Santoro v. Lehigh Valley Railroad

148 F. Supp. 594, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4065
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedFebruary 26, 1957
DocketCiv. A. No. 529-55
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 148 F. Supp. 594 (Santoro v. Lehigh Valley Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Santoro v. Lehigh Valley Railroad, 148 F. Supp. 594, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4065 (D.N.J. 1957).

Opinion

HARTSHORNE, District Judge.

In this suit under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, U.S.C.A. Title 45, § 51 et seq., brought by plaintiff, defendant railroad’s crossing watchman, for silicosis alleged to have been suffered as a result of his employment by defendant, there was a verdict for defendant. Thereupon plaintiff moved for a new trial on the grounds: (1) that the verdict was so far against the weight of the evidence as to indicate passion, prejudice or mistake on the part of the jury, and that (2) the trial court erred in refusing one of plaintiff’s requests to charge, at conference prior to delivery of the charge. However, that the charge of the Court was adequate generally, is evidenced by the fact- that neither counsel took any exceptions to the charge after its delivery.

The trial lasted a week and was closely contested. Because of the various issues, the Court, with counsel’s consent, the issue of contributory negligence having been withdrawn, submitted interrogatories to the jury, in lieu of a general verdict, which, with their answers, were as follows:

“1. Is plaintiff suffering from silicosis ?
“Answer: Yes.
“2. Did this silicosis result in whole or in part from his employment with the Lehigh Valley Railroad?
“Answer: Yes.
“3. If, and only if, the answer to both the above questions is yes, then was the railroad, or was it not, negligent as charged?
“Answer: No.
“4. If the answer to 3 is yes, then did same result naturally and proximately in Santoro’s silicosis ?
“Answer:
“5. If the answer to 4 is yes, then what is the amount of your verdict ?
“Answer:”

As to the first of the above grounds for the present motion, the question thus is solely whether there was evidence which would reasonably support the verdict. More specifically the question is, whether there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find that, while plaintiff had silicosis and this was due to his employment by the railroad, the railroad had yet exercised due care as to him. As to this there was ample evidence that the railroad had no reasonable ground to anticipate any danger to plaintiff from silicosis, and that consequently it had no reason to take special steps to protect Santoro, or to warn him, as to a danger which was not reasonably to be anticipated. As the Court charged, if “they could not have anticipated it, they couldn’t reasonably have been expected to do anything about it”. None of the several medical witnesses called by the railroad could recall ever having heard of a case of silicosis in a railroad crossing watchman. While plaintiff’s medical witness claimed first that he had heard of one which he could not name, he later admitted that this, while a railroad man, was not a man at “a railroad crossing”. In addition, there was ample evidence for the jury to conclude that the dust conditions were by no means as painted by plaintiff, if in fact they were noxious.

Nor did plaintiff attempt to prove that any other railroads took any of the steps to protect railroad crossing watchmen which plaintiff claimed showed defendant’s lack of due care, same being the normal, though by no means all-inclusive, means of proving lack of due care. Hellweg v. Chesapeake & Potomac Tel. Co., 1940, 71 App.D.C. 346, 110 F.2d 546; Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Behymer, 1903, 189 U.S. 468, 23 S.Ct. 622, 47 L.Ed. 905; Beck v. Monmouth Lumber Co., E. & A. 1948, 137 N.J.L. 268, 59 A.2d 400. Of course were the railroad to have known, while it was employing plaintiff as a watchman, what it knows now, as a result of the verdict of this jury, as to this crossing watchman having suffered silicosis from his duties, then it could not -claim that it could not have reasonably anticipated the danger of silicosis to its railroad crossing watchman. Under such circumstances^ its failure to take the reasonably necessary steps to protect [596]*596its ignorant workmen from such danger might create a substantially different situation. But that is not this case — apparently the first case on record of silicosis caused by the duties of a railroad crossing watchman.

In short, there was ample evidence to show that the railroad had not failed to exercise due care as to plaintiff. While then, under plaintiff’s proof, had the jury found that the railroad had been negligent, that verdict would have withstood attack, by the same token, having found otherwise, that verdict, in the light of the evidence, must stand. It was a plain question for the jury, with which this Court has no legal right to interfere.

As to plaintiff’s second point, he contends that the Court misled the jury, and thereby improperly affected the • verdict, by refusing, during the conference with counsel over their requests to charge, and prior to delivery of the charge to the jury, to charge plaintiff’s request No. 3, among plaintiff’s 22 requests, as follows:

“3. There is evidence in this case that the defendant maintains a medical department which conducted routine examinations of plaintiff only four times in the period between 1941 to 1952, when he stopped work, but that such examinations did not include fluoroscopic or x-ray examinations. If you so find, and if you further find that, in the exercise of reasonable care, in view of the type of work and the type of exposure to which plaintiff was subjected, the defendant should have caused him to have x-ray and fluoroscopic examinations, but failed to do so, you may find that the defendant was guilty of negligence. If you further find that plaintiff is disabled as a result of silicosis and that the failure to give him fluoroscopic or x-ray examinations, in whole or in part contributed to his present condition, then your verdict should be for the plaintiff.”

The Court did charge the usual applicable principles of law, as evidenced by counsel’s failure to take any exceptions at all at the end of the charge. The charge included, among other things, the railroad’s duty to use “reasonable care to see that there was a reasonably safe place to work, and with regard to appliances, as well as acts of agents.” The Court also called attention to the question as to whether “the railroad took no steps prior to the onset of the disease to protect Santoro from such danger by warning or otherwise.” Thus it not only complied with most of plaintiff’s requests, including an allusion to “sprinkling the ground with water in dry spells”, but it also complied with the pre-trial order, which governs the issues to be tried. 3 Moore’s Federal Practice, Sec. 16.11; Burton v. Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., D.C. Or.1941, 1 F.R.D. 571; Trantham v. Canal Insurance Co., D.C.Tenn.1953, 117 F.Supp. 241. The pre-trial order reads:

“This lack of reasonable care includes defendant’s (a) failure to test the conditions at the crossing as to their danger, (b) failure to properly sprinkle with water to keep down the dust, (c) failure to supply plaintiff with proper mask or other, protective devices, and (d) failure to warn plaintiff of possible danger.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 F. Supp. 594, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4065, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/santoro-v-lehigh-valley-railroad-njd-1957.