Reid v. Missouri Pacific Railroad

3 La. App. 608, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 308
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 7, 1925
DocketNo 2290
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 3 La. App. 608 (Reid v. Missouri Pacific Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reid v. Missouri Pacific Railroad, 3 La. App. 608, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 308 (La. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

ODOM, J.

Plaintiff brings this suit against the defendant to recover damages for injuries which he received when a gondola or coal car on defendant’s track at Tioga, Louisiana,. collided with a truck in which he was riding.

At the time of the accident, Reid, the plaintiff in this case, was sitting on the seat of a truck by the side of Sidney A. Townsend, who was driving it. Reid and Townsend were both seriously injured and each brought suit against the defendant company. Their injuries grew out of the same accident and for the purposes of the trial the two cases were consolidated in the District Court and are submitted on the same testimony. All the conditions, facts and circumstances surrounding the accident are detailed and discussed in the [609]*609opinion in the Townsend case, this day decided; therefore, it is not necessary to detail and discuss them in this opinion.

The difference between plaintiff’s case and that of Townsend is that Townsend was the driver of the truck and Reid was sitting on the seat by his side at the time of the accident.

We held in the Townsend case that the defendant company was negligent in the. handling of its ears at the time of the accident but that Townsend was guilty of such contributory negligence as to bar his recovery. The question we must determine in this case is- whether Reid, though not the driver of the truck, whs also guilty of such negligence as to bar his recovery.

It is urged in behalf of the plaintiff, Reid, that even though it should be held by the court that Townsend, the driver of the truck, was guilty of contributory negligence, his negligence cannot be imputed to the plaintiff.

But that is not the question in this case, for that point is conceded by counsel for defendant; but it is urged on behalf of the defendant that Reid himself, though not the driver of the truck, was guilty of such negligence as to bar his recovery.

The facts necessary to be narrated in connection with this case are as follows:

Townsend and Reid were both employees of the Lee Lumber Company and were working at its commissary at Tioga, Louisiana.

The Lee Lumber Company maintains an ice house from which it distributes ice to its customers in a Ford truck. Townsend had charge of the delivery of the ice and drove the truck. For some reason or other it was decided that Reid should take over the business of delivering the ice, and on the day of the accident he accompanied Townsend so as to familiarize himself with the routes and the customers. He and Townsend went together on the truck to the ice house, Townsend driving. They loaded the ice on the truck. Townsend got on the truck on the driver’s seat, which is on the left-hand side. Reid cranked the engine and got on the truck on the driver’s seat on the right-hand side of Townsend. «Townsend then proceeded to back the truck over the railroad crossing where the accident occurred.

Reid and Townsend both say that when the rear wheels of the truck struck the plank approach to the crossing Townsend stopped the truck momentarily, according to Townsend’s testimony, and about five seconds, according to Reid’s testimony, and that they both looked up and down the track and listened but did not see or hear cars approaching. Townsend then backed the truck to the railroad track, where it was struck by the gondola or coal car, causing the injury.

In our opinion in the case of Townsend versus the same defendant, we have fully set forth our reasons for holding that Townsend was negligent, and the question arises whether Reid also was negligent.

Reid, as stated, was on the seat to the right of Townsend. The truck was open, so that he could see to the right of him. There were no curtains to obstruct his view. The cars which struck the truck came from down the track, from the north, and struck the truck on the north side—the side on which Reid was sitting. Townsend was sitting on the opposite side of the truck from which the cars were coming and therefore had less opportunity of seeing up the track in the direction from which the cars were coming than did Reid.

Reid sáys that when the rear wheels of the truck reached the west edges of the plank approach to the crossing, Townsend stopped the truck for as much, as five [610]*610seconds and that he, Reid, looked both Ways, up and down the track, and that he listened, but^neither saw nor heard the approaching cars. He says the engine of the truck was making considerable noise, which probably prevented his hearing the cars.

The testimony shows that from the < seat occupied by Reid at the time the truck was stopped he could see up the railroad track in the direction from which the cars were coming a distance of only eighty feet, and that further view from the truck was obstructed by the corner of the barber-shop.

The testimony further shows that at á point .only a few feét further back the track could have been seen from the point where Reid was sitting for a distance of some two hundred and fifty or three hundred feet; but Reid says he did not look up the track again.

Prom the time he first looked up and down the track he says he looked straight in' front of him; that he does not know what he was looking at but that he w'as looking straight to the front while Townsend was manipulating the truck over the crossing.

In the Townsend case we held that Townsend was negligent in not seeking a view of the track at a point where he could see, and we found that if he had looked a second time or at any time after he first looked he could have seen and averted the danger. The same can be said of Reid. He was sitting at a place where his view of the track to the right—the direction from which the cars were coming —was unobstructed; When he did look he saw that he could, see but a shorty distance up the track on account of the barbershop building; but if he had looked again after the truck moved further back he would have had an unobstructed view of the track for almost the entire length of it and could, of course, have seen the approaching cars. But according to his own testimony he did not see the cars until the moment they hit the truck, notwithstanding the fact that they hit the truck on the side where he was sitting. There is no question but that the accident could have been averted by Reid if he had continued to look.

But counsel contend that it was not Reid’s duty to look, because he was not the driver.

We do not think that under the circumstances of the case Reid was absolved from all duty and responsibility to keep a lookout for his own safety. He was not on the truck as Townsend’s invited guest, nor was he a passenger for hire. He and Townsend were co-laborers engaged in a joint enterprise. He had helped load the truck and had cranked the engine of the truck to start it and, after getting into the truck, he says, he did actually look up and down the track and listen. That fact shows that he realized that he should render some assistance at least in getting the truck over the crossing and that he should exercise some degree of care for his own safety. The fact that he looked and listened, as he says he did, shows that he was not relying solely upon Townsend’s making a safe drive over the crossing. He knew that this was a dangerous crossing and was aware of the necessity for taking every precaution. He was sitting at a place on the truck where he could see and could have protected himself if he had used ordinary diligence.

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Related

Gosey v. Kansas City Southern Railway Co.
100 So. 2d 311 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1958)
Andrepont v. T. & P. R. R.
5 La. App. 625 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 La. App. 608, 1925 La. App. LEXIS 308, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reid-v-missouri-pacific-railroad-lactapp-1925.