Collins v. Mineral Point & Northern Railway Co.
Collins v. Mineral Point & Northern Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
It appeared by the plaintiff’s own evidence that he had worked as brakeman or trainman in the employ of various railroad companies since boyhood, and was well acquainted with the ordinary methods of performing such work as well as with the ordinary dangers. Eor a considerable length of the time he was employed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company and was familiar with its printed rules, one of which, directed to all trainmen and switchmen, was as follows:
“(2) You are forbidden to work on the side of cars or trains where there are buildings, sheds, cattle chutes, or other projecting structures. Always work on that side where there are no buildings or structures, and in getting on or off or riding on the side of moving ears, do so only at places where there are no obstructions alongside the tracks, such as buildings, structures, lumber piles, etc., that will make such work hazardous.”
It further appeared without contradiction that the plaintiff was employed as conductor by the defendant company from January, 1905, when it first began to do business, up to the time of the accident; that the defendant company formally adopted the foregoing rule with other rules of the St. Paul Company at the very beginning of its active business, and gave notice to the plaintiff to that effect, and that the plaintiff fully understood that the rule was in force.
It will be noticed that the rule contains two separate and distinct clauses. The first is an-absolute command not to work on the side of cars where there: are projecting structures of any kind; the second is an affirmative direction to work on the side where there are no structures, and to get on
With this construction there is no doubt from the evidence that the plaintiff knowingly disobeyed a rule intended for his protection and suffered his injury by reason of such disobedience. Under such circumstances he cannot recover unless he shows either that the rule is impracticable in the due discharge of duty, or that it has been waived or abrogated by habitual disobedience of the employees with the knowledge and tacit consent of the master, or for such a length of time that the master must be presumed to have become aware of such disobedience and acquiesced therein. Holmes v. So. Pac. Co. 120 Cal. 357, 52 Pac. 652; 5 Thomp. Comm. on Neg. § 5404, and cases cited. In the present case we find no evidence which would suffice to take to the jury the ques
Some other errors are argued which may properly receive attention, as there must be a new trial of the case.
It is said, irrespective of the question of the rule, that the plaintiff assumed’the risk because he had frequently seen the ore bin and knew in a general way that it was located near the track. He had never, however, had occasion to examine its location closely or take a car from it, and it had been built only about two months, during about half of which time the plaintiff was off duty. We are unable to say that there was assumption of risk proven as matter of law.
Testimony was received against objection to the effect that there was ample room on the defendant’s grounds, so that the company could have placed the ore bin two or three feet fur
A very large number of instructions were asked by tRe defendant and refused. WRile it is unnecessary to consider tRe question of tRe correctness of tRe rulings on tRese instructions, it may be proper to say tRat nearly all of tRem were instructions suitable only for a case submitted upon general verdict, and tkeir rejection would not be error in any event.
By ihe Court. — Judgment reversed, and action remanded for a new trial.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). TRe rule of tRe defendant wRicR it is claimed was in force and disregarded by tRe plaintiff is as follows:
“To all trainmen and switcRmen: ... (2) You are forbidden to work on tRe side of cars or trains wRere tRere are buildings, sReds, cattle cRutes, or other projecting structures. Always work on that side where there are no buildings or structures, and in getting on or off or riding on the side of moving ears, do so only at places where there are no obstructions alongside the tracks, such as buildings, structures, lumber piles, etc., that will make such work hazardous.”
See. 1816, Stats. (1898), as amended by ch. 448, Laws of 1903, provides that every railroad company operating any railroad which is in whole or in part within this state shall be liable for all damages sustained within the same by any of its employees without contributory negligence on his part when any such injury is caused by a defect in any locomotive engine, car, rail, track, machinery, or appliance required by said company to be used by its employees in and about the business of their employment, etc. No contract, receipt,rule, or regulation between any employee and a railroad corporation shall exempt such corporation from the full liability imposed by this section.
Without here further considering the effect of this statute
Statutes should be so construed that effect may be given to all of their provisions, so that no part will be inoperative or superfluous, void, or insignificant. Ill. Cent. R. Co. v. Chicago, 138 Ill. 453, 28 N. E. 740; Harrington v. Smith, supra; Battis v. Hamlin, 22 Wis. 669. Special provisions relating to a particular subject control general ones to which they are repugnant. Western Bank v. Tallman, 17 Wis. 530. If the latter part of a statute be repugnant to the former part it must stand and as to so much repeal the former part. Woodman v. Clapp, 21 Wis. 353. This construction is rejected in the majority opinion upon the ground that such construction would emasculate the rule. This is to me a new law for construing statutes or writings. If the masculinity which it is so necessary to preserve is a trope for force or effectiveness, I ask forceful or effective for what ? Must the rule be construed to be forceful or effective to defeat the right of the employee to recover? This defeat is an incident which the law attaches to intentional violation of the rule, but it was not the object of the enactment of the rule. The rule is just as forceful and effective as a direction of the mode in which to do the work under the construction here
Eext, the first sentence of the- rule does not govern this case, because the railroad company placed its switch target and handle on the forbidden side, and the plaintiff was absolutely required to go there and throw that switch in order to make the necessary movement of the train. So far as this first sentence of the rule is concerned, the defendant is deemed to have waived all observance of the rule with respect to throwing that switch because it imposed upon the plaintiff the inconsistent duty of throwing the switch on the forbidden side. Brown v. L. & N. R. Co. 11 Ala. 275, 19 South. 1001; Boyle v. Union Pac. B. Co. 25 Utah, 420, 71 Pac. 988; Pa. Co. v. Roney, 89 Ind. 453; Hall v. C., B. & N. R. Co. 46 Minn. 439, 49 N. W. 239; Richmond & D. R. Co. v. Jones, 92 Ala. 218, 9 South. 276.
Taking up the second sentence of the rule in question and giving it a fair and lawful construction, it will be seen that the employee is thereby ordered, first, to always work on that side where there are no buildings or structures, which is merely a repetition in another form of the order contained in the first sentence. Then the employee is next ordered that in getting on or off or riding on the side of moving cars he must only do so at places where there are no obstructions alongside the track . . . that will make such work hazardous; that is to say, he is not absolutely for-bidden in the last sentence, but he is to determine whether the obstructions, etc., are such as to make the work hazardous, and in that case he is forbidden to get on or off or ride on that side.
When the rules do not unconditionally command the doing of not doing of a particular act, but impose upon the
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