Norfolk & W. Ry. Co. v. Holbrook

215 F. 687, 131 C.C.A. 621, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1280
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedMay 5, 1914
DocketNo. 1230
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 215 F. 687 (Norfolk & W. Ry. Co. v. Holbrook) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Norfolk & W. Ry. Co. v. Holbrook, 215 F. 687, 131 C.C.A. 621, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1280 (4th Cir. 1914).

Opinion

WOODS, Circuit Judge.

W. T. Holbrook, a bridge carpenter, was killed in January, 1913, on one of defendant’s railroad bridges by a passenger train, known as No. 15. The plaintiff, his widow, as administratrix of his estate, suing for the benefit of herself and his five infant children under the act o-f Congress of 1908 as amended in 1910, recovered judgment for damages in the District Court for the Western [689]*689District of Virginia, under the allegation that her intestate’s death was caused by the negligence of the defendant.

[1] The motion to dismiss the appeal must be refused. The first ground for the motion presented at the argument that every matter charged as error should be brought up by a separate bill of exceptions is disposed of by this language of Mr. Justice Brewer in Lees v. United States, 150 U. S. 482, 14 Sup. Ct. 165, 37 L. Ed. 1150:

"1c Is well settled that, Instead of preparing separate bills for each separate matter, all the alleged errors of a trial may be incorporated into one bill of exceptions.”

[2] The principle cannot be too strongly emphasized that the sole purpose of hills of exceptions and assignments of error is to bring separately and clearly the matters complained of before the trial judge so that he may have the opportunity to grant relief if he thinks proper, before counsel for defendant in error, so that he may be advised of the precise points to be met in argument, and before the appellate court, so that it may readily perceive the points to be decided and the portions of the record on which they depend. Repetition not necessary to these ends should not incumber the record.

[3'| The second ground for tjie motion is that the evidence is not incorporated in the exceptions so as to be sufficiently identified. The only assignment of error requiring any particular reference to the evidence is that alleging that on the whole evidence the District judge should have directed a verdict for the defendant. The record shows clearly that it was the intention of counsel and the District Judge to incorporate the entire testimony in the bill of exceptions. To that end at the proper place a slip of paper was pinned, on which was typewritten :

"(Hero insert all the evidence, beginning with the words ‘And the plaintiff,' on page 8, and concluding with the end of the testimony for both plaintiff and defendant on page 531.)”

By inadvertence the typewritten copy of the evidence, having this paging indicated, was not actually inserted, but was separately filed. Do attack is made on the correctness of the copy, and it appears in the printed record as the evidence covered by the certificate of the District Judge; but it is said nevertheless not to be identified. It would be applying technicality beyond all reason to hold that testimony identified by the paging, unquestioned as a matter of fact, and relating on its face to the cause, was not the testimony which the District Judge meant to certify. The facts leave the case entirely outside of the principle, laid down in 2 Foster on Fed. Prac. (5th Ed.) 1594, and a number of cases, that documents or other evidence referred to in the bill will be excluded from consideration if not properly identified.

[4] 2. On the merits it is contended that the District Judge should liave directed a verdict for the defendant on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to warrant the inference of negligence on the part of the defendant as a proximate cause of the death of Holbrook.

When Holbrook was killed he, in company with five other men under the directions of the Foreman Carbaugh, was putting down guard rails on the west-bound track of a double-tracked bridge 228 feet long. [690]*690Within 50 feet of the west approach of the bridge there is a curved tunnel,' and near the east approach there is another curve in a cut. Trains passed frequently, and those coming from the west through the tunnel drew the smoke over the bridge. These conditions made the place of work one of great danger, requiring on the part of the defendant corresponding care in the protection of its men. Recognizing this duty in such conditions the railroad company required of its foremen the observance of these rules;

“Foremen or otters in charge of employés working on or about the tracks must instruct their men to be alert, watchful, and to keep out of danger; and will take all reasonáble precautions to see that all men working under their immediate supervision receive warnings of approaching trains in time to reach a place of safety.
“When working on tracks in places where approaching trains cannot readily be seen because of permanent obstructions to the view, or temporary obstructions, such, for instance, as fog, storms, snow or engines or cars, extra precautions must be taken to warn the men of approaching trains.
“As an extra precaution, when necessary to place a watchman at some distance from the men at work on the tracks, or in such location that his signals may not be understood, additional watchmen should be placed so that the signals can be passed to the men at work and return signals obtained. In case return signals are not received, and understood, the watchman must signal the train to stop.” .

Carbaugh, the foreman, took no other precautions than to stand on the east-bound track and call “railroad” or “clear up” on observing the approach of a train. In this situation west-bound passenger train 15 passed, with signals that another section was to follow. Several hours afterwards east-bound freight train 92, carrying about 40 cars, came through the tunnel pulling smoke over the bridge. Before all the cars had cleared the bridge, the second section of west-bound passenger train 15 approached from the curve on the east side on the track where Holbrook was working, and killed him. Carbaugh’s range of vision on the track towards this train was not more than 300 or 400 feet, which would be run by a train going 30 miles an hour in not exceeding 10 seconds. When the foreman made the call for train 92, Holbrook and the witness Walters were engaged in framing a new guard rail on the west-bound track, and between that call and the approach of train 15, it was necessary for Holbrook and Walters to take the timbers off the track and get to a place of safety on the girders or floor beams beyond the track. No witness saw Holbrook when he was struck, and there is some conflict in the evidence as to his situation when train 15 was about to reach his position, but the conflict is not material. Taken together, the evidence leaves no doubt that Holbrook was struck either while he was in the act of removing a piece of timber from the track or immediately after removing it and before he reached a place of safety.

This short statement of the admitted conditions and the precautions taken by Carbaugh is enough to show clearly that there was good ground for the jury to infer that the precautions were not such as. due care required, and that in anticipation of the danger to which the workmen would be subjected from the contingency of two trains approaching the bridge at the same time from opposite directions, Car[691]*691baugli should have protected them by flags. The motion to direct a verdict was therefore properly refused.

[5] 3.

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

Related

Brimer v. Davis
245 S.W. 404 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1922)
Connelley v. Pennsylvania R.
221 F. 508 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1915)
Norfolk & W. Ry. Co. v. Holbrook
215 F. 1007 (Fourth Circuit, 1914)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
215 F. 687, 131 C.C.A. 621, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1280, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/norfolk-w-ry-co-v-holbrook-ca4-1914.