Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/281/351/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 10:41:29+00:00

Document:
1. To justify recovery in an action under the federal Employers' Liability Act, there must be evidence from which the jury could find that the negligence complained of was the cause of the injury. P. 281 U. S. 354.
2. The jury may not be permitted to speculate as to the cause of the injury, and the case must be withdrawn from its consideration unless there is evidence from which it may reasonably be inferred that the injury was caused by the employer's negligence. Id.
3. Evidence considered, and found insufficient to go to the jury on the question whether the death of a railroad conductor, who was run down by freight cars during a switching operation at night and in the absence of eye witnesses, was due to negligence in moving the cars without signal and without placing a light or flagman upon them. Pp. 281 U. S. 352-355.
Certiorari, 280 U.S. 542, to review a judgment affirming a recovery for death in an action under the federal Employers' Liability Act.
intestate. Judgment in her favor was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Kansas, 128 Kan. 189, 277 P. 57. This Court granted certiorari October 21, 1929, on a petition which urged as grounds for allowance of the writ that there was no evidence of negligence in the case or that any act of petitioner caused the death.
Decedent was a conductor in charge of petitioner's freight train, engaged in interstate commerce, while en route easterly from Elkhart to Dodge City, Kansas. He was killed near the station at Rolla, Kansas at about 1 o'clock in the morning, in the course of a switching operation under his direction. At that point, north of the main line, and connected with it by switches, is a "passing track" with an extension at its easterly end known as a "stock track." South of the station, which is south of the main line, is a switching track, referred to as an "elevator track," which forms a junction with the main line some three hundred feet or more east of the station platform.
which the engine was to be coupled to the grain cars standing on the elevator track and they were to be spotted at desired locations on that track. Under the rules of petitioner, deceased was required to attend personally to these switching movements.
that such marks of flesh and blood were found upon the south wheels of each of the succeeding fourteen grain cars and the engine tender.
It was controverted whether, within the meaning of printed rules of petitioner, the place of the accident was at a "station" or in a "yard." The rules required that, when cars were pushed by an engine, "except when shifting or making up trains in yards," a flagman should be placed on the front of the leading car so as to signal the engineer in case of need, and that a white light must be placed on the leading car at night. No flagman or brakeman and no light was placed on the leading grain car. Owing to the location of a curve and cut through which the grain cars passed in order to reach the elevator track, it was impossible for the engineer or the two brakemen to see deceased or his lantern at the point where his body was found. There was evidence that no warning signal by bell or whistle was given in the course of the kicking movement.
It is the theory of the respondent, conforming to the findings of the jury in its special verdict, that deceased, while crossing the track near the derail, where, according to some of the testimony, the roadbed was overgrown with weeds and so thinly ballasted that the track had become "skeletonized," was knocked down by the leading grain car, and killed by that and the succeeding cars passing over him, and that his death was attributable to negligence in carrying out the kicking movement of the grain cars without signal and without placing a flagman or a light on them.
the inference may reasonably be drawn that the injury suffered was caused by the negligent act of the employer. Patton v. Texas & P. Ry. Co., 179 U. S. 658; New Orleans & N.E. R. Co. v. Harris, 247 U. S. 367, 247 U. S. 371; St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Mills, 271 U. S. 344, 271 U. S. 347; Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. v. Coogan, 271 U. S. 472; New York Central Railroad Co. v. Ambrose, 280 U. S. 486.
Even though we assume that, in all the respects alleged, the petitioner was negligent, the record does not disclose any facts tending to show that the negligence was the cause of the injury and death. The only evidence relied upon by respondent to account for the deceased's presence at the point of the accident was that already stated, which indicated that he had proceeded to the elevator track in order, as he had said, to "look out" for the kicked cars, whether by climbing onto them and controlling their movement on the elevator track, as is usual in such movements, or by assisting in the spotting movement to be later carried out, can only be inferred. It is the theory of respondent that he attempted to cross the track so as to be in a position to signal the engineer who was on that side of the train. But, as the grain cars already were, or about to be, uncoupled from the train, there was evidently no immediate purpose in his being so located. What actually took place can only be surmised. Whether he was run down on the track by the first car, or he attempted unsuccessfully to board the train on one side or the other or succeeded, and in either case finally came to his death by falling under or between the moving cars is a matter of guesswork.
contemplated movement. He knew that the grain cars were to be kicked onto the elevator track where he went to meet them, and knew that train crew, consisting of only two brakemen and the lanterns which they carried, would be needed in attending to the switching, signaling, and uncoupling of cars in order to kick the train of stock cars onto the passing track, and that the grain cars for which he was to "look out" would be without brakeman or warning light. It is presumed that deceased proceeded with diligence and due care. Looney v. Metropolitan R. Co., 200 U. S. 480, 200 U. S. 488. The movement of the fifteen cars to and across the switch and onto the elevator track in a quiet neighborhood on a still night cannot be assumed to have given no warning sounds of their approach.
for the absence from the leading car of the other evidences of the injury found on the other cars. As evidence to support the special finding of the jury that the deceased was struck by the first car, this testimony is without substance. See Gulf, Mobile & Northern R. Co. v. Wells, 275 U. S. 455. If allowed to sustain the verdict, it would remove trial by jury from the realm of probability, based on evidence, to that of surmise and conjecture.

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