Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/241/310/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 11:14:26+00:00

Document:
The Employers' Liability Act abrogated the common law fellow servant rule by placing negligence of a coemployee upon the same basis as negligence of the employer.
In saving the defense of assumption of risk in cases other than those where the carrier's violation of a statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death, the Employers' Liability Act places a coemployee's negligence, where it is the ground of the action, in the same relation as the employer's own negligence would stand to the question whether a plaintiff is to be deemed to have assumed the risk.
A railroad employee having voluntarily entered an employment requiring him on proper occasions to board a moving train assumes the risk normally incident thereto other than such risk as may arise from the failure of the engineer to use due care to operate the train at a moderate rate of speed so as to enable his co employee to board it without undue peril.
speed and consequent danger are so obvious that an ordinarily careful person in his situation would observe the speed and appreciate the danger.
An employee is not bound to exercise care to discover extraordinary dangers arising from the negligence of the employer or of those for whose conduct the employer is responsible, but may assume that the employer or his agents have exercised proper care with respect to his safety until notified to the contrary, unless the want of care and the danger are so obvious that an ordinarily careful person under the circumstances would observe and appreciate them. Where an action under the Employers' Liability Act is tried in a state court, local rules of practice and procedure are applicable, and if the state appellate court holds that the trial court failed to follow such a rule relating to an instruction, but affirmed on the ground that there was no question for the jury respecting the question on which the instruction was asked, and in fact there was such a question, it is incumbent on this Court to review such decision.
The facts, which involve the validity of a judgment in an action in the state court for personal injuries under the Employers' Liability Act, are stated in the opinion.
train reached a station called Springdale, about six miles east of Maysville, in Kentucky, the train engineer directed plaintiff to go to a nearby railway telephone, call up the operator, and ascertain the whereabouts of train No. 1, which was a fast west-bound passenger train, the object being to determine whether it was safe for No. 95 to proceed to Maysville ahead of it. Plaintiff was unable to understand the operator, and so reported to the engineer. He then got into the cab of the locomotive, and the train proceeded to the coal docks, about one mile east of Maysville and about 460 yards east of a telegraph station in a signal tower known as the F. G. Cabin, where it stopped for coal and water. Plaintiff was directed by the engineer to go forward to F. G. Cabin and ascertain from the operator the whereabouts of train No. 1. Plaintiff went to the tower, and was there advised that his train had time to reach Maysville. He immediately descended to the platform in front of the tower and beside the track, and saw that his train was approaching. He waited for it, and when it reached the platform, he attempted to board the engine. He could not accurately judge the speed of the train, but it appeared to him to be going slowly enough for him to get aboard it. He caught hold of the grab iron and put one foot on the step, and then the speed of the train, combined with his weight, caused his foot to slip and loosened his hold, so that he fell beneath the wheels of the tender and his arm was cut off. He had been employed as brakeman for about six weeks, and before that had made two round trips over the road for the purpose of becoming acquainted with his duties. During the time of his employment, he had frequently been called upon, under orders of the train engineer, to leave the train and go forward to signal towers for orders or information, and then mount the train as it came moving by. On the occasion of the accident, the train was running about twelve miles per hour.
The case went to the jury under instructions making defendant's liability dependent upon whether the engineer, with knowledge of plaintiff's presence at the telegraph tower upon business connected with the operation of the train, and with knowledge of his purpose to board the train, negligently operated the train at such a rate of speed as to make plaintiff's attempt to board it unusually hazardous. There was a verdict for plaintiff, and the resulting judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. 159 Ky. 687.
Upon the present writ of error, it is not disputed that there was sufficient evidence of the negligence of the engineer to require the submission of the case to the jury. It is argued that there was no substantial evidence to support the conclusion that such negligence was the proximate cause of the injury; but this is so clearly untenable as to require no discussion. The remaining questions turn upon the application of the law respecting assumption of risk.
to the question whether a plaintiff is to be deemed to have assumed the risk.
On the facts of the case before us, therefore, plaintiff, having voluntarily entered into an employment that required him on proper occasion to board a moving train, he assumed the risk of injury normally incident to that operation other than such as might arise from the failure of the locomotive engineer to operate the train with due care to maintain a moderate rate of speed in order to enable plaintiff to board it without undue peril to himself. But plaintiff had the right to presume that the engineer would exercise reasonable care for his safety, and cannot be held to have assumed the risk attributable to the operation of the train at an unusually high and dangerous rate of speed until made aware of the danger, unless the speed and the consequent danger were so obvious that an ordinarily careful person in his situation would have observed the one and appreciated the other. Gila Valley Ry. Co. v. Hall, 232 U. S. 94, 232 U. S. 101; Seaboard Air Line v. Horton, 233 U. S. 492, 233 U. S. 504.
