Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/175/323/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:36:11+00:00

Document:
The negligence of a conductor of a freight train is the negligence of a fellow servant of a brakeman on the same train, who was killed by an accident occurring through that negligence.
The negligence of such conductor is not the negligence of the vice or substituted principal or representative of the railroad company running the train, and for which that corporation is responsible.
The general rule of law is that one who enters the service of another takes upon himself the ordinary risks of the negligent acts of his fellow servants in the course of the employment.
An employer is not liable for an injury to one employee occasioned by the negligence of another engaged in the same general undertaking; it is not necessary that the servants should be engaged in the same operation or particular work; it is enough, to bring the case within the general rule of exemption, if they are in the employment of the same master, engaged in the same common enterprise, both employed to perform duties tending to accomplish the same general purposes, or, in other words, if the services of each in his particular sphere or department are directed to the accomplishment of the same general end, and accordingly, in the present case, upon the facts stated, the conductor and the injured brakeman are to be considered fellow servants within the rule.
as respects the duties of railroad companies to their various employees, it went too far in holding that a conductor of a freight train is, ipso facto, a vice principal of the company and insofar as it is to be understood as laying down, as a rule of law to govern in the trial of actions against railroad companies, that the conductor, merely from his position as such, is a vice principal whose negligence is that of the company, it must be deemed to have been overruled, in effect if not in terms, in the subsequent case of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad v. Baugh, 149 U. S. 368.
This was an action against a railroad corporation by a brakeman in its employ to recover damages for a personal injury caused by the negligence of the conductor of one of its trains.
with the lantern and to take steps for restoring the connection of the parts of the train. Before speed had been so reduced that the fireman could alight from the train, the rear portion was discovered close at hand and approaching at great speed. The fireman gave notice of this fact and a signal for the locomotive to go ahead, but before it could gain speed to get away, a collision between the two parts of the train took place, and one Gregory, a brakeman, who was on the top of the car still attached to the engine, was thrown from the car by the shock and instantly killed."
"The three brakemen on the train were a head, a middle, and a rear brakeman. Gregory was the head brakeman, and at once, on discovery of the separation of the train, went to the top of the only car left with the engine. The conductor and the middle and rear brakemen had been riding in the caboose car at the rear end of the train, and did not hear the warning signals which the engineer gave with the whistle, nor know that the train had broken until the collision, but remained all the time in the caboose. The night was cold and clear. The accident was near midnight."
"The negligence complained of consisted in the alleged failure of the conductor in control of the men and in charge of the train, in view of the character of the night, the character of the road in respect to grades and curves, the speed at which the train was run, and the liability of the train to part asunder at that place, to properly watch and supervise its movements, and the fact that he, in the full knowledge that the rear and middle brakemen were in the caboose, away from their brakes, permitted them to remain there, and failed to order them to the brakes."
as a matter of necessity, as a matter of public policy, I suppose, he must be held to stand in the place of the corporation itself. . . . If you find in this particular case, from the evidence in the case and such common knowledge as jurymen are entitled to use, that, by the rules of this road . . . , the conductor gave directions to the people who worked on the train, gave directions to start the train, gave directions to stop the train, gave directions as to the location and position of the different men on the train, and also had the general management of the train and control over it when running between stations, then I say to you, gentlemen, that he, for this case, represents the company, and if injuries resulted from his negligent acts, the company is responsible."
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and assessed damages in the sum of $4,250.
The defendant brought the case by writ of error to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
1st. Whether the negligence of the conductor was the negligence of a fellow servant of the deceased brakeman?
2d. Whether the negligence of the conductor was the negligence of its vice or substituted principal or representative, for which the corporation is responsible?
time and place of the accident, there was any special reason why the brakemen should have been ordered by the conductor to take their places at the brakes, and therefore it is by no means evident that there was any dereliction of duty on the part of the conductor.
Nor is it clear that the negligence of the conductor, if negligence it was, in permitting the brakemen to ride in the caboose was the proximate cause of Gregory's injuries. When the train parted, the engineer had charge and control of the locomotive and attached cars, and it would seem to have been his duty, as it was within his power, to have prevented the subsequent collision of the detached parts. And in that event, the case would be ruled by Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. v. Baugh, 149 U. S. 368, where it was held that the engineer and fireman of a locomotive engine, running alone on a railroad and without any rain attached, are fellow servants, so as to preclude the latter from recovering from the company for injuries caused by the negligence of the former.
