.E.2d 747 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 2004)
Johnson v. Commonwealth
51 Va. Cir. 311 (Stafford County Circuit Court, 2000)
Mahony v. Becker
435 S.E.2d 139 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1993)
Perez Ex Rel. Perez v. Espinola
749 F. Supp. 732 (E.D. Virginia, 1990)
Bulala v. Boyd
389 S.E.2d 670 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1990)
Falat v. Medical College
14 Va. Cir. 318 (Medical Malpractice Review Panel, 1989)
McCue v. City of Alexandria
16 Va. Cir. 513 (Alexandria County Circuit Court, 1982)
Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad v. Barker
275 S.E.2d 613 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1981)
Appalachian Power Co. v. LaForce
201 S.E.2d 768 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1974)
NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY v. Fincham
189 S.E.2d 380 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
189 S.E.2d 380, 213 Va. 122, 1972 Va. LEXIS 317, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/norfolk-southern-railway-company-v-fincham-va-1972.