in question knew that plaintiff intended to board it at that point, and the verdict is to that effect, the jury was warranted in finding that plaintiff had a right to expect that the train would be moving at a moderate rate of speed such as would enable an ordinarily careful brakeman to get on with reasonable safety, and this upon the ground that, as head brakeman, plaintiff had the right -- indeed, that it was his duty -- to get upon the engine, since otherwise the train would be left without a head brakeman and the engineer without the information required for the safe operation of the train, and that plaintiff had no notice nor any opportunity to determine with reasonable certainty what the speed of the train was, or that it was too great for his safety, until the engine had practically reached him. It cannot be said as matter of law that a speed of twelve miles per hour would necessarily be obvious to him as a dangerous speed before he made the attempt to board the train.
It is insisted that the true test is not whether the employee did in fact know the speed of the train and appreciate the danger, but whether he ought to have known and comprehended -- whether, in effect, he ought to have anticipated and taken precautions to discover the danger. This is inconsistent with the rule repeatedly laid down and uniformly adhered to by this Court. According to our decisions, the settled rule is not that it is the duty of an employee to exercise care to discover extraordinary dangers that may arise from the negligence of the employer or of those for whose conduct the employer is responsible, but that the employee may assume that the employer or his agents have exercised proper care with respect to his safety until notified to the contrary, unless the want of care and the danger arising from it are so obvious that an ordinarily careful person, under the circumstances, would observe and appreciate them. Gila Valley Ry. Co. v. Hall, Seaboard Air Line v. Horton, ubi supra.
We conclude that there was no error in refusing to peremptorily instruct the jury to return a verdict in favor of defendant.
Error is assigned to the refusal of the trial court to instruct the jury as follows: that, when plaintiff entered defendant's service as brakeman, he assumed all the ordinary risks and hazards of that employment, and if the jury should believe from the evidence that his injuries were the natural and direct result of any of such risks or hazards, they must find for the defendant. The instruction thus requested was defective, and there was no error in refusing to give it in this form, since it embodied no definition of "ordinary risks and hazards," nor any qualification appropriate to the particular facts of the case. The gravamen of plaintiff's complaint, as developed at the trial, and the sole theory upon which the case was submitted to the jury, was that the negligence of the engineer in operating the train at an unduly high rate of speed created an unusual and extraordinary hazard. An instruction upon the question of assumption of risk, dealing solely with the ordinary hazards of the employment and not pointing out that a different rule must be applied with respect to an extraordinary risk attributable to the engineer's negligence, would probably have confused and misled the jury.
But it appears that, in Kentucky, there is an established rule of practice that, if instructions are offered upon any issue respecting which the jury should be instructed, but they are incorrect in form or substance, it is the duty of the trial court to prepare or direct the preparation of a proper instruction upon the point in the place of the defective ones. Louisville & Nash. R. Co. v. Harrod, 115 Ky. 877, 882; West Kentucky Coal Co. v. Davis, 138 Ky. 667, 674; Louisville, H. & St.L. Ry. Co. v. Roberts, 144 Ky. 820, 824.
statute, it was triable and tried in a state court; hence, local rules of practice and procedure were applicable. Central Vermont Ry. Co. v. White, 238 U. S. 507, 238 U. S. 511; Minneapolis & St.L. R. Co. v. Bombolis, this day decided, ante, p. 241 U. S. 211. The Kentucky Court of Appeals assumed for the purposes of the decision that the case was one where the trial court ought to have followed the local practice, and prepared or directed the preparation of a proper instruction covering the question of assumption of risk, and it sustained the judgment only upon the ground that there was no question for the jury respecting it. Whether there was is a question of law, and of course, in this case, a federal question, and since the Court of Appeals assumed to decide it, it is incumbent upon us to review the decision. North Carolina R. Co. v. Zachary, 233 U. S. 248, 233 U. S. 257.
"it is well nigh impossible to tell the difference between a rate of from four to six miles an hour, when an ordinarily prudent brakeman might get on with reasonable safety, and a rate of from ten to twelve miles an hour, when it would be dangerous for him to do so,"
"all the circumstances tend to show that knowledge of the speed of the train came to him so suddenly and unexpectedly that he did not have an opportunity to realize and appreciate the danger of getting on."
Conceding the force of the reasoning, we are bound to say that, in our opinion, it cannot be said as matter of law to be so incontrovertible that reasonable minds might not differ about the conclusion that should be reached. We therefore hold that the question of assumption of risk was one proper for submission to the jury, and, assuming, as the court assumed, that the local practice required the preparation of a proper instruction covering the topic in the place of the defective instruction that was offered, there was error in affirming the judgment of the trial court.
Judgment reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.