Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Swearingen

122 F. 193, 59 C.C.A. 31, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4749
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 7, 1903
DocketNo. 1,219
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 122 F. 193 (Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Swearingen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Swearingen, 122 F. 193, 59 C.C.A. 31, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4749 (5th Cir. 1903).

Opinion

McCORMICK, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The first error assigned is not well taken. The bill of exceptions to which it refers says that at a certain stage of the trial the defendant produced and showed to the plaintiff .his written application for employment as a brakeman, signed by him, and dated February 22, i goo. The plaintiff testified that he had read the same at the time he made it, and had written the answers thereto himself to the questions therein asked him, and had signed it. The defendant then offered in evidence the following portions thereof for the purpose of showing that plaintiff had notice of the location of the track scale [196]*196box, and that he was in danger of being knocked off of a car when passing the same:

“Q. Do you make this application for employment in train service realizing the hazardous nature of such employment, understanding that it is necessary in operating this railway for the company to have overhead and truss bridges at certain points on the line; also coal chutes, track scale hoses, water tanks, coalhouses, platforms, sheds, roofs, and other overhead and side structures, and that in the performance of the duties for which you are employed you are liable to receive injuries by being knocked off the side or top of cars unless you use due care to avoid injury thereby? A. Yes. Q. Do you agree to acquaint yourself with the location of all overhead and truss bridges, as well as the location of all other structures along the line of the road? A. Yes. Q. Do you understand that no officer or employé of this company is authorized to request or require you to use defective tracks, cars, machinery, or appliances of any kind, and that when you do so you assume all the risk of injury therefrom? A. Yes. Q. Do you understand that this company desires to employ only experienced men in the service, and does not undertake to educate inexperienced men? A. Yes.”

Counsel for plaintiff objected to this testimony for the reason that it was irrelevant and immaterial, and that plaintiff had made this application and entered the employ of the defendant, and afterwards resigned, and again entered the employ of the defendant some two years later without making another application; and also because it was offered on the part of the defendant to limit its liability for its own negligence, and void as against public policy; and because the particular location of this track scale is not given. In our opinion, it was not error to sustain the objection made to the proof. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Co. v. Darby (Tex. Civ. App.) 67 S. W. 446.

Errors second, third, and fourth will be considered together. In reference to these we remark, in the first place, that the second states that the undisputed evidence established that the track scale box was erected at a reasonably safe distance and location from track No. 2; and the third states that the undisputed evidence shows that the track scale box and the danger of same was open and obvious to the view of plaintiff, and that neither the track scale box nor the dangers thereof were hidden or latent; and the fourth states that the entire and uncontroverted testimony established the fact that the scale box and the dangers of the same were open and obvious to the view of plaintiff, and not hidden or latent. The bill of exceptions purports to contain a statement of all the facts in evidence. It opens with about a page of what are put down as “facts about which there is no dispute.” But this page of the statement of “facts about which there is no dispute” does not support the suggestions of the plaintiff in error as to what is established by the undisputed evidence and the uncontroverted testimony, as above noticed. And, more than that, all of the testimony given by the plaintiff in his own behalf and on his behalf by witnesses called by him, and much of the testimony drawn from witnesses called by the defendant, tends to question the existence of the facts which these assignments of error assume to have been established by undisputed evidence and uncontroverted testimony. Assuming, however, that it was the intention of the plaintiff in error to suggest and urge that the pre[197]*197ponderance of testimony supported their view, said in the assignment to have been established by undisputed evidence and uncontroverted testimony, and that it resulted therefrom that the plaintiff was presumed to know the danger and to have assumed the risks thereof, this would present a case not to have been withdrawn from the jury, but to have been submitted to it under the proper instruction that if they, from a consideration of all the proof, found the fact to be as the defendant contended, either that the scale was placed at a reasonably safe distance and location from track No. 2, or, if it was not, that the danger of the same was open and obvious to the view of the plaintiff, and that neither the track scale box nor the dangers thereof were hidden or latent, and were such, if they existed at all, that a reasonably prudent person engaged as plaintiff was, and in the conditions with which he had been and was then surrounded, would be presumed to know the danger, in such case the plaintiff must be held to have assumed the risk, and could not recover. To this effect, substantially, the jury were directly and clearly instructed.

To support its second assignment of error, defendant’s counsel submit that, where a railroad constructs its side tracks and track scale .boxes and structures in its own private yards, where the safety of passengers and the public is not involved, and according to the requirements of the situation, and in the manner most convenient to facilitate the transaction of its business, and the same are open and obvious to the sight, and are not hidden or latent, an experienced man who goes to work there is presumed to know the danger thereof, and assumes that risk. To sustain this proposition they cite Tuttle v. Railway, 122 U. S. 189, 7 Sup. Ct. 1166, 30 L. Ed. 1114; Nicholas Content v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, 165 Mass. 267, 43 N. E. 94; Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad Company v. Becker, Administratrix, 146 Ind. 202-219, 45 N. E. 96; Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railway Company v. Bates, Administrator, 146 Ind. 564, 574, 45 N. E. 108; Oglesby v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co., 150 Mo. 137-233, 37 S. W. 829, 51 S. w. 758.

We notice these cases in the reverse order of that in which they are cited. The Oglesby Case is a decision rendered by the Missouri Supreme Court in banc, consisting of the seven judges. On the last page of the report we find this:

“Per Curiam. The foregoing opinions expressing the views of the different members of the court are ordered filed. Gantt, C. J., and Brace, J., concur with Valiant, J., for the affirmance of the judgment. Burgess and Marshall, JJ., hold the judgment should be reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial. Sherwood and Kobinson, JJ., hold the judgment should be reversed without remanding, but, in order to dispose of the case, concur with Burgess and Marshall, JJ., in ordering the judgment reversed and the cause remanded. Gantt, C. J., Brace and Valiant, JJ., dissenting.”

It will be observed that a bare majority of the court were in favor of reversing the judgment of the trial court, and this bare majority was equally divided on the question as to whether the case should be remanded for a new trial, or should be reversed without remanding.

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Related

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209 S.W. 419 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1919)
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Bluebook (online)
122 F. 193, 59 C.C.A. 31, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4749, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-p-ry-co-v-swearingen-ca5-1903.