The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-02
The Question Of the Liability Of
Railroads in Accidents to
Employees.
Large Percentage OF Railway Ac-
oidents Due to Switches
Left Open.
influence of pleturesuu c Railroad Stations
= Corporations Should Be Amen
able to Local Pride.

Judge Bates granted the motion to take
from the jury the case of Miranda Staley
npainst the the Cincinnati, Hamilton q
DAYTON railroad for tho death of her hns-
hand. who was killed near Winton Place
while baecace-master IN the Glendale aos
co%mmodation, by a rear collision from the
Chicago express, drawn by the immense
Strong engine, says the Cincinnati Com
mercial Gazette.
He said: IA railroads liability to an in
iured employee is wholly unlike that OF an
injured passenger. To the employe 1t IS
liable exactly as an individual employer IS.
Every person going into another's employ
ment takes on himself all tho risks OF omis-
sion or misconduct of fellow servants and
cannot look to the employer for them.
But the employer owes his employees a
leral duty to use due care that the other
employees shall b. competent. just as no
does to have secure appliances and machln-
sry. If he does this his legal responsibility
ends: hence the contest here is not based
on the negligence of the Carthage telegraph
operator, but on the negligence OF the COM
PAW in employing too youthful! a person as
operator.
'sThe only evidence OF incompetenoy is
the operators youthfulness. his record 9TH
erwise being creditable. Blu it is claimed
that for the responsibilities of the position
a greater maturity of age and Judgment IS
needed to meet properly it's possible emer-
Cencies, and to realize the full Importance
of an incessant and unremittlng vigilance
and the grave consequences OF its relaxa-
ton.
sBut between the negligence OF the oper-
ator and the accident stands a new cause,
the act of a voluntary, responsible, free
agent, an intervening effective volition. and
it alone is the proxi,rate cause. When the
engineer of the express had been allowed
to enter the forbidden block, there stood
the red light, over 1900 feet ahead OF him,
al Winton Place, which warned him to be
ready to come to a stop unless it were re-
moved; but he kept up the speed of sixty
miles an hour until he got to the station.
when il was too late to control it in time.
But in the absence Of evidence
must assume that had he
obeved the rules when the
red1ight ives first visible. he could have
avoided thu accident. Hence his neglect to
observe this signal is the pro1imate cause
Of the loss. If his were not so it is justly
argued that any negligence at every sta
ton back to Indianapolis could be called a
cause, since, without each one. no accident
could have occurred. Hence the liability
Of the company depends on the rule APP
plicable where a bagRageman Is injured by
the negligence of an engineer on tins
same road. These two were clearly fellow
employees or fellow-servants under the Ohio
decisions.
..That the baggagemaster and engineer
were on different trains does not prevent
their being fellow servants. no relation OF
superior and subordinate or OF direct con-
troll existing between them. 1t follows that
no action lies on the evidence as it stands,
and the nonsuit must be granted"