Richmond & Danville Railroad v. Williams
Richmond & Danville Railroad v. Williams
Opinion of the Court
Judgment affirmed.
Williams sued the railroad company for damages from personal injuries, and obtained a verdict for $2,350. Defendant’s motion for a new trial on the grounds that the verdict was contrary to law and evidence, and excessive in amount, was overruled.
The evidence for plaintiff was to the following effect, in brief: He had been in defendant’s employment at the time he was hurt a little over a month, as a train-hand. He was hurt between eleven and twelve o’clock at night. He was told by the conductor to couple some stationary cars to cars attached to an engine. The cars attached to the engine were coming back so fast he could not go in. When he signalled to have them stopped, they came back until they struck the stationary cars. After they struck, the slack left a space of two and a half or three feet between the cars, and then he gave a stand-still signal. He then went between the cars, and the draw-head of the standing car was higher than the one in the following car, necessitating a forced coupling, so that he had to change the pin put of the following car and put it in the draw-head of th'e standing car, as the coupling could not be made any other way. He turned around with his back towards the engine to put the pin and link into the standing car, and while shaking the pin down, the cars attached to the engine were moved, and as he made an effort to get out, his hand was caught between the dead blocks at the end of the car, above the draw-head. He had a pin and link in the hand that was hurt,
The evidence for defendant was to this effect: Plaintiff' gave a car-length signal which the conductor transferred; the engineer applied the air-brake; the cars stopped three feet from the other cars, and the engine stopped and the slack rolled ahead. Plaintiff' said come ahead a little, and the conductor transferred the signal to the engine, and heard plaintiff hollo that he was mashed. The signals from the conductor were received by the fireman who was on the side of the engine from which the conductor could be seen. The signals given by the fireman to the engineer were, a ear-length signal and then a stop-signal and a signal to come back. After he was hurt plaintiff’ was on the engine, and the engineer asked him if he had his stick, and plaintiff said, “No, it was on the engine,” that he did not attach any blame to “any of you,” that it was his own lookout about that. When the engineer asked him how he came to get hurt, he said he did not know exactly himself, but it could not be avoided. After plaintiff was injured the conductor made the coupling, and had to raise the link with his hand to make it. The link was in the bumper of the car attached to the engine. It had been for ten years the rule of the road to use sticks in coupling, and plaintiff drew a stick at defendant’s office, furnished for that purpose. In coupling, a stick should be used instead of the hand to hold the link; that is what the stick is for ; it is long enough to prevent a man going between the cars. Defendant’s employees were in the habit of using sticks. The conductor did not furnish plaintiff with a copy of the rules and did not suppose plaintiff could read them, nor did he
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The Richmond & Danville Railroad Co. v. Williams
- Status
- Published