Stevenson v. Illinois Cent. R.

192 F. 956, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 5512
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Kentucky
DecidedDecember 9, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 192 F. 956 (Stevenson v. Illinois Cent. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stevenson v. Illinois Cent. R., 192 F. 956, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 5512 (circtwdky 1911).

Opinion

EVANS, District Judge.

The plaintiff, Charles William Stevenson, a citizen of Kentucky, and an infant suing by his statutory guardian, John T. Stevenson, brought this action in the Grayson circuit court (which we shall call the state court), and, after stating in his petition that the defendant Illinois Central Railroad Company (hereinafter called the Railroad Company) was a corporation operating a railroad in Jefferson county, Ky., and that one of its tracks extended across the Seventh street road to the Avery plow plant, a short distance south of the limits of the city of Louisville, made averments as follows:

“Plaintiff says that on the 19th day of February, 1910, the said Illinois Central Railroad Company and the said Charles Pendleton and Joseph Warren so in charge of and operating said switch engine and cars did by their joint concurrent wrongful act and negligence, and by the concurring negligence of other agents of said Illinois Central Railroad Company in its service and under its control, wrongfully and negligently create and place á dangerous obstruction and embankment of snow and ice on the south side of the said railroad track or switch and on and across said Seventh Street road, a public highway of said Jefferson county as aforesaid; that said snow and ice were by the defendants and by other agents and servants of said Illinois Central Railroad Company removed from its tracks on said public highway, and by their concurrent negligence, wrongful and unlawful acts embanked across said public road on the south side of said ,track, and created a dangerous obstruction thereon, liable to cause persons using said highway to fall upon said railroad track and under passing trains, but the dangerous nature thereof was at the time unknown to this plaintiff, and was known to defendants, or could have been known to them, and to each of them, by the exercise of ordinary care,
“Plaintiff says that on the said ,19th day of February, 1910, he, said Charles William Stevenson, was walking along the said Seventh Street road on his way to the city of Louisville; that there was a deep snow at the time on said road; that as he approached the railroad track or switch of the defendant the said Illinois Central Railroad Company where it crosses said public road an engine and some freight cars of said defendant company in charge of the defendants Charles Pendleton and Joseph Warren were passing westwardly upon said track, and across said public road; that affiant stopped upon the said highway three or four feet from said train to [958]*958allow it to pass, and that, as he did so, the snow and ice, which the defendants had wrongfully and negligently placed on said highway, gave way under plaintiff’s feet, and he was thereby, by and through the concurrent negligence and wrongful acts of the defendants, precipitated forward towards the moving cars and caused to fall.
“Plaintiff says that to save himself from injury, if possible, he grabbed at and succeeded in catching hold of some part of the appliances of one of said cars; that he held to the samie, and was pulled from said point a distance of about 70 feet, when his right leg was caught and run over by the wheel or wheels of one of said cars.
“Plaintiff says that as soon as he fell, and was precipitated towards said train, as herein set out, he and others, who witnessed his peril, yelled to those in charge of said train and engine, the defendants Charles Pendleton and Joseph Warren, to stop said train, and loud enough to be heard by them and each of them, and in time to have enabled said Pendleton and Warren, by the exercise of ordinary care, to have stopxied the movement of said train in time to avoid injuring the plaintiff; but plaintiff says that defendant and its said agents, said Pendleton and Warren, wrongfully and negligently kept up the movement of said train until the wheels of said ear ran over plaintiff’s leg as herein set out.
“Plaintiff says that, by reason of the wrongs and injuries herein complained of, he suffered the loss of his right leg, which had to be amputated to save his life; that he suffered great pain and agony, both mental and physical, and permanent disfigurement, and permanent reduction of his power to earn money, and that he has been thereby damaged in the sum of thirty thousand dollars (130,000.00).
“Plaintiff says that the wrongs and injuries herein complained of were caused and brought upon him by the concurrent wrongful acts and negligence of the defendants, and each of them, and by the concurrent negligence of other agents and servants of the defendant, the Illinois Central Railroad Company.”

The Railroad Company, showing itself to be a citizen of the state of Illinois, under the laws of which it was incorporated, filed in the state court a petition for the removal of the action to this court and also a bond, the stipulations of which conform to the requirements of the statute. ^

[ 1 ] The state court approved the bond, but overruled the motion to remove the action. The railroad company filed a transcript of the record, and thereupon the case was docketed here. In many instances the Supreme Court has held that the removal under such circumstances was complete notwithstanding the action of the state court, unless the averments of the petition for removal, assuming them to be true and taken in connection with the other parts of the record, showed a case which was not removable under the statutes. Marshall v. Holmes, 141 U. S. 595, 12 Sup. Ct. 62, 35 L. Ed. 870; Chesapeake & Ohio R. R. Co. v. McCabe, 213 U. S. 216, 217, 29 Sup. Ct. 430, 53 L. Ed. 765; Traction Company v. Mining Companies, 196 U. S. 239, 244, 25 Sup. Ct. 251, 49 L. Ed. 462. The subject is also very clearly discussed in' the cases of Donovan v. Wells Fargo & Co., 169 Fed. 363, 94 C. C. A. 609, 22 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1250, and McAlister v. C. & O. R. R. Co., 157 Fed. 740, 85 C. C. A. 316.

Shortly stated, the grounds alleged for the removal were, first, that there was disclosed by the plaintiff’s petitipn a separable controversy between the plaintiff and the Railroad Company which could he fully ■determined without the presence of the defendants Charles Pendleton ■and Joseph Warren (both o.f whom are citizens of Kentucky and whom [959]*959we shall call the resident defendants) as parties to the action; and, second, that the two last-named defendants were fraudulently joined as such for the sole purpose of preventing a removal of the case to this court.

[ 2] So far as the claim to remove is based upon the single ground of separable controversy arising in this action against an employer and two of its employes and against all of whom acts of joint negligence are averred, we need onlv refer to the cases of Alabama Southern Ry. v. Thompson, 200 U. S. 206, 26 Sup. Ct. 161, 50 L. Ed. 441, and Cincinnati, etc., Ry. Co. v. Bohon, 200 U. S. 221, 26 Sup. Ct. 166, 50 L. Ed. 448, which overruled upon this point what were once familiarly known in this circuit as the Warax and Hukill Cases, 72 Fed. 637 and 745.

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

Related

Muir v. Louisville & N. R.
247 F. 888 (W.D. Kentucky, 1918)
Nelson v. Black Diamond Mining Co.
237 F. 264 (W.D. Kentucky, 1916)
Illinois Central Railroad v. Outland's Administratrix
170 S.W. 48 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1914)
Tyson's Admrx. v. Illinois Central Railroad
151 S.W. 404 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1912)
Broadway Coal Mining Co. v. Robinson
150 S.W. 1000 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1912)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
192 F. 956, 1911 U.S. App. LEXIS 5512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stevenson-v-illinois-cent-r-circtwdky-1911.