Pryor v. Bishop

234 F. 9, 148 C.C.A. 25, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 2049
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedApril 18, 1916
DocketNo. 2240
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 234 F. 9 (Pryor v. Bishop) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pryor v. Bishop, 234 F. 9, 148 C.C.A. 25, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 2049 (7th Cir. 1916).

Opinion

KOHLSAAT, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). While the record cites that decedent’s caboose and crew were subject to call at any time after the expiration of the-8-hour rest period, viz., 8:30 o’clock p. m., December 20, 1913, it also appears that the several members of the crew were masters of their own time and whereabouts up to the period of 1% hours preceding the departure of a train to which they were to be assigned. They were then expected to be within call for the purpose of necessary notice. After notice, they still had an hour during which they were subject to no control by defendant.

The so-called federal Employers’ Liability statute under which this suit is brought provides that every common carrier by railroad while engaging in interstate commerce shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in interstate commerce, or, in case of the death of such employe, to his personal representative for the benefit of certain parties named for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of the carrier or his employes, etc.

The question here presented is: Was decedent at the time of his death in the employ of defendant in the sense in which the word “employed” is used in said act? “The true test of employment in such commerce in the sense intended is,” says the Supreme Court in Shanks v. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Co., 239 U. S. 556, 36 Sup. Ct. 188, 60 L. Ed. 436, decided on January 10, 1916: “Was the employe at the time of the injury engaged in interstate transportation or in work so closely related to it as to be practically a part of it?” The court in that case further says:

“Thus it is essential to a right of recovery under the act, not only that the carrier be engaged in interstate commerce at the time of the injury, but also that the person suffering the injury be then employed by the carrier in such commerce.”

In the case just cited the plaintiff was employed in the machine shop of the defendant, which was engaged in both intrastate and interstate commerce. His work consisted in repairing certain parts of locomotives, but on the day of the injury he was engaged solely in taking down and putting into a new location an overhead countershaft, a heavy shop fixture, through which power was communicated to some of the machinery used in the repair work. “The question for decision is,” says the court, speaking through Mr. Justice Van Devanter: “Was Shanks at the time of the injury employed in interstate commerce within the meaning of the Employers’ Liability Act? What his employment was on other occasions is immaterial, for, as before indicated, [12]*12the act refers to the service being rendered when the injury was suffered.” It was there held that Shanks was not employed in interstate commerce within the meaning of the Employers’ Liability Act — citing Walsh v. New York, New Haven & Hartford R. R. Co., 223 U. S. 1, 32 Sup. Ct. 169, 56 L. Ed. 327, 38 L. R. A. (N. S.) 44; Norfolk & Western Ry. Co. v. Earnest, 229 U. S. 114, 33 Sup. Ct. 654, 57 L. Ed. 1096, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 172; Pederson v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Co., 229 U. S. 146, 33 Sup. Ct. 648, 57 L. Ed. 1155, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 153; St. Louis, San Francisco & Texas Ry. Co. v. Seale, 229 U. S. 156, 33 Sup. Ct. 651, 57 L. Ed. 1129, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 156; North Carolina R. R. Co. v. Zachary, 232 U. S. 248, 34 Sup. Ct. 305, 58 L. Ed. 591, Ann. Cas. l914C, 159; New York Central R. R. Co. v. Carr, 238 U. S. 260, 35 Sup. Ct. 780, 59 L. Ed. 1298; Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. Behrens, 233 U. S. 473, 34 Sup. Ct. 646, 58 L. Ed. 1051, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 163; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Co. v. Yurkonis, 238 U. S. 439, 35 Sup. Ct. 902, 59 L. Ed. 1397.

The accident was caused by defendant’s engine, which was running behind the transfer train without any cars, operated by defendant’s servants. Said engine was at the time bound for the Landers yard, there to take out and haul a train from Landers to Forrest, Ill., an intrastate haul. Those in charge of the transfer train, which was also engaged in intrastate commerce so far as the record discloses, were also chargeable with negligence and conceded to have been guilty of not using due care. Thus neither defendant’s transfer train nor the said engine were at the time of the death engaged in interstate commerce.

In St. Louis & San Francisco Ry. v. Seale, 229 U. S. 156, 33 Sup. Ct. 651, 57 L. Ed. 1129, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 156, where the train consisted of intrastate and interstate cars, one whose business it was, as a yard clerk, to examine in-coming and out-going trains, make a record of the seals on car doors, check the cars with conductors’ list, and put labels on the cars to guide switching crews in breaking and making up out-going trains, and who was killed while on the way to meet an in-coming train, for that purpose, was held to be in the employ of the railroad in interstate commerce. Suit was begun in the state court by those authorized under the Texas statute. Held, that the suit was one which arose exclusively under the federal Employers’ Liability Act, which requires suit to be brought by the legal representatives. It was therein further decided that decedent’s service was in interstate commerce notwithstanding the train had arrived at its terminus hauling both intrastate and interstate cars.

In Pedersen v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. Co., 229 U. S. 146, 151, 33 Sup. Ct. 648, 649 (57 L. Ed. 1155, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 153), the court says:

“Among the questions which naturally arise in this connection are these: Was that work [oí the plaintiff] being done independently of the interstate commerce in which the defendant was engaged, or was it so closely connected therewith as to be a part of it? Was its performance a matter of indifference so far as that commerce was concerned, or was it in the nature of a duty resting upon the carrier?”

[13]*13In that case the plaintiff was engaged at the time of the injury in carrying bolts or rivets from a tool car to a bridge which he was helping to repair, when he was run down by an intrastate passenger train. The tracks and bridge at that point were used by defendant both in intrastate and interstate commerce. Held, that the plaintiff was in the employ of defendant in interstate commerce.

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Bluebook (online)
234 F. 9, 148 C.C.A. 25, 1916 U.S. App. LEXIS 2049, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pryor-v-bishop-ca7-1916.