Saint Louis-San Francisco Rd. Co. v. Pearson

281 S.W. 910, 170 Ark. 842, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 261
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 29, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 281 S.W. 910 (Saint Louis-San Francisco Rd. Co. v. Pearson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Saint Louis-San Francisco Rd. Co. v. Pearson, 281 S.W. 910, 170 Ark. 842, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 261 (Ark. 1926).

Opinion

Hart, J.,

(after stating the facts). When the plaintiff’s intestate was killed, he was engaged as locomotive fireman on an interstate passenger train, and.the cause of his death was a derailment which occurred while the train was passing over a switch.

The only allegation of negligence relied upon for a recovery by the plaintiff is that the defendant negligently permitted the east switch point at the place where the accident occurred to become defective, thereby causing the engine and cars of the train to be derailed.- The suit was brought under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, and the burden of proof to establish the negligence of the defendant was upon the plaintiff. New Orleans & Northwestern Rd. Co. v. Harris, 247 U. S. 367, and St. Louis S. W. Ry. Co. v. Rogers, 166 Ark. 389.

The principal ground relied upon by the defendant .for a reversal of the judgment is that the evidence is not legally sufficient to support the verdict. Under our judiciary system it is the province of the jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence, under proper instructions as to the principles of law applicable thereto. And the court is never justified in directing a verdict except in cases where, conceding the credibility of the witnesses, and giving full effect to every legitimate inference that may be deduced from their testimony, it is plain that the party has not made out a case sufficient in law to entitle him to a verdict and judgment thereon. St. L. S. W. Ry. Co. v. Ellenwood, 123 Ark. 428, and St. L. S. W. Ry. Co. v. Rogers, 166 Ark. 389.

The case of Railway Co. v. Morgart, 56 Ark. 213, and other cases of like character relied upon by counsel for the defendant, are not controlling under the facts of the case at bar. In the Morgart case, the stringers of a bridge had been raised from four to six inches, and this raised the rails off of the embankment next to the bridge. In other words, the rails at the end of the bridge were swinging, so that they were clear of the ground. The jury might have inferred, from the testimony of an experienced railroad man who arrived at the scene of the accident after it occurred, that the swinging rails at the south end of the bridge were the proximate cause of the wreck.

The court said that it was contrary to common observation and experience that the tender and engine with all the cars of the train could have passed over these swinging rails, and any of the cars remained on the rails south of them afterwards. The court said that the testimony carried on its face evidence of its falsity, and could not in'the nature of things be true. This was but another way of saying that it was a physical impossibility for the train to have passed over the swinging rails, and any of the cars to have remained on the track, and that the testimony of the witness was contrary to the laws of nature. Such is not the case here. There is nothing in the evidence relied upon by the plaintiff to establish negligence which is contrary to the physical facts, and the most that could be said of it is that the decided weight of the evidence tends to show the improbability of the truth of the testimony of the witnesses for the plaintiff.

W. E. Willis, a railroad man of twenty years ’ experience, was the principal witness for the plaintiff. According to his testimony, he went to the scene of the accident soon after it occurred, and, on account of his experience in working on railroads, he was prompted to try to ascertain the cause of the wreck. He had observed that the engine had left the track at the switch point on the east side of the track, and that the cars which had been derailed were on the east side of the unain track. He crawled under a coach at the point where the engine had left the track, and found a piece of switch point about six or eight inches long. It was rusted at the bottom, and there was a new break about an inch or maybe a little more at the top. This piece of switch point was lying right where it had been broken off on the east side of the track. This left a piece of the switch rail with a stub end. When the train came to this stub end, the flanges of the wheels of the engine would naturally catch on this stub, and mount on top of the switch point. This would cause the wheels to press down between the rails of the two tracks, and make what is known as a split switch. This would cause the engine to leave the track, and carry with it the rest of the train. Willis left the piece of switch point which he found on the east side of the track on the switch stand which was on the left side of the track, and does not know what became of it.

It is true that several witnesses testified that the east switch point was not broken. Evidence was also adduced by the defendant tending to show that the engine could not have run 305 feet after it had left the track at the east switch point in question, and also to show that, even .if the east switch point had been broken off as testified to by Willis, this would not have caused a split switch when the engine reached that point, and the wheels of it came upon the stub end of the switch rail. The testimony, however, of these witnesses does not go-to the extent of showing that it was a physical impossibility that the engine could not have been run 305 feet after it left the track, and that the mounting of the engine wheels upon the stub end of the switch point could not have caused a split switch.

Willis testified that the appearance of the ground showed that the engine had left the track at the east switch point. He is corroborated in this fact by the .attending circumstances. The engine and the derailed cars are all on the east side of the main track. The rails were torn up on the west side of the track at the point where Willis testified that the engine left the track. This would tend to show that as the engine left the track on the east side it pulled the cars in the direction in which it was going, and this would naturally tear up the rails on the west side of the track. It is true that the switch rail on the west side of the track was broken into three or four pieces, and one of these pieces about six or eight inches long was missing’. The jury migiit have found, however, that, if the derailment of the train had been caused by the west switch rail breaking, the engine would naturally have dropped down on that side, and the wrecked engine and cars would have been on the west side,' instead of the east side of the main track.

It is earnestly insisted that the piece of switch point testified to by iWillis was a piece of the west switch rail. The undisputed evidence, however, shows that any railroad man of experience would know the difference between a switch point for the east rail and one for the west side of the track. This would be just as discernible as would be the difference between a right and left shoe. Besides this, Willis testified that he found the piece of switch point on the east side of the track right where it had broken off, and that it fitted into the stub end of the switch rail remaining’ there. It can not be said that it was a physical impossibility for the wheels of the engine to have mounted on the stub end of the switch point, and by pressing’ down upon the rails have caused a split switch.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hamilton v. Canal Barge Company, Inc.
395 F. Supp. 978 (E.D. Louisiana, 1975)
Faulkner v. Mowry
307 S.W.2d 789 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1957)
Jansen v. Blissenbach
217 S.W.2d 849 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1949)
Williams, Administrator v. Lauderdale
191 S.W.2d 455 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1945)
St. Louis S.W. Ry. Co. v. Braswell, Administrator
127 S.W.2d 637 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1939)
Missouri Pac. R.R., Baldwin, Tr. v. Westerfield
92 S.W.2d 862 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1936)
New York Underwriters' Insurance v. Stewart
81 S.W.2d 844 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1935)
Baker v. Puckett
31 S.W.2d 286 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1930)
Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Jolly's Administratrix
23 S.W.2d 564 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1930)
Chalfant v. Haralson
3 S.W.2d 38 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1928)
Jonesboro, Lake City & Eastern Railroad v. Gunn
298 S.W. 485 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1927)
Ashcraft v. Jerome Hardwood Lumber Co.
292 S.W. 386 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1927)
Fort Smith, Subiaco & Rock Island Railroad v. Moore
289 S.W. 6 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
281 S.W. 910, 170 Ark. 842, 1926 Ark. LEXIS 261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/saint-louis-san-francisco-rd-co-v-pearson-ark-1926.