Railroad v. Wyrick

99 Tenn. 500
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 9, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 99 Tenn. 500 (Railroad v. Wyrick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Railroad v. Wyrick, 99 Tenn. 500 (Tenn. 1897).

Opinion

McAlister, J.

The defendant in error, Arminda Wyriek, recovered a verdict and judgment in the Circuit Court of Grainger County against the railroad for the sum of $5,500 for the alleged negligent killing of her husband. A motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment was made on behalf of the company. The Circuit Judge was of opinion the damages assessed by the jury were excessive, and plaintiff’s counsel entered a remittitur of $2,500. The Court, thereupon, overruled the motion for a new trial, and pronounced judgment in favor of [502]*502plaintiff below for $3,000. The company appealed, and has assigned errors.

It appears from the record there was no eyewitness to the killing, and from the circumstances surrounding the case two distinct theories have been projected by the respective parties. The theory advanced on behalf of the company is that the deceased did not appear as an obstruction upon the track in front of the train, but either fell from the train while stealing a ride, or met his death while attempting to board a train in motion. Evidence was introduced on behalf of the company, tending to show that, on Friday evening, March 20, 1896, the deceased, while drunk, boarded the engine of a freight train belonging to plaintiff in error while it was standing on the side track at Luttrell Station. The deceased was invited by the engineer to leave the engine, but he obstinately refused to do so, saying he would go to Knoxville on that engine if the train went. He accordingly persisted in remaining upon the engine until the train reached Corryton, the next station, distant about four miles from Luttrell, where the engineer and fireman quit the engine, hoping, thereby, deceased would be induced to follow them. Deceased did leave the engine, and walked along the track to the rear of the train. The engineer, seizing the opportunity, immediately moved his train forward, supposing the deceased had been left at the station. When about half way, however, to the next station, the deceased -was discovered by a brakeman [503]*503sitting on top of a coal car about the middle of the train. Arriving at Maloneyville, the next station, the deceased was forcibly ejected from the train. The train then pulled out for Knoxville, and the deceased was not again seen by this crew. Another freight train — being the second section of the train just mentioned — followed in a short time, and, after proceeding 'for about a mile west of Maloneyville, was stopped, and the remains of deceased were found bruised and mangled lying on the track some fifteen or twenty feet in the rear of this train. The body had been partially denuded of its clothing, and there were signs on the roadbed that it had been dragged. Near the center of this train, hanging to a brake beam under a freight car, was found part of deceased’s coat.

It is conceded, or at least the fact does not admit of serious controversy, that deceased was killed by the second section of this freight train, but it is a disputed question how the death occurred. The crew of the second section were all in attendance at the trial, under the subpcena of the company, but no one of them was examined as a witness. The theory of the company is that deceased did not appear on the track in front of the engine so as to require on its part an observance of the statutory precautions, but that he climbed upon its train and fell between two of its cars and was dragged. In support of this theory it is claimed that the body of deceased did not present the appearance of having been crushed [504]*504under the wheels of the train, and that the fragment of coat hanging from the brake beam is the only-evidence of contact of the body with the train. Evidence was introduced for the company tending to show that a man could fall between two freight or coal cars and escape being run over and crushed by the wheels, but that the rods and rigging of the brakes were so suspended below the áxles of the trucks, and in such proximity to the roadbed, as almost surely to catch the clothes of a man lying on the roadbed between the rails.

The theory of the defendant in error is that deceased, while walking upon the track, was struck and run over by one of defendant’s trains and killed; that the track, for 450 feet east of the place where deceased was struck, is perfectly straight, and there were no curves to prevent seeing an object upon the track for that distance; that the employees of the company were either not on the lookout for obstructions upon the track, or, being on the lookout, and seeing deceased, did not observe the precautions required by law, and that the jury were well warranted in drawing either deduction from the silence of the crew in charge of the train, who were summoned and yet not examined as witnesses. . It is insisted in behalf of the defendant in error that this theory is further strengthened by the fact that after deceased had been forcibly ejected from the first section of this freight train, he was seen to walk westwardly along the railroad track, in the direction of Knox-[505]*505Tille, and that the mangled remains of deceased indicate that he was caught by the train and dragged along the track for some distance by the pilot of the engine.

The respective theories were submitted to the jury, and they have adopted the contention of defendant in error.

The first assignment is that the entire charge is so confused as to throw no light on the issues involved, and is positively' misleading and erroneous. The infirmities in the charge, as a whole, were cured by the very elaborate supplemental instructions prepared by counsel for plaintiff in error, and at their request given in charge to the jury. So that the exception to the charge as a whole must be overruled.

Descending into particulars, the second assignment is that the Court, in defining the issues made in the pleadings, should have explained to the jury the meaning of the term “not guilty.” We think this exception is hypercritical, especially as counsel made no request for additional instructions. The term itself is not difficult of comprehension, and we think would convey, even to the ordinary mind, the meaning that it was a denial of the charges in the declaration.

The Court charged fully that the burden was upon plaintiff to make out her case by a preponderance of evidence, and that in order' to render defendant liable, it must have been guilty of negli[506]*506gence which was the prime, proximate, and immediate cause of the death.

The fourth assignment is that the Court erred in charging the jury that one of the statutory precautions required was that the railroad should keep on the lookout ahead, the engineer and the fireman. While it must be conceded that this instruction was erroneous, yet in the light of this record the error was innocuous.

Defendant did not insist, on the trial below, that it was in the observance of. the statutory precautions. It made no such defense, and hence neither the engineer nor fireman was introduced as a witness. There was no proof on this subject whatever, and the defendant has not been deprived by the charge of the Court of any defense upon which it relied. If the company had shown, or it had otherwise appeared in the proof, that at the time of the accident either the engineer or fireman was on the lookout ahead, this would have satisfied the statute, and it was not necessary that both should have been on the lookout, as erroneously charged by the Court. The error, however, is harmless, and is not a reversible one.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
99 Tenn. 500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/railroad-v-wyrick-tenn-1897.