Way v. Seaboard Air Line Railroad

270 F. Supp. 440, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8707
CourtDistrict Court, D. South Carolina
DecidedJuly 12, 1967
DocketCiv. A. No. 66-588
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 270 F. Supp. 440 (Way v. Seaboard Air Line Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Way v. Seaboard Air Line Railroad, 270 F. Supp. 440, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8707 (D.S.C. 1967).

Opinion

ORDER

SIMONS, District Judge.

This is a wrongful death action brought under the laws of South Carolina for the alleged wrongful death of Myers Way as a result of his being struck and killed by defendant’s train on March 10, 1965 near North, South Carolina.

Plaintiff in her complaint contends that defendant through its agents was guilty of negligence and wilfulness in striking plaintiff’s deceased while he was “either walking along said track or right-of-way, or was endeavoring to cross at a proper and existing crossing or otherwise upon said track or right-of-way. * * * ” Plaintiff alleges, as specifications of negligence on the part of defendant, excessive speed, failure to keep a proper lookout, failure to give appropriate warning signals, and failure to slacken speed or apply brakes when the decedent was or should have been seen.

Defendant for a first defense admits the collision but alleges that the deceased [442]*442was a trespasser at the time and otherwise denies the material allegations of the complaint. For a second defense defendant asserts that deceased was a trespasser to whom it owed no duty except that of not wilfully injuring him, and denies that it had wilfully injured the deceased. For a third defense defendant alleges that plaintiff’s intestate was guilty of contributory gross negligence in sitting or lying down on defendant’s tracks, knowing that trains frequently used said tracks; in being in such a physical condition that he was heedless of his own safety; in failing to remove himself from the tracks when warned by the train of its approach; and in being dressed in such a manner that he could not be seen easily.

The case was tried before me without a jury. In compliance with Rule 52(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, I find the facts specially and state my conclusions of law thereon as follows :

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The main line of defendant runs through the Town of North in a north-south direction. The track is straight through the town with six grade crossings therein and two grade crossings south of the town before reaching the Edisto River.

2. On March 9, 1965, at approximately 11:35 p. m. defendant’s passenger train, a daily New York-Florida express known as the “Silver Star”, left Columbia, South Carolina proceeding in a southerly direction toward Savannah, Georgia. After leaving Columbia, the engineer tested the brakes and found them to be in good condition.

3. About fifteen hundred feet from the first crossing in the Town of North, at a point where the defendant has a “whistle board”, the engineer of defendant’s train turned on the automatic bell and began blowing the whistle for the first crossing. The crossings in the Town of North and south of the town are about a block apart, and the engineer, after commencing the whistle signal for the first crossing, blew the whistle almost continuously through the Town of North and over the two crossings to the south thereof. The automatic bell remained on throughout. The train was also equipped with a “Mars” or oscillating headlight, primarily for warning, and a straight-beam headlight, with a visual range of about 400-600 feet. All of this equipment was operating properly.

4. As the train approached, plaintiff’s intestate, who was colored and wearing khaki-colored pants and a dark shirt, was seated on the west edge of the crossties of the railroad track at a point about one hundred arid forty yards south of the southernmost crossing. At this point no paths approached or were near the railroad tracks. The closest paths were about midway between the southernmost crossing and the crossing to the north thereof. This would have been about three hundred to three hundred fifty yards away, separated from the point where the intestate was seated by the paved southernmost crossing. The terrain on each side of the railroad tracks where plaintiff’s intestate was seated consisted of ditches, banks and bushes, which were not easy to traverse. There was testimony that the area was “densely populated”, but more detailed evidence and a visit by the court to the scene revealed that there were only a few houses west of a dirt road paralleling the railroad track on the west and east of a paved highway paralleling the railroad track on the east, and the houses were separated from the railroad tracks by the aforementioned roads, ditches, banks and bushes. Hence, I find that the area was not densely populated.

5. As the train was proceeding south and at a point before it had reached the southernmost crossing, the engineer and the fireman saw an object about 400-600 feet away, near the edge of the tracks, west of the west rail. The speed of the train at this point was its usual speed of approximately seventy-five miles per hour, which is within the permissible operating speed set by the railroad company for this area. They testified that [443]*443they both thought the object which they sighted was a piece of wrapping paper, commonly found along the railroad tracks. The engineer kept the object in his observation, and when the train was about one hundred to one hundred fifty feet away, he realized that it was plaintiff’s intestate when he raised his head and looked toward the train. Immediately the engineer applied the emergency brakes and gave repeated warning blasts of the whistle. Plaintiff’s intestate made no move to get out of the way and was struck by the train on the right side of his back, knocking him about ten to fifteen feet from the track and killing him instantly.

6. The emergency brakes operating in a proper manner brought the train to a halt about a mile south of the point where plaintiff’s intestate was struck. The engineer sent the fireman back to notify the rest of the train crew of the accident. The conductor, along with the baggage master and flagman, directed the backing up of the train until the body was found a short distance south of the point where plaintiff’s intestate was first sighted sitting on the crossties. The conductor determined that plaintiff’s intestate was dead and sent the flagman to summon a doctor and the police.

7. Although there was evidence that plaintiff’s intestate had been drinking, he had been seen walking about a half-hour before the accident and he looked up toward the train as it approached, so I do not find that he was in an insensible condition. There was nothing to give notice, actual or constructive, to defendant’s train crew that he had been drinking.

8. It would not have been possible for the train crew to have stopped the train prior to striking plaintiff’s intestate if the emergency application of brakes had been made at the moment the object was first seen on the west edge of the track. Considering its speed and making a good stop, the train could not have stopped less than approximately one mile after application of its emergency brakes.

9. At the time of his death plaintiff’s deceased was about forty-four years old. He was a long-time resident of North, South Carolina, a town of about 1,000 inhabitants and lived on the northern side of town. He was survived by his wife (the administratrix of his estate), a resident of North, and one son, who was twenty years old at the time of the accident and who had lived in New York since he was sixteen years old. The intestate had not lived with his wife for about ten years.

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Related

Horne v. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
301 F. Supp. 561 (D. South Carolina, 1969)
Britt v. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
281 F. Supp. 481 (D. South Carolina, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
270 F. Supp. 440, 1967 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8707, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/way-v-seaboard-air-line-railroad-scd-1967.