Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/241/476/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 05:45:55+00:00

Document:
Where the highest court of the state refuses to review the judgment of the intermediate appellate court of the state, it is to the latter court that the writ of error runs from this Court.
Omission to plead or prove that plaintiff's injury occurred in interstate commerce not having been made the basis of any assignment of error, held, in this case, in view of the state of the record, not to be a ground for reversal.
Amendment to the Safety Appliance Act of March 2, 1903 enlarged the scope of the act so as to embrace all vehicles used on any railway that is a highway of interstate commerce, whether employed at the time or not in interstate commerce. The Safety Appliance Act requires locomotives to be equipped with automatic couplers, and its protection extends to employees when coupling, as well as uncoupling, cars. Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co., 196 U. S. 1. Quaere whether the failure of a coupler to work at any time does not sustain a charge that the Safety Appliance Act has been violated. See Chicago & Rock Island Ry. v. Brown, 229 U. S. 317.
The Employers' Liability Act and the Safety Appliance Act are in pari materia, and where the former refers to any defect or insufficiency, due to the employer's negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, etc., it is clearly the legislative intent to treat a violation of the Safety Appliance Act as negligence -- negligence per se.
Even if the injury of an employee, suing under the Employers' Liability Act, resulted from his improper management of a defective appliance covered by the Safety Appliance Act, such misconduct would only amount to contributory negligence which is, by express terms of the Liability Act, excluded from consideration in such a case.
The facts, which involve the validity of a judgment for damages for personal injuries in an action under the Employers' Liability Act, are stated in the opinion.
The judgment that is brought under review by this writ of error is the outcome of an action begun in the District Court of Bexar County, Texas, by defendant in error against plaintiff in error, resulting in a judgment in his favor. This was affirmed by the court of civil appeals, a rehearing was denied (166 S.W. 24, 28), and our writ of error is directed to that court because the Supreme Court of Texas refused to review the judgment.
"and for the purpose of making said coupling, it became necessary for the plaintiff to stand upon the footboard of said engine, between said engine and car, and to shove the knuckle of the coupler on said engine so as to bring it into proper position to make the coupling as aforesaid;"
between a moving engine and cars, and without kicking the coupling or in any manner endangering his own personal safety, with more to the same effect.
"I gave the engineer a backup signal to couple in again, and I got back on the footboard of the engine; when I got on the footboard, I looked down and I seen the drawhead on the engine was shifted way over to my side, and I reached up with my left foot to shift the drawhead over so it would couple, and my right foot slipped on the wet footboard,"
"When the coupling apparatus of these automatic couplers are in proper condition and they are properly connected, they couple by impact automatically; . . . when the brakeman couples a car, he pulls a lever on the outside of the car; that opens the knuckle-that raises the pin and opens the coupler up; then all he has to do is to give a signal and they back right up. He has nothing to do with reference to fixing the knuckle, or anything of that sort."
"These couplers are made to couple automatically by impact -- they are supposed to be in such condition as that so when they come together, they will couple without the necessity of men going in between the cars to couple or uncouple, and should be in that condition. If they do not couple with the automatic impact, they are not in proper condition."
The trial court instructed the jury that, if the locomotive and car in question were not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact without the necessity of plaintiff going between the ends of the cars, and, by reason of this and as a proximate result of it, plaintiff received his injuries, the verdict should be in his favor, otherwise in favor of defendant, and that the burden of proof was upon plaintiff to establish his case by a preponderance of the evidence.
241 U. S. 42), the only materiality of the question whether the employers' liability act also applies is in its bearing upon the defense of contributory negligence; the former act leaving that defense untouched (Schlemmer v. Buffalo &c. Ry., 220 U. S. 590, 220 U. S. 596), while the latter (§ 3, 35 Stat. 66) abolishes it in any case where the violation by the carrier of a statute enacted for the safety of employees may contribute to the injury or death of an employee, and in other cases limits its effect to the diminution of the damages. Now, an examination of the record discloses that defendant at the trial raised no question of contributory negligence. Such negligence was averred in the special defenses that were struck out, but not as constituting a defense against a violation of the safety appliance acts, and the special defenses contained an allegation to the effect that, at the time of his injury, plaintiff was engaged in interstate commerce. In this state of the record, we do not deem it proper to consider the omission to plead or prove that plaintiff's injury occurred in interstate commerce as a ground for reversing the judgment, it not having been made the basis of any assignment of error.
"This cause has been considered on the agreed statement of facts, approved by the trial judge, and the effect of such statement of facts cannot be impaired or destroyed by a document not filed among the papers, and which has no place among the papers. The statement of facts bears out the statement of this court that appellant was permitted to introduce all the testimony it desired on the subject of the coupler on the engine. The record fails to show that any testimony offered by appellant was withdrawn by the court from the jury."
"all trains, locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar vehicles used on any railroad engaged in interstate commerce, . . . and to all other locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar vehicles used in connection therewith,"
subject to an exception not now material. As has been held repeatedly, this amendment enlarged the scope of the original act so as to embrace all locomotives, cars, and similar vehicles used on any railway that is a highway of interstate commerce, whether the particular vehicles are at the time employed in interstate commerce or not. Southern Railway v. United States, 222 U. S. 20, 222 U. S. 26; Tex. & Pac. Ry. v. Rigsby, ante, pp. 241 U. S. 33, 241 U. S. 37.
That the act requires locomotives to be equipped with automatic couplers, and that its protection extends to men when coupling as well as when uncoupling cars, are points set at rest by Johnson v. Southern Pacific Co., 196 U. S. 1, 196 U. S. 15, 196 U. S. 18.
impact, and the opinion evidence, being sufficient to sustain a finding that the equipment was defective. The jury could reasonably find that the misalignment of the drawbar was greater than required to permit the rounding of curves, or, if not, that an adjusting lever should have been provided upon the engine as upon the car, and that there was none upon the engine. We need not in this case determine, what was conceded in Chicago, R.I. & Pac. Ry. v. Brown, 229 U. S. 317, 229 U. S. 320, that the failure of a coupler to work at any time sustains a charge that the act has been violated.
"A disregard of the command of the statute [Safety Appliance Act] is a wrongful act, and where it results in damage to one of the class for whose especial benefit the statute was enacted, the right to recover the damages from the party in default is implied."
If this act is violated, the question of negligence in the general sense of want of care is immaterial. 241 U.S. 241 U. S. 43, and cases there cited. But the two statutes are in pari materia, and where the Employers' Liability Act refers to "any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances," etc., it clearly is the legislative intent to treat a violation of the Safety Appliance Act as "negligence" -- what is sometimes called negligence per se.
In various forms, plaintiff in error raises the contention that it was plaintiff's improper management of the coupling operation that was the proximate cause of his injury. But any misconduct on his part was no more than contributory negligence, which, as already shown, is, by the Employers' Liability Act excluded from consideration in a case such as this.

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