St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Stewart

187 S.W. 920, 124 Ark. 437, 1916 Ark. LEXIS 69
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 12, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 187 S.W. 920 (St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Stewart) 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
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Stewart, 187 S.W. 920, 124 Ark. 437, 1916 Ark. LEXIS 69 (Ark. 1916).

Opinions

McCulloch, C. J.

The plaintiff, Charles Stewart, was engaged in the service of the defendant as a locomotive engineer -and received personal injuries while he was running. a train through the railroad yards at Little Bock. This is an action against the company to recover compensation for his injuries, which are alleged to have been caused by negligence of other servants of the company. It is conceded that the service being performed by the pjain-tiff at the time of his injury was connected with interstate traffic so as to bring the 'case within the operation -of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. Plaintiff was bringing an extra freight train from Pine Bluff to Little Bo-ck, and as he came through the Little Bock yards his fireman discovered a switch engine -on the track -ahead, and when plaintiff -discovered that a collision was impending, he shut -off the throttle and put on the emergency brakes -and jumped from the engine, and in doing so he fell upon the edge of -the track and received serious injuries.

Plaintiff’s testimony was that he was coming along at a speed of eight or nine miles an hour, and that a-s he approached a curve of the track the yardmaster came out from the yard office and fir-s-t looked around the curve and then turned and gave him the “high ball” signal, Which meant that the track was clear and that he could proceed expeditiously, and that as the engine -started around the curve the fireman discovered the -switch engine -ahead and called out to him “jump,” which he did, after having, as 'before stated, shut off the throttle, put on the brakes and opened the sand. Plaintiff’s train was running north and the switch engine was coming -south. Plaintiff’s fireman stepped from the engine when it lacked -a few feet of striking the switch engine and was not injured. The engineer -on the switch engine and the -other operatives -al-so escaped unhurt. The testimony -of the plaintiff tends to -show that “his engine would have -come to a stop before it reached the switch engine if the latter had been properly controlled, but that the switch engine was allowed to run on and produce the collision. On the other hand, all the other eye witnesses testified that the - switch engine came to a stop .and turned backward and ran about forty-five feet before plaintiff’s engine struck. The testimony of the plaintiff also tended to show that the yardmaster could have seen the switch engine from the point where he was standing when plaintiff says that the “high hall” signal was given.

Mr. Brown, the yardmaster, was introduced as a witness, and testified that he did not give the plaintiff any signal at all, but that the plaintiff’s engine came along, running at a speed of at least fifteen miles an hour, and that just before it reached the yard office he heard the switch engine whistle hack up the track and he looked around and it was in sight and appeared to have come to a stop, and that when he looked toward plaintiff’s engine again he saw the plaintiff making the jump. Other testimony adduced by the defendant tended to show that the plaintiff was running his engine at a rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour when he approached the curve iand jumped from'the engine.

Certain rules of the company, regulating the handling of trains through the yards, were introduced in evidence and they are relied on as establishing negligence on the part of the plaintiff in violating those rules.

Bule A-12 reads in part as follows: “Freight trains will not exceed a speed of ten (10) miles per hour between Argenta and South yard limits East Little Bock yard.”

Buie A-16 reads as follows: “Second and inferior class trains and extras must run under control through yard limits at Little Bock, Argenta, East Little Bock, Pine Bluff and McG-ehee. In case of accident, responsibility rests with the approaching train.”

[Those rules were in force at the time of the injury, and plaintiff had a copy of the book of rules with him on his engine and was- familiar with them.

It is agreed that running “under control” means to run trains .so as to stop within vision, or, in other words; to keep the engine under .such control that it can be stopped within view of any object which may appear ahead on the track. Plaintiff’s train was “the approaching train” within the meaning of the rules. It was also conceded that the switch engine belonged to the same class of trains and had equal right-of-way, that the switch engine was rightfully on the main track at the time of the collision, and that the only limitations upon the right to operate it there were those prescribed by the rules herein mentioned.

In order, however, to obviate the force and effect of the rules as written, plaintiff undertook to show that a custom had been built up whereby the giving of the “high ball” signal by the yardmaster was construed to be an assurance that the track was clear, and as a direction to hurry on without regard to the rule requiring that the engine be kept under 'control. There is a sharp conflict in the testimony on this branch of the case. Several witnesses introduced by plaintiff testified as to that 'custom. In view of the controversy concerning the effect of the testimony, it is well to set out that which appears to be the strongest in favor of the .plaintiff. The following extracts are taken from the testimony of witness Smith, who had worked for defendant as a locomotive engineer, and showed familiarity with the customs and the operation of trains.

Q. Now, what do you mean by “under control?”
A. Why, you would handle your train -in a way that you could stop it within the distance that you could see, that is what I consider under control, and that railroads generally consider to be under control.
Q. Within the distance of your vision down the track ?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. State whether or not in passing through the yards how one proceeds — do you proceed under control?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Now, who has charge of the yards?
A. The yardmaster.
Q. What power has the yardmaster in the yards ?
A. Relative to the handling of trains through the yards, he has power to stop you, and hold you any place he wants yon, or head you in on any track he sees fit to, or tell you to proceed.
Q. Now, then, suppose you are proceeding through the yards, and are approaching a curve, and as you approach the curve the yardmaster gives you what is called 'a high ball — what does that mean to the engineer?
A. That means for him to go ahead, and go through' the yards; that he wants to occupy that track or wants you to get off that track, and through the yards.
Q. Whenever he gives you a high ball it is an order to you to hurry through the yards ?
A. Yes, sir; that the track ahead of you is clear.
Q. That is a rule that has obtained wherever you have worked as an engineer, in coming through the yards of the various systems you have worked for?

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 S.W. 920, 124 Ark. 437, 1916 Ark. LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-iron-mountain-southern-railway-co-v-stewart-ark-1916.