Rick v. New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad
Rick v. New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The first and second assignments allege the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury there was no evidence that the inspection of the car was made by an incompetent inspector, or that the defendant was negligent in the inspection of the car or in its employment of an incompetent inspector. The evidence shows that the' defendant company issued a bill of lading for the bar iron loaded on the car at Cleveland, the place of shipment, that it collected the freight for transporting the iron to its destination at Girard, Pennsylvania, a distance of about eighty-two miles, of which eighty miles were over the defendant’s road, that it received the car at Newburg, a suburb of Cleveland, hauled it over its line to Wallace Junction where it was delivered to the Bessemer Company which hauled it to Girard and delivered it on the private track- of the consignee. When the car was first received by the defendant company it was inspected and a defect in the draught bolts being discovered it was returned to the Erie Company. In a few days thereafter, it was again delivered to the defendant, inspected and accepted and hauled to Girard. At Wallace Junction, the car was inspected by the chief joint car inspector of the defendant company and the Bessemer. Company and delivered to the latter company. No defects were reported by the inspector. The next-day the car was delivered to the consignee and on the following day the plaintiff, in the employ of the consignee, while assisting to unload the car stepped on an insufficient covering of a hole chopped in the floor and was seriously injured. The hole was about ten inches wide and twenty inches long. The floor was covered with the iron except the space around the hole in the “ northeast
In the plaintiff’s statement, the car in which the iron was shipped is described as “P. & L. E. R. R. car No. 2365.” The court permitted the plaintiff to amend the statement so as to describe the car as “P., B. & L. E. R. R. car No. 2365 or P. & L. E. car No. 2365.” The third and fourth assignments in effect question the correctness of permitting the amendment. The number of the car is the same and the only change made by the amendment was in the letters on the car. There was no change in the cause of action which was the alleged use of the defective car. The amendment was made simply to meet the uncertainty of the letters on the car, and was properly allowed.
By its bill of lading issued to the Bourne-Fuller Company, sales ágent of the Rolling Mill Company, the defendant acknowledged the receipt of the iron at Cleveland to be carried on car 2365 and to be delivered to the Girard Wrench Manufacturing Company at Girard, Pennsyl
The sixth, seventh, and eighth assignments of error depend upon the correctness of the position assumed by the appellant in the other assignments, and are, therefore not sustained.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Rick v. The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Negligence — Railroads—Defective car — Inspection—Evidence—Ownership of car — Duty to repair. 1. In an action for damages for personal injuries the court properly refused to instruct the jury that there was no evidence that an inspection of a railroad car was made by an incompetent inspector or that the defendant, a' railroad company, was not negligent in the inspection of the car or in its employment of an incompetent inspector, where the evidence showed that the defendant issued a bill of lading for certain bar iron loaded on the car on the tracks of another railroad at the place of shipment and collected the freight for transporting the iron to its destination eighty-two miles distant, of which the intermediate eighty miles was over defendant’s road; that it received the ear at a junction point where it was inspected and returned for a defect in the draught bolts; that a few days thereafter it was again delivered, inspected and accepted, and hauled over the defendant’s lines to another junction; that here it was again jointly inspected by the defendant and a third company and afterwards hauled by the latter to its final destination; that on the day following its delivery to the consignee, the plaintiff, an employee of the consignee, while assisting to unload the car was hurt by slipping on an insufficient covering of a hole chopped in the floor of the car, which was covered with iron except the space around the hole; a witness for the defendant having testified that nothing was done to the car while in possession of the third company, and there being nothing in the evidence to warrant the conclusion that there was any change made in the position of the iron in the car from the time it was loaded until it was unloaded. 2. In such a case, where the defendant acknowledges the receipt of the iron to be carried on “car 2365,” and was required by its contract to take the consignment, it must be assumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that it did so by the car in which the iron was loaded and taken to its destination; and the fact that another company, in pursuance of a traffic arrangement, did the switching to place the car on the defendant’s track does not prove that the former furnished the car or that the defendant did not furnish it, or relieve the latter from its duty to have the car efficiently inspected and kept in repair. Practice, C. P. — Statement—Amendment. 3. In a negligence case the cause of action was the alleged use of a defective car; in the plaintiff’s statement the car was described as “P. & L. E. R. R. Car No. 2365.” The court permitted the plaintiff to amend the statement so as to describe the car as “ P. B. & L. E. R. R. Car No. 2365 or P. & L. E. Car No. 2365.” Held, this amendment was properly allowed.