However, waiving these suggestions and proceeding on the assumptions of the courts below that it was the duty of the conductor, at the time and place of the accident, to have the brakemen on the top of the cars where they could apply the hand brakes, and that his failure to do so was the proximate cause of the injury to the plaintiff's intestate resulting from the subsequent collision of the detached portions of the train, we meet the question, would, in such a state of facts, the company be liable to the injured brakeman for the negligence of the conductor?
the conductor and the brakeman of a freight train is that of fellow servants within the rule, or whether the conductor is to be deemed a vice-principal, representing the railroad company in such a sense that his negligence is that of the company, the common employer.
Unless we are constrained to accept and follow the decision of this Court in the case of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Ross, 112 U. S. 377, we have no hesitation in holding, both upon principle and authority, that the employer is not liable for an injury to one employee occasioned by the negligence of another engaged in the same general undertaking; that it is not necessary that the servants should be engaged in the same operation or particular work; that it is enough, to bring the case within the general rule of exemption, if they are in the employment of the same master, engaged in the same common enterprise, both employed to perform duties tending to accomplish the same general purposes, or, in other words, if the services of each in his particular sphere or department are directed to the accomplishment of the same general end, and that accordingly, in the present case, upon the facts stated, the conductor and the injured brakeman are to be considered fellow servants within the rule.
whether, for damages sustained by one of the persons so employed by means of the carelessness and negligence of another, the party injured has a remedy against the common employer."
"In applying these principles to the present case, it appears that the plaintiff was employed by the defendants as an engineer at the rate of wages usually paid in that employment, being a higher rate than the plaintiff had before received as a machinist. It was a voluntary undertaking on his part, with a full knowledge of the risks incident to the employment, and the loss was sustained by means of an ordinary casualty, caused by the negligence of another servant of the company. Under these circumstances, the loss must be deemed to be the result of a pure accident, like those to which all men, in all employments, and at all times, are more or less exposed, and, like similar losses from accidental causes, it must rest where it first fell unless the plaintiff has a remedy against the person actually in default, of which we give no opinion."
near or how distant must they be to be in the same or different departments? In a blacksmith's shop, persons working in the same building at different fires may be quite independent of each other, though only a few feet distant. In a ropewalk, several may be at work on the same piece of cordage at the same time at many hundred feet distant from each other, and beyond the reach of sight and voice, and yet acting together."
"Besides, it appears to us that the argument rests upon an assumed principle of responsibility which does not exist. The master, in the case supposed, is not exempt from liability because the servant has better means of providing for his safety when he is employed in immediate connection with those from whose negligence he might suffer, but because the implied contract of the master does not extend to indemnify the servant against the negligence of anyone but himself, and he is not liable in tort, as for the negligence of his servant, because the person suffering does not stand toward him in the relation of a stranger, but is one whose rights are regulated by contract, express or implied. The exemption of the master, therefore, from liability for the negligence of a fellow servant does not depend exclusively upon the consideration that the servant has better means to provide for his own safety, but upon other grounds. Hence, the separation of the employment into different departments cannot create that liability when it does not arise from express or implied contract, or from a responsibility created by law to third persons and strangers, for the negligence of a servant. . . . The responsibility which one is under for the negligence of his servant in the conduct of his business toward third persons is founded on another and distinct principle from that of implied contract, and stands on its own reasons of policy. The same reasons of policy, we think, limit this responsibility to the case of strangers, for whose security alone it is established. Like considerations of policy and general expediency forbid the extension of the principle so far as to warrant a servant in maintaining an action against his employer for an indemnity which we think was not contemplated in the nature and terms of the employment, and which, if established, would not conduce to the general good. "
"The master is not and cannot be liable to his servants unless there be negligence on the part of the master in that in which he, the master, has contracted or undertaken with his servant to do. The master has not contracted or undertaken to execute in person the work connected with his business. . . . But what the master is, in my opinion, bound to his servant to do, in the event of his not personally superintending and directing the work, is to select proper and competent persons to do so, and to furnish them with adequate materials and resources for the work. When he has done this, he has, in my opinion, done all that he is bound to do. And if the persons so selected are guilty of negligence, this is not the negligence of the master."
