Benage v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co.
Benage v. Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). Plaintiff’s intestate was a brakeman upon one of defendant’s way freight trains, running between Grand Rapids and White Pigeon. The
The court below instructed the jury that decedent was guilty of contributory negligence, in that he chose a dangerous place to ride upon the engine, and directed a verdict for the defendant. In this I think the court erred. The proximate cause of the injury was the closing of the gate. The structure was there by and with the consent of the defendant. It was not a part of defendant’s system. The gate was upon a spur track, which had been used by the company but occasionally in the course of a period of two or three months. In Sweet v. Railroad Co., 87 Mich. 559, it was held that constructing and maintaining a side track so near to a building in the yards of the company as to endanger the lives of its employés while switching cars on said track was a violation of the duty of the company to provide a safe place for its employés to work in; and it was also held that, in the absence of testimony tending to show that one so injured had any reason to apprehend the existence of such special danger, it was a question for the jury, under all the testimony, to determine whether he knew or ought to have known of such danger.
There was no rule of the company prohibiting riding upon brake-beams. There was abundant testimony tending to show that it was customary upon such engines to ride upon the brake-beams, when engaged in like service. The conductor of the train was with the decedent upon the brake-beam when the accident occurred. The ordinary switch engine is provided with a foot-board, which occupies the same relative position which did this brake-beam, upon which it is expected and intended that switchmen shall ride in whatever direction the engine is moving. It is true that the foot-board in such case projects at each end beyond the track, but it also extends across the rear end
The judgment should be reversed, and a new trial ordered.
Opinion of the Court
This case has been reargued, and the points raised fully and carefully reconsidered.
I am unable to find anything in the cases cited or the arguments made to change my views, expressed in the iormer opinion. The ease falls so clearly within Glover v. Scotten, 82 Mich. 369, that it must be ruled by it, and I am not prepared to overrule that case.
Judgment must be affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James A. Benage, Administrator, etc. v. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company
- Status
- Published