Ostertag v. Union Pacific Railroad

169 S.W. 1, 261 Mo. 457, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 267
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 25, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 169 S.W. 1 (Ostertag v. Union Pacific Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ostertag v. Union Pacific Railroad, 169 S.W. 1, 261 Mo. 457, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 267 (Mo. 1914).

Opinion

ROT, 0.

This is a suit for damages for personal injuries. The plaintiff recovered a verdict and judgment for $15,000.

He was thirty-four years ol’d at the time of the injury, and in good health. He had been in the employ of defendant as a switchman about four years, and had been in railroad work longer. The injury occurred in defendant’s freight yards in Kansas Oity, June 7, 1910, about 6:40' p. m. Plaintiff was one of the crew of engine No. 1241.

The petition alleges the negligence as follows:

“That while such switch engine was stationary and plaintiff was engaged in the act of passing around the end of the same, and in a position of peril from the movement of said engine backward, the said switch engine, in consequence of and through the negligence and mismanagement of the agents, engineers and other employees of the defendant, including the foreman of said switching crew, was suddenly; swiftly and violently moved backward, toward and against the plaintiff; and said agents, engineers and other employees, including the foreman of said switching crew, negli-. [463]*463gently failed to give any warning to the plaintiff, as dne care required them to do, of such movement of such engine.”

It alleges the loss of his left leg about half way between the knee and hip, and that he was earning one hundred dollars a month, and prays for $25,000 damages.

. The answer contained a general denial, a plea of contributory negligence and an allegation that under the law of Kansas the plaintiff assumed the risk. The reply is a general denial.

Tracks four and five in the defendant’s yards running parallel from east to west are connected at the west by a switch, from which the track continues west. On the south side of the track and two or three hundred feet west of that switch was the “shanty” or office where the defendant’s employees went to get and give orders and reports. Freight train No. 157, containing about fifty cars, was on track four'. The road engine was coupled to the west end of that train and headed west. In front of the road engine was coupled the helper engine reversed, i. e., with its head to the east. It was there for the purpose of helping the train start westward on an upgrade. South of that train was engine 1241 on track five. It was coupled to its tank or tender, but not to any cars. The plaintiff was in the cab of his engine ■ at the time it arrived near the switch. The foreman of that engine, Mr. Moore, had come with the engine from the east, riding on the footboard on the rear end of the tank, which was in advance as the engine backed west. On reaching that spot, the foreman left the engine and went to tie shanty to report to the yardmaster, Shull, and to receive additional orders if there were any. It was quitting time for that engine and crew, and, in the absence of further orders, the engine was to be taken westward beyond the shanty to the roundhouse, and the crew were to disperse to their homes. As [464]*464Moore reached the shanty, he met and passed Detwiler, conductor of the freight who was g'oing towards his train. About that time No. 157 ‘‘whistled off,” i. e., signaled that it was ready to go. Engine 1241 was too near the switch to permit the freight to pass safely. It headed east so that the freight could pass, and stopped with the west end of its tank one or two car lengths east of the clearing point of tracks four and five. The west end of the helper engine in front of the freight train was about the same distance east of the clearing point. Detwiler, the freight conductor, signaled his train to “come ahead” and it started. About that time the plaintiff, having left the cab of his engine about the time it last stopped, passed west between tracks four and five on his way to the shanty, and Moore, the foreman of 1241, with the permission -of Shull, the night yardmaster, signaled his engine to “back up,” which meant to come on west over the switch ahead of 157. The engine started quickly and the rear end of the tank, which was for the time in front, struck plaintiff within five or ten feet after starting. The plaintiff had stepped on track five on his way to the shanty.

Melvin H. Milam, fireman on the “helper” engine, witness for plaintiff, testified as follows:

“Q. Suppose you tell us in your own way what happened there that • night with reference to the switches and the engines on 157 and this engine 1241. A. Well, 157 was made up on track 4. 1241 had made a Frisco transfer and backed out the stock track and onto 5 and come up about even with the switch engine on the head end of 57. They stood there quite a little bit — I don’t know how long — and the conductor • — we got the switch anyway and the conductor gave us a highball. When they pulled up> there they pulled up too far and they had to back down again to get in the clear.

[465]*465“Q. That is 1241? A. 1241. Then they gave ns the switch and the conductor gave us a highball and we whistled' off and started up. Just as we started somebody gave a sign for 1241 to back up towards the west and beat us to the switch. Then is when Ostertag got hit.

‘ ‘ Q. How far did you say that 1241 moved when it headed east to clear 4? A. The length of the engine.

“Q. You say you got the switch. Did your train whistle for the switch to get it? A. No. They gave us the switch and we whistled off.

“Q. Where was 1241 at the time you started? A. They were about even with the switch engine of 57.

“Q. That is, with your engine? A. Yes, sir.

“Q. How long was it after you started before 1241 started west? A. Well, I could not say.

“Q. As your engine stood there alongside of 1241, how far was your tank, the end of your tank, from the clearing point between tracks four and five? A. Well, if I remember right about the length of the engine. Probably a few feet further.

“Q. How far would you say you moved with the helper engine from the time you started to the west until you stopped? A. Ten or twelve feet; something like that, maybe not that far. All I remember is we got started,'whistled off and got started,”

Plaintiff took the deposition of W. IT. Wilder-mood, engineer of engine 1241, and the defendant read it in evidence. He testified:

“Q. Mr. Wildermood, suppose you tell us in your own way what occurred there in the operation of that engine from the time you first backed- west toward the switch shanty the evening Ostertag was hurt. A. Well, we backed up on what we'call No. 5 and engine 1151, night engine, was switching on the hill, and we couldn’t get out so I stopped where I supposed it [466]*466would clear 4. Well, night engine 1151 shoved in the clear.

“Q. That was onto track 3? -A. That was on track 4. We were on track 5. No. 157 that is a train of local'merchandise, going west, whistled off. Fireman says to me, he says, ‘Go ahead a little in the clear.’ I says, ‘I am in the clear,’ and he says, ‘Well, you don’t clear good,’ and Lou Ostertag dropped off the engine and says, ‘Yes, give them a good clear.’ So I let engine 1241 slack ahead in the clear about thirty or forty feet. I will say that much, but I don’t know whether that far, and maybe a little farther. After I stopped the fireman says, ‘Back up.’ I says ‘What?’ The fireman says-, ‘Moore says back up,’ and I looked over the tank and seen Moore, the foreman, give the signal to back up, and George Tighe lining the switch up for four.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
169 S.W. 1, 261 Mo. 457, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ostertag-v-union-pacific-railroad-mo-1914.