"I think that there are duties incumbent on masters with reference to the safety of laborers in mines and factories, on the fulfillment of which the laborers are entitled to rely and for the failure in which the master may be responsible. A total neglect to provide any system of ventilation for the mine may be of that character. Culpable negligence in supervision, if the master takes the supervision on himself, or, where he devolves it on others, the heedless selection of unskillful or incompetent persons for the duty; or the failure to provide or supply the means of providing proper machinery or materials, may furnish grounds of liability. "
And see likewise the case of Clifford v. Old Colony Railroad, 141 Mass. 564, in which it was held that a section hand in the employ of a railroad corporation cannot maintain an action against the corporation for personal injuries caused by a collision between a hand car on which he was at work and an engine of a train run by servants of the corporation if the accident was occasioned by the negligence of the section boss and the engineer of the train.
In Shearman v. Rochester & Syracuse Railroad, 17 N.Y. 153, it was held by the New York Court of Appeals that a servant who sustains an injury from the negligence of a superior agent engaged in the same general business can maintain no action against their common employer, although he was subject to the control of such superior agent, and that accordingly a brakeman upon a railroad whose duty it is not to apply the brakes except when directed by the engineer or conductor cannot maintain an action against their common employer for an injury resulting from the culpable speed at which the engineer and conductor ran the train. And this appears to be the settled doctrine in the State of New York. Besel v. N.Y.C. & H.R. Railroad, 70 N.Y. 173; De Forest v. Jewett, 88 N.Y. 264.
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has held in numerous cases, and it is settled law in that state, that a fellow servant, within the meaning of the rule, is anyone serving the same master, and under his control, whether equal, inferior, or superior to the injured person in his grade or standing, and the fact that the injured servant was under the control of the servant by whose negligence the injury was caused makes no difference. Weger v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 55 Pa. 460; Lehigh Valley Coal Co. v. Jones, 86 Pa. 432.
these duties are performed with care by the company, and one of the persons so employed is guilty of negligence by which an injury occurs to another, it is not the negligence of the master, and the company is not responsible.
Without following further the history of this subject in the courts of the several states, we may state that generally the doctrine there upheld is that of the cases herein previously cited, except in the courts of the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and perhaps others, in which the rule seems to obtain that while the master is not liable to his servant for any injury committed by a servant of equal degree in the same sphere of employment, unless some negligence is fixed on the master personally, yet that he is liable for the gross negligence of a servant superior in rank to the person injured, and is also liable for the ordinary negligence of a servant not engaged in the same department of service.
Leaving the decisions of the state courts and coming to those of this Court, we find the latter to be in substantial harmony with the current of authority in the state and English courts. From this statement, the case of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Ross, 112 U. S. 377, must perhaps be excepted, and to it we shall revert after an examination of our other cases.
occasion to decide who are fellow servants within the rule. . . . Nor is it necessary, for the purposes of this case, to undertake to lay down a precise and exhaustive definition of the general rule in this respect or to weigh the conflicting views which have prevailed in the courts of the several states, because persons standing in such a relation to one another as did this plaintiff and the engineman of the other train are fellow servants according to the very great preponderance of judicial authority in this country, as well as the uniform course of decision in the House of Lords, and in the English and Irish courts, as is clearly shown by the cases cited in the margin. They are employed and paid by the same master. The duties of the two bring them to work at the same place at the same time, so that the negligence of the one in doing his work may injure the other in doing his work. Their separate services have an immediate common object -- the moving of the trains."
"an employer is not bound to indemnify his employee for losses suffered by the latter in consequence of the ordinary risks of the business in which he is employed, nor in consequence of the negligence of another person employed by the same employer in the same general business, unless he has neglected to use ordinary care in the selection of the culpable employee,"
and that "an employer must, in all cases, indemnify his employee for losses caused by the former's want of ordinary care."
of the Dakota Code expressed the general law that an employer is responsible for injury to his employees caused by his own want of ordinary care; that his selection of defective machinery, which is to be moved by steam power, is of itself evidence of a want of ordinary care, and allowing it to remain out of repair when its condition is brought to his notice, or by proper inspection might be known, is culpable negligence; that the cars in that case had been defective for years; that the brakes were all worn out, and their condition had been called to the attention of the yardmaster, who had control of them while in the yard, and might have been ascertained, upon proper inspection, by the officer or agent of the company charged with the duty of keeping them in repair, yet nothing was done to repair either brakes or cars; that in such circumstances, the company had not exercised ordinary care to keep the cars and brakes in good condition, and that therefore, under the provisions of the statute, the company was bound to indemnify the plaintiff. The minority of the Court considered that the case was governed by the local statute, and that the statute, properly construed, relieved the employer, under the facts of the case, from liability to the injured employee. They declined to express any opinion upon the question of liability apart from the statute.
