Simmons v. Oregon Railroad

69 P. 440, 41 Or. 151, 1902 Ore. LEXIS 68
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 30, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 69 P. 440 (Simmons v. Oregon Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simmons v. Oregon Railroad, 69 P. 440, 41 Or. 151, 1902 Ore. LEXIS 68 (Or. 1902).

Opinions

Mr. Chief Justice Bean

delivered the opinion.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries suffered by the plaintiff through the negligence of the operators of a train upon which he was riding. For some eighteen months prior to the accident he had been employed by the defendant company as a fireman on one of its helper engines at Kamela, a station on the summit of the Blue Mountains. He was paid by the “run,” receiving no compensation when not at work. Under his contract of employment the company reserved from each cheek issued to him for wages forty cents as a hospital fee, in consideration of which it agreed, in case of illness or injury, to provide him with medical services and medicine free, and, as the testimony tended to show, to transport him to and from points on the road where the company provided medical attendance for its employes. On the 17th of May, 1900, being indisposed, he obtained a “lay-off,” in order to go to La Grande, a station some 20 miles east of Kamela, to consult the company’s physician and obtain medical service. He rode to La Grande on one of the company’s trains, without a ticket or pass, and without paying fare, or having his right to travel in this manner questioned. After consulting the physician and transacting some other business in La Grande, he went to the depot, and got aboard the caboose car of what he then supposed was a regular freight train, but which, as a matter of fact, was an extra, although there was nothing in its outward appearance to indicate any difference between it and a regular freight. It was made up as were regular freight trains, and had attached to it a caboose car, fitted up for carrying passengers, like those used by the company on regular freight trains. The conductor was in the ear when the plaintiff went aboard, inquired of him where he was going, and the plaintiff told him he was going home. Plaintiff paid no fare, none was demanded of him, nor had he any written evidence of his right to ride, yet the conductor allowed him to do so. When the train reached Kamela, in the course of the work required at that station it became necessary to detach the ca[154]*154boose and rear helper engine from the remainder of the train, and leave them standing on the track until the rest of the train was pulled west beyond the west switch, the purpose being to pick up a nonair car from the west spur, and attach it to the train. In order to do this, it was intended that the rear helper engine should take the caboose, go in on the spur track, pick up the car, and bring it out on the main track, and attach it to the train. When, however, the engine with the caboose reached the west switch, instead of stopping, as it should have done, it was permitted, through the negligence and carelessness of the train employes, to move west on the main track until a collision occurred between the caboose and the main train, thereby severely and permanently injuring the plaintiff, who was then in the caboose.

The rules of the company in force at the time provided that every person riding on its trains must present a ticket or pass or pay fare for each trip, and that conductors must not carry passengers or employes without tickets or passes. Rule 243 provided that “Freight trains will not carry passengers, except as designated in the special rules. Trains so designated will carry employes with passes, and passengers when provided with proper transportation as required by the rules. Employes with passes may be carried on all freight trains between stations at which trains stop. ’ ’ The special rale governing the carrying of passengers on freight trains was as follows: “Passengers presenting permit Form 208, accompanied by proper transportation, may be carried by regular freight trains between points (at) which they stop, subject to rules 218 and 243.” Form 208, referred to, contained a written contract, wherein the person accepting the same agreed that the railroad company, in the operation of its freight trains should not be deemed a common carrier of passengers, and should not be liable to the holder as such common carrier. The plaintiff, however, had no knowledge of these rales or requirements, or of the conditions under which the defendant carried passengers on its freight trains. His work was in another department, and he was not called upon, nor was it necessary for him, to [155]*155familiarize himself with the rules governing the company’s transportation business. About the 1st of January, 1900, the defendant issued and delivered to the division engine foreman at La Grande an employe’s pass, No. E17, for “one fireman,” good between Kamela and La Grande, which the foreman was authorized to deliver to any fireman that the company might wish to transport between the stations named. In addition to this, such foreman had blank trip passes, which he ivas authorized to issue to employes going over the road. Employes of the company, however, when known to the conductors, were commonly permitted to travel without a pass or other written evidence of their right to transportation. Plaintiff knew of the existence of pass No. E17, and had used it on one or two occasions, but generally rode without it, and had been told by the person having it in charge that it ivas not necessary for him to procure it, as he Avas an “old man,” and therefore knoAm to the conductors on the road. The trial resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendant appeals.

There are numerous assignments of error referred to and discussed in the briefs, but they are all grounded, substantially, upon the contention that the relation of passenger and carrier did not exist betAAreen the plaintiff and defendant at the time of the injjiry, and that the defendant was, therefore, not liable to him for an injury received through the negligence of the train operatives. The question thus presented naturally divides itself into two special subjects of inquiry: first, Avhether the conductor of the train upon AAdiich the plaintiff was riding had apparent authority to accept him as a passenger, and to create the relationship of passenger and carrier between him and the defendant; and, second, if so, whether he is to be regarded as a passenger or an employe at the time of the injury.

1. A passenger is sometimes defined to be a person AAdiom a railway company, in the performance of its duty as a common carrier, has contracted to carry from one place to another, for a valuable consideration, and whom the company, in the performance of the contract, has received at its station, or in its ear, or under its care: Patterson, Ry. Ace. Law, § 210. [156]*156But the payment of fare or of a consideration for the carriage is not necessary to create that relationship, so far as it is involved in an action for a personal injury received while on the train. Where a person goes aboard a railway train in good faith for the purpose of being carried from one place to another, and is permitted by the conductor to ride, the company is liable, in the absence of a special contract, for an injury arising from the carrier’s negligence, if the conductor was expressly or impliedly authorized to bind the company by such permission, even though such person was traveling gratuitously, and the conductor had violated his instructions by allowing him to remain on the train: 2 Shearman & Redfield, Neg. (4 ed.) § 491; Beach,Contrib.Neg. (3 ed.) § 165; 2 Wood,Railroads (Minor’s ed.), 1207; Washburn v. Nashville R. Co. 3 Head, 638 (75 Am. Dec. 784); Wilton v. Middlesex R. Co. 107 Mass. 108 (9 Am. Rep. 11); Edgerton v. New. York & H. R. Co.

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Bluebook (online)
69 P. 440, 41 Or. 151, 1902 Ore. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simmons-v-oregon-railroad-or-1902.