St. Louis & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Bennett

69 F. 525, 16 C.C.A. 300, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2402
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided September 2, 1895·No. No. 581·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge,

after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The only duty which a railroad company owes i:o those who, without its knowledge or consent, enter upon its tracks, not at a crossing or other like public place, is not wantonly and unnecessarily to inflict injury upon them after its employes have discovered them. It owes them no duty to keep a lookout for them before they are discovered, because they are unlawfully upon the tracks, and the railroad company is not required to watch for violations1 of the law. Railroad Co. v. Howe, 3 C. C. A. 121, 52 Fed. 362, 369; Railway Co. v. Tartt, 12 C. C. A. 618, 64 Fed. 823; Railroad Co. v. Cook, 13 C. C. A. 364, 66 Fed. 115; Denman v. Railroad Co., 26 Minn. 357, 4 N. W. 605; Railway Co. v. Monday, 49 Ark. 257, 261, 4 S. W. 782; Sibley v. Ratliffe, 50 Ark. 477, 483, 8 S. W. 686; O’Keefe v. Railroad Co., 32 Iowa, 467; Yarnall v. Railway Co., 75 Mo. 575; Button v. Railroad Co., 18 N. Y. 248, 259; Nicholson v. Railway Co., 41 N. Y. 525. If it were conceded that where a railroad company lias given to others an express license to use its tracks for a certain purpose, and where it has invited them to make use of ihe tracks for such a purpose, and has thus given them an implied license so to do, it owes to these licensees the additional duty to use ordinary care to look out for them upon its tracks, and., if discovered, to warn them of the approach of its engines and trains as they pass, yet in the absence of any such express license to use, of any invitation, and of any notice or knowledge on the part of the railroad company that strangers have used or are about to use its tracks for their own purposes, the fact that they had been so used without objection would constitute no license, express or implied, and would impose upon the company no duty of active vigilance towards those who so used them. Under such circumstances the railroad company could have no reason to anticipate danger to those who were occupying its tracks without its [528] knowledge, and it would owe them no other duty than not to wantonly or willfully injure them after it discovered their dangerous situation. Richards v. Railway Co., 81 Iowa, 426, 430, 47 N. W. 63; Splittorf v. State, 108 N. Y. 205, 213, 15 N. E. 322; Poling v. Railroad Co. (W. Va.) 18 S. E. 782; Sutton v. Railroad Co., 66 N. Y. 243, 246; Nicholson v. Railway Co., 41 N. Y. 525, 529; Sweeny v. Railroad Co., 10 Allen, 368, 372; Gaynor v. Railroad Co., 100 Mass. 208, 214; Wright v. Railroad Co., 142 Mass. 296, 299, 7 N. E. 866; Hargreaves v. Deacon, 25 Mich. 1.

These are indisputable principles of the law of negligence. Under them, the court below fell into an error, in its charge to the effect that the fact that the employés of the railroad company, who were operating the trains at the time and place of the accident, could not see the deceased and his colaborers and did not know where they were, and the further fact that the railroad company had no notice or knowledge of the use of this tramway over its tracks by the lumber company, and of the custom of the employés to place themselves upon the track to remove it, constituted no defense to this action. 'The ■violation of a duty to the injured party, and resulting damage, are indispensable elements to a cause of action for negligence. If there is no breach of duty, there is no wrong, and hence no remedy. If the railroad company had no notice or knowledge that the employés of the lumber company were accustomed to throw themselves down upon its track whenever a switch engine approached on the spur, and if, as they came in along the tracks, the employés of ‘..he railroad company operating these engines could not see the workmen upon this track, and did not know where they were, no one in their situation could have foreseen, or could have reasonably anticipated, that an open switch and a fast-running freight train would catch four strangers to the railroad company upon this track between two box cars, and kill them. Their injury and death were not the natural and probable consequence of running a freight train against standing cars upon this spur track. This result would not have followed, had it not been for the unexpected intervention of a new and independent cause, that they could not foresee,—the voluntary descent of these unfortunate workmen upon this track without notice. But an injury that could not have been foreseen nor reasonably anticipated as the probable result of an act of negligence is not actionable, nor is an injury that is not the natural consequence of the negligence complained of, and would not have resulted from it but for the interposition of some new and independent cause. Railway Co. v. Elliott, 5 C. C. A. 347, 350, 352, 55 Fed. 949; Railway Co. v. Callaghan, 6 C. C. A. 205, 208, 56 Fed. 988; Railway Co. v. Moseley, 6 C. C. A. 641, 57 Fed. 921; Insurance Co. v. Melick, 12 C. C. A. 544, 550, 65 Fed. 178; Railway Co. v. Kellogg, 94 U. S. 469; Hoag v. Railroad Co., 85 Pa. St. 293, 298, 299.

The court below fell into another error in its ruling that there was no evidence of contributory negligence by the deceased in the record of this case. One who is injured in a dangerous place, in which he has voluntarily placed himself, with knowledge that he will inevitably be injured there unless he speedily removes himself from his [529] dangerous situation, necessarily contributes to an injury which results before he removes himself. If he had not placed himself in the dangerous situation, he would not have been injured. When he Inis put himself in that situation, with knowledge of the danger, he has committed an act of negligence that, he knows will inevitably cause him injury unless a new and independent cause interposes to prevent it. If the new cause does not interpose, his original act of negligence works out its natural and probable effect, and produces the anticipated injury. Thai, is the unfortunate situation in which the deceased and liis fellow workmen placed themselves on the day of this accident. They knew that the place upon the railroad bed of this spur track, about 16 feet square, closed1 in by two box cars on two sides, and by two platforms 4 feet high on the other side, was a dangerous place. If this liad been a public crossing, and they had not known that cars were about to move across it, they would have been required to take notice that it was dangerous. The supreme court declares:

“Tlie track itself, as it seems necessary to iterate and reiterate, is itself a warning. It is a place of danger. It can never be assumed that cars are not approaching- on a track, or that there is no danger therefrom.” Elliott v. Railway Co., 150 U. S. 245, 248, 14 Sup. Ct. 85.

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St. Louis & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Bennett, 69 F. 525, 16 C.C.A. 300, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2402 (8th Cir. 1895).

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