"The injuries to the plaintiff were caused solely by the negligence of one or the other of two fellow servants who were in a common employment with her, and there was no violation or omission of duty on the part of the employer contributing to such injuries. Neither of her fellow servants stood in such relation to her or to the work done by her, and in the course of which her injuries were sustained, as to make his negligence the negligence of the employer. The case therefore falls within the well settled rule, as to which it is unnecessary to cite cases, which exempts an employer from liability for injuries to a servant caused by another servant, and does not fall within any exception to that rule which destroys the exemption of the employer when his own negligence contributes to the injury or when the other servant occupies such a relation to the injured party or to his employment in the course of which his injury was received as to make the negligence of such servant the negligence of the employer."
breach of positive duty resting upon the master, or upon the idea of superintendence or control of a department. It has ever been affirmed that the employee assumes the ordinary risks incident to the service; and, as we have seen, it is as obvious that there is risk from the negligence of one in immediate control as from one simply a coworker. That the running of an engine by itself is not a separate branch of service seems perfectly clear. The fact is, all the locomotive engines of a railroad company are in the one department, the operating department, and those employed in running them, whether as engineers or firemen, are engaged in a common employment, and are fellow servants."
We shall have occasion to revert to this case when we come to consider the decision in Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Ross.
the injury was such as to put him rather in the category of principal than of agent -- as, for example, the superintendent of a factory or railway -- and the employments were so far different that, although paid by the same master, the two servants were brought no farther in contact with each other than as if they had been employed by different principals."
In Central Railroad Co. v. Keegan, 160 U. S. 259, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. v. Baugh was approved and followed in respect to its statement as to what constitutes a vice-principal.
safe and competent men to perform their respective duties, and it has been held in many states that the master owes the further duty of adopting and promulgating safe and proper rules for the conduct of his business, including the government of the machinery and the running of trains on a railroad track. If the master be neglectful in any of these matters, it is a neglect of a duty which he personally owes to his employees, and if the employee suffer damage on account thereof, the master is liable. If, instead of personally performing these obligations, the master engages another to do them for him, he is liable for the neglect of that other, which, in such case, is not the neglect of a fellow servant, no matter what his position as to other matters, but is the neglect of the master to do those things which it is the duty of the master to perform as such. . . . The rule is that, in order to form an exception to the general law of nonliability, the person whose neglect caused the injury must be"
"one who was clothed with the control and management of a distinct department, and not a mere separate piece of work in one of the branches of service in a department."
"This distinction is a plain one, and not subject to any great embarrassment in determining the fact in any particular case."
render the master liable to a coemployee for his neglect. He was in fact, as well as in law, a fellow workman; he went with the gang to the place of work in the morning, stayed there with them during the day, superintended their work, giving directions in regard to it, and returned home with them in the evening, acting as a part of the crew of the hand car upon which they rode. The mere fact, if it be a fact, that he did not actually handle a shovel or a pick is an unimportant matter. Where more than one man is engaged in doing any particular work, it becomes almost a necessity that one should be boss and the other subordinate, but both are nevertheless fellow workmen."
The last case we shall refer to is that of Oakes v. Mase, 165 U. S. 363, where it was declared to be the settled law of this Court that the relation of fellow servants exists between an engineer, operating a locomotive on one train, and the conductor on another train on the same road, and Northern Pacific Railroad v. Poirier, 167 U. S. 48, where it was held that a brakeman on a regular train of a railroad and the conductor of a wild train on the same road are fellow servants, and the railroad company is not responsible for injuries happening to the former by reason of a collision of the two trains caused by the negligence of the latter and by his disregard of the rules of the company.
