Sandidge v. Atchison, T. & S. F. RY. CO.

193 F. 867, 113 C.C.A. 653, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1088
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 19, 1912
DocketNo. 1,952
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 193 F. 867 (Sandidge v. Atchison, T. & S. F. RY. CO.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sandidge v. Atchison, T. & S. F. RY. CO., 193 F. 867, 113 C.C.A. 653, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1088 (9th Cir. 1912).

Opinion

MORROW , Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). Plaintiff’s intestate was the conductor on a freight train belonging to the defendant. The train was at Kingman station in Arizona, and was moving eastv ard. A box car heavily loaded with ore was about to be attached to this train. The car, after being placed upon the main track, did not fully respond to the control of the brake, either because the load was too heavy for the brake pressure or the brake was defective. The conductor got upon the car to assist the brakeman in putting on the brake, but their combined effort was not sufficient to stop the car. The car descended slowly at first, but with gradually increasing speed, on a downgrade to McConnico, about 3(6 or 4 miles west of Kingman. The telegraph operator at Kingman had in the meantime notified the train dispatcher at the Needles — 61 miles further west- — that the local had let a car get away, and that it was running downhill, and the train dispatcher at the Needles had directed the telegraph operator at McConnico to line up switches for this runaway car on the Chloride Branch. This was understood to mean that the car was to be diverted from the main line at McConnico to the switch, and from the switch to the Chloride Branch, a line of road [872]*872running north from McConnico. The telegraph operator at McConnico turned the switches as directed, and the runaway car upon which the conductor and brakeman were still riding came down the line, took the main line switch safely, and, running over a curve onto the Chloride Branch road, was derailed, and the conductor killed. The rails on the Chloride Branch were lighter than those on the main line, and failed to holdl the car to the track.

The rules defining the nature and extent of the employer’s duty in providing for the safety of" his employés have often been stated and clearly defined. The only difficulty is in their application to the circumstances of the particular case.

[1] In general terms, the degree of care required of an employer in protecting his employés from injury is the adoption of all reasonable means and precautions to provide for the safety of his employés while they aire engaged! in his employment, and this degree of care is to be measured by the dangers to be apprehended or avoided. De Graff v. New York Cen. & H. R. R. Co., 76 N. Y. 125, 131.

[2] The employer, whether a natural person or a corporate body, is under obligation not to expose the employé in conducting- the employer’s business to perils or hazards against which he may be guarded by proper diligence on the part of the employer. Hough v. Railway Co., 100 U. S. 213, 217, 25 L. Ed. 612.

[3] The care required of the employer is that of reasonable diligence; “and! reasonable diligence implies, as between the employer and employé, such watchfulness, caution, and foresight as, under all the circumstances of the particular service, a corporation controlled by careful and prudent officers ought to exercise.” Wabash R. Co. v. McDaniels, 107 U. S. 454, 460, 2 Sup. Ct. 932, 938 (27 L. Ed. 605).

[4] The failure of the employer to exercise such reasonable diligence, caution, and foresight as a prudent man would exercise under the circumstances is negligence.

[5] The train dispatcher at the Needles represented the defendant in giving the orders respecting this car. Santa Fé Pacific R. R. Co. v. Holmes, 202 U. S. 438, 441, 26 Sup. Ct. 676, 50 L. Ed. 1094; Felton v. Harbeson, 104 Fed. 737, 739, 44 C. C. A. 188; Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Mix, 121 Fed. 476, 481, 57 C. C. A. 592; Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Hart, 176 Fed. 245, 252, 100 C. C. A. 49. And was charged with the full measure of its duty with respect to this car in using every reasonable precaution to prevent an accident.

[6] It was the duty of the defendant to use reasonable diligence in furnishing a safe place for its employé to work in, and whatever risk the employé assumed in carrying on the defendant’s business did not exempt the defendant from that duty. Baltimore & Potomac R. R. Co. v. Mackey, 157 U. S. 72, 87, 15 Sup. Ct. 491, 39 L. Ed. 624; Union Pacific Ry. Co. v. O’Brien, 161 U. S. 451, 457, 16 Sup. Ct. 618, 40 L. Ed. 766; Choctaw, Oklahoma, etc., R. R. Co. v. McDade, 191 U. S. 64, 67, 24 Sup. Ct. 24, 48 L. Ed. 96; Sante Fé Pacific R. R. Co. v. Holmes, 202 U, S. 438, 441, 26 Sup. Ct. 676, 50 L. Ed [873]*8731094; Kreigh v. Westinghouse & Co., 214 U. S. 249, 255, 29 Sup. Ct. 619, 53 L. Ed. 984.

The derailment of the car at McConnico was the immediate, cause, and the insufficient or defective brake on the car was the primary or efficient cause of the accident. We will first consider the circumstances connected with the immediate cause. The car was derailed upon being thrown from the main track by the turning of the switch by the telegraph operator at McConnico under the direction of the train dispatcher at the Needles. Was this negligence on the part of the train dispatcher? What was the situation? Were there trains on the main track that this car would! be likely to come in collision with before it could be stopped, creating an emergency requiring that this car should be switched from the main line at McConnico at all hazards? W. H. Barber, the brakeman who was on the runaway car with the conductor, testified that, when the car struck the downgrade, the conductor asked him:

“Is there anything coming?”

The brakeman testified that he replied:

“No; there is nothing this side of Yucca.”

The brakeman referred to the station Yucca, about 20 miles west of McConnico. The conductor said:

“AVell, what do yon think? Do you think we can stop this car after we get by McConnico?” “All right.”

The brakeman testified, further, that, when they got down towards McConnico, he said to the conductor:

“Yon want to keep your eye skinned down here. We are liable to have these switches against us.”

The brakeman then testified that the car—

“turned around the curve there, probably a quarter of mile or less of straight track down to the switch. The switch was red. He was standing up there giving all kinds of signals for them to line up for the main line. Didn’t see no one make any attempt to go through. In fact, I didn’t see anybody in sight at all myself. * * * There is a lot of difference between the rails in the Chloride line track and in the main line track. ' * * * With reference to trying to stop the car. we hit the brake up good and hard; figured on doing what we could outside of that after we got down by the tank, some little distance west of McConnico where the grade is more favorable.

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Bluebook (online)
193 F. 867, 113 C.C.A. 653, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1088, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sandidge-v-atchison-t-s-f-ry-co-ca9-1912.