Southern Ry. Co. v. Sherrill

167 So. 731, 232 Ala. 184, 1936 Ala. LEXIS 209
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedApril 16, 1936
Docket8 Div. 657.
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 167 So. 731 (Southern Ry. Co. v. Sherrill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Ry. Co. v. Sherrill, 167 So. 731, 232 Ala. 184, 1936 Ala. LEXIS 209 (Ala. 1936).

Opinion

THOMAS, Justice.

The suit was under the homicide statute (Code 1923, § 5696), and the trial had on count Z, which reads as follows:

“Plaintiff who sues as the executrix of the estate of Wiley Earnest Sherrill, deceased, claims of the defendants, One *187 Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.-00), damages, for that on to-wit, December 27, 1933, plaintiff’s intestate, while in such close proximity to the railroad track of the defendant, Southern Railway Company, as to be struck by an engine moving along said track, was struck by a locomotive of said defendant while said locomotive was travelling on said track at McWilliams Crossing, near Cherokee in the County of Colbert, State of Alabama, and killed. Plaintiff avers at the time of said killing of said intestate by said locomotive, the defendant R. A. Thompson was in the employment of the defendant, Southern Railway Company, as .a fireman, and was engaged in the active performance of the duties of said employment in and about the operation of said locomotive at said time. Plaintiff avers J. R. Hackworth was at said time and place in the employment of said defendant, Southern Railway Company, as an engineer, and was the engineer on said locomotive, at said time and place, which killed plaintiff’s intestate. Plaintiff avers .the defendant W. H. Cox was in the employment of the defendant, Southern Railway Company, as a conductor and was engaged in the active performance of the duties of said employment in and about the operation of said train at said time as conductor of said train. Plaintiff avers the defendant, G. K. Counts, was in the employment of the defendant, Southern Railway Company, as a flagman, and was engaged in the active performance of the duties of said employment in and about the •operation of said train at said time as flagman of said train. Plaintiff avers the death of her intestate was proximately •caused by the negligence of the defendants, R. A. Thompson, W. H. Cox, G. K. Counts, and said engineer, J. R. Hack-worth, while each was in the employment of said defendant, Southern Railway Company, and each was acting within the line and scope of his employment and while each were (was) in the active performance of the duties of their (his) employment, said Hackworth as engineer, and said Thompson as fireman, and said Cox as conductor of said train, and said Counts as flagman of said train, of said locomotive which killed plaintiff’s intestate at said time and place, which negligence consisted in this: said Hackworth and said Thompson, and said Cox and said Counts, after becoming aware of the peril of said locomotive colliding . with plaintiff’s intestate, and while acting within the line an'd scope of their employment, negligently failed to use all of the means at their command to avoid said locomotive colliding with said intestate, when by the use of said means said locomotive would have been prevented from colliding with said intestate with such violence as to kill intestate, and intestate’s death would have been avoided.”

Pleas 5, 6, and 7, as answer to count Z, were to the effect that plaintiff’s intestate knew of the approach of said train and negligently attempted to cross defendant’s tracks.

The gravamen of the complaint is the negligence of defendant’s servants or agents, after the discovery of intestate’s perilous position upon the track of the defendant, to use “all the means at their command to avoid said locomotive colliding with said intestate, when by the use of said means said locomotive would have been prevented from colliding with said intestate with such violence as to kill intestate, and intestate’s death would have been avoided.”

Count Z was no doubt drawn under Randle v. Birmingham Railway, Light & Power Co., 169 Ala. 314, 53 So. 918.

The assignments of error are considered as presented by counsel. The rule for giving or refusing the general affirmative charge is well understood. McMillan v. Aiken et ah, 205 Ala. 35, 40, 88 So. 135.

The facts necessary to support count Z are: (1) Discovery by defendant’s agent in charge of intestate’s peril or immediate and dangerous proximity thereto, and (2) his negligence thereafter in failing to use all the means at hand properly and in order to avoid intestate’s injury and death. The jury were authorized to find that the tendencies of negligence of defendant in that behalf, after discovery of the decedent’s peril or dangerous proximity thereto, consisted in the failure to duly warn intestate of his peril, or in failure to stop or reduce the speed of the train in approaching the point of collision. The jury may have found or inferred from the evidence that intestate was driving his car along the public road, in advance of and in the direction from which the engine and train proceeded, *188 in plain view of the engineer; that the highway on which he was driving was parallel with the railroad track, close thereto and clearly visible; that the intestate was driving his car to the point where the highway crossed the railroad track, and in so doing passed through the open gate of fencing along that highway, and at such crossing at a point 35 feet from the railroad track, he so entered upon such highway crossing and proceeded to the crossing over the railroad track as that only the back wheels of the automobile remained on the crossing and track, where it was struck by the engine causing his injury and death; that during this time (and at all times) defendant’s engineer in charge was looking forward from his place on the engine and had one hand near or on the whistle cord and the other on the air-brake lever. There was a dispute in the evidence as to whether he did or did not sound an alarm to warn intestate of his immediate and impending peril from the approaching train. The evidence is undisputed that he did not reduce the speed or stop the train before the collision.

We have indicated there was evidence that intestate had his back to the train until he reached the point of crossing and turning therefor; and that he was unaware at all times, to the instant of collision, of the approach' of the train. The jury might have further reasonably inferred that the engineer observed intestate as he proceeded; observed that he was ignorant of the approaching train, or that he was not reducing his speed as he approached the track, but did not sound the whistle or reduce the speed.

The point of collision was a public road or a long-used crossing — a fact well known to the engineer.

J. R.

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

Related

Geohagan v. General Motors Corp.
279 So. 2d 436 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1973)
Burress v. Dupree
253 So. 2d 31 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1971)
Parker v. Sutton
254 So. 2d 425 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 1971)
Hardin v. Sellers
117 So. 2d 383 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1960)
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Griffith
113 So. 2d 788 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1959)
Massachusetts Bonding & Insurance v. United States
352 U.S. 128 (Supreme Court, 1956)
Gulf, M. O. R. Co. v. Sims
69 So. 2d 449 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1953)
Whitt v. Forbes
64 So. 2d 77 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1953)
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Freeman
193 F.2d 217 (Fifth Circuit, 1952)
Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. Moundville Motor Co.
4 So. 2d 305 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1941)
Case v. O'Shields
4 So. 2d 202 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1941)
Jack Cole, Inc. v. Walker
200 So. 768 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1941)
Pollard v. Crowder
194 So. 161 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1940)
Creamery Package Mfg. Co. v. Fields
180 So. 275 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1938)
Louisville N. R. Co. v. Davis
181 So. 695 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 So. 731, 232 Ala. 184, 1936 Ala. LEXIS 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-ry-co-v-sherrill-ala-1936.