Northern Pac. R. v. Krohne

86 F. 230, 29 C.C.A. 674, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2268
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 7, 1898
DocketNo. 382
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 86 F. 230 (Northern Pac. R. v. Krohne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northern Pac. R. v. Krohne, 86 F. 230, 29 C.C.A. 674, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2268 (9th Cir. 1898).

Opinion

GILBERT, Circuit Judge.

The defendant in error was the plaintiff in an action against the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to recover damages for personal injuries received by him while crossing the tracks in the company’s yard at Livingst on, Mont. A number of tracks extended through the yard from east to west. On the north side of the tracks were the railroad machine shops, in which the plaintiff worked for the company as a machinist from June, 1888, down to January 12,1892, the dal.e of his injury. Along the south side of the yard ran a fence. The streets of the city running north terminated at the fence, but at the end of G street some boards had been taken from the fence, making an aperture through which the men working in the shops had since the year 1888 entered the yard from the south, on their way across the tracks to their work. About 50 men traveled across by this path daily, four times a day, on their way to and from their work. No notification of any kind was ever given to any one not to cross the tracks at this point. On the morning on which the accident occurred, the plaintiff left his home at about 7 minutes to 7 o’clock, to go to the shops. Snow had fallen during the night, and the wind was blowing from the west, drifting the snow. He entered the yard through the opening in the fence at G street, and proceeded along the path across the yard till he came to a freight train standing upon one of the tracks. He then turned eastward, to go around the train. He passed across the track in front of the engine, turned back westward towards the path which he usually traversed, and at some point left the freight train, and turned northward towards the shops, and proceeded until he was struck by the switch engine in the yard.

It is contended by the plaintiff in error that the court should have instructed the jury to return a verdict for the defendant, upon the ground, not only that the evidence failed to show negligence on the part of the defendant, but that it affirmatively proved contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff. It is urged that the court should have so charged, because the record discloses the following facts: That the plaintiff knew all about the switch engine, anil knew that it began its work at 7 o’clock a. m., and that it would leave the roundhouse long enough before that time to run to the main track, and west on the same, through the yard, past the place of the accident, to report at the depot, one-fourth of a mile further west, and that they were constantly engaged in switching in the yards, using all the tracks for that purpose; that in crossing the yard, going to the machine shop, the plaintiff had to cross at least 10 tracks, and that the headlight of the yard switch engine was never lighted on coming out on the day shift, and the blowing of a whistle on the yard engine was forbidden excepting as an emergency signal; that the plaintiff left his house that morning at the usual hour, wearing an overcoat, with the collar turned up, and a Scotch cap pulled down over his ears; that when he came to the freight train headed east he turned, and left the path on which he was licensed to go, walked east along the train, passing two or three freight cars to reach the engine, passed around it, then turned, [232]*232and went down along the engine till he got opposite the engine cab or tender, or the end of the first car, when he turned, and started diagonally across the tracks, in a direct line for the shops, never stopping or turning until he was struck by the switch engine, and keeping his face all this time towards the west, or away from the direction in which he knew the engine was to be expected; that the brakeman on the freight train saw the plaintiff from the time he turned in front of the' engine until he was struck, and the engineer of the same train saw the plaintiff pass the engine gangway, and the fireman saw him when he was struck and a moment before; that when the brakeman on the freight engine saw»the probability of a collision he shouted from two to four times to the plaintiff to “look out there,” and that, if the plaintiff had not had his ears muffled with cap and overcoat, he would have heard the warning in time to have escaped the injury; and that, if he had turned'and looked, he would have seen the approaching engine; and that to walk diagonally across the tracks, with his face turned towards the west, without stopping to listen or turning to look, was gross negligence upon his part.

If the facts as they are stated in this argument were undisputed, there could be no doubt that the plaintiff’s contributory negligence was such as to prevent his recovery. There is in the record, however, evidence tending to contradict nearly all of the material facts so stated. It is not our province to weigh the evidence, and determine what are the probable facts. That was the province of the jury. The case was properly submitted to the jury if there was in the evidence before it any testimony tending to show that the plaintiff was not negligent, and that the defendant was negligent as alleged in the complaint. We find evidence in the case tending to show that at the time when the plaintiff was injured it was still dark; that the freight train which first obstructed his path had its head lamp lighted, and it had tail lights on the cab, and the brakemen of that train still carried their lanterns; that it was not possible to see an approaching engine at a greater distance than 15 or 20 feet unless it carried a light; that, after he crossed the track in front of the freight train, the plaintiff proceeded westward alongside of the train to a point somewhere opposite the water tank or tender, or the first car, where he changed his course, leaving the freight train, crossed the track with his face towards the machine shops, which were to the northwesterly, and that at the time when he was struck he was crossing the main track, right on the path, leading from the aperture in the fence at G- street across the tracks to the machine shop; that the headlight of the switch engine was not lighted; that a rule of the company required that headlights on engines must always be burning when running, with or without a train, after dark; that it was the general custom in the yard to ring the bell in running up and down through it, and the rules of the company so required; that the bell was not ringing when it passed the witness Crandall, about 150 steps east of the place of the accident, nor when it passed the witness Barlow, west of the place of the accident; that the plaintiff himself did not hear the [233]*233bell ring, nor did the engineer of the freight train, who was in the cab of his engine. There was evidence that the bell on that engine did not ring as clear or as loud as others, and that it sounded as if it were cracked. There was evidence that the switch engine was going at about 12 miles an hour when it passed the witness Oramlall, and at about 15 miles an hour when it paused the witless Barlow, and that the engineer in charge of the switch engine was accustomed to run the same in the yard at great speed, sometimes at as great a speed as 30 miles an hour. There was evidence that the plaintiff had on an overcoat, with the collar turned up, — how far it reached is not stated, — and that his cap was pulled down so as to catch his ears, or, as one witness said, to cover half his ears.

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Bluebook (online)
86 F. 230, 29 C.C.A. 674, 1898 U.S. App. LEXIS 2268, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northern-pac-r-v-krohne-ca9-1898.