Without attempting to educe from these cases a rule applicable to all possible circumstances, we think that we are warranted by them in holding in the present case that in the absence of evidence of special and unusual powers having been conferred upon the conductor of the freight train, he, the engineer, and the brakemen, must be deemed to have been fellow servants within the meaning of the rule which exempts the railroad company, their common employer, from liability to one of them for injuries caused by the negligence of another.
engineer to recover damages received in a collision caused by the negligence of the conductor of the train, and it must be admitted that the reasoning employed by Mr. Justice Field, in his opinion expressing the views of a majority of the Court and the conclusion reached by him, cannot be reconciled with the other decisions of this Court hereinbefore cited. We do not think that it would be proper to pass by the case without comment, nor yet to attempt to distinguish it by considerations so narrow as to leave the courts below in uncertainty as to the doctrine of this Court on a subject so important and of such frequent recurrence. The case in hand exemplifies the perplexity caused by the Ross case. The trial court gave effect to it as establishing the proposition that the conductor of an ordinary freight train, with no other powers than those assumed to belong to such an employee by virtue of such a position, is a vice principal, against whose negligence the company is bound to indemnify all the other employees on the train. Yet it is evident that the judges of the circuit court of appeals did not find themselves able to either accept or reject such a proposition, as they have certified it to us as one on which they desire our instructions. Such a course plainly evinces doubts whether, in view of the decisions both before and since, the case of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Ross furnishes a safe and approved rule to guide the trial courts.
of the train to which he is assigned. He directs when it shall start at what sped it shall run at what stations it shall stop, and for what length of time, and everything essential to its successful movements, and all persons employed on it are subject to his orders. In no proper sense of the terms is he a fellow servant with the firemen, the brakemen, the porters, and the engineer. The latter are fellow servants in the running of the train under his direction; as to them and the train, he stands in the place of and represents the corporation."
"that it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad to use on its line any locomotive engine in moving interstate traffic not equipped with a power-driving wheel brake and appliances for operating the train-brake system, or to run any train in such traffic after said date that has not a sufficient number of cars in it so equipped with power or train-brakes that the engineer on the locomotive drawing such train can control its speed without requiring brakemen to use the common hand-brake for that purpose."
We do not refer to this statute as directly applicable to the case in hand, but as a legislative recognition of the dominant position of the engineer.
Cases are cited in the opinion in the Ross case in which it has been held by the Supreme Court of Ohio and by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky that railroad companies are responsible for negligence of conductors to other employees.
But those courts do not accept the ordinary rule exempting the master from liability to a servant for the negligent conduct of his fellows. At least, they do not apply such a rule to the extent that this and other courts have done. They hold that no service is common that does not admit a common participation, and no servants are fellow servants when one is placed in control over the other.
it is only when there is such omission of care that the master can be said to be guilty of personal wrong in placing or continuing such servant in his employ, or has done or omitted aught justifying the placing upon him responsibility for such employee's negligence."
safe places and machinery? Undoubtedly it is, and requires the same vigilance in its discharge. But the latter duty is discharged when reasonable care has been taken in providing such safe place and machinery, and so the former is as fully discharged when reasonable precautions have been taken to place fit and competent persons in charge. Neither duty carries with it an absolute guaranty. Each is satisfied with reasonable effort and precaution."
Accordingly, the conclusion reached was that although the party injured was a fireman, who was subject to the orders and control of the engineer, in the absence of any conductor, there was no liability on the company for negligence of the and interim conductor.
"The opinion of the majority not only limits and narrows the doctrine of the Ross case, but in effect denies, even with the limitations placed by them upon it, the correctness of its general doctrine and asserts that the risks which an employee of a company assumes from the service which he undertakes is from the negligence of one in immediate control, as well as from a coworker, and that there is no superintending agency for which a corporation is liable unless it extends to an entire department of service. A conclusion is thus reached that the company is not responsible in the present case for injuries received by the fireman from the negligent acts of the conductor of the engine. . . . The principles in the Ross case covers this case, and requires, in my opinion, a judgment of affirmance."
So, likewise, MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER dissented in the Baugh case for the express reason that, in his opinion, the case came within the rule laid down in Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Ross.
the evidence in the case, we shall content ourselves by saying that, upon the facts stated and certified to us by the judges of the circuit court of appeals, we cannot as a matter of law, based upon those facts and upon such common knowledge as we, as a court, can be supposed to possess, hold a conductor of a freight train to be a vice principal within any safe definition of that relation.
Accordingly, we answer the first question put to us in the affirmative, and the second question in the negative.
I concurred in the opinion and judgment of this Court in Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad v. Ross, 112 U. S. 377, and do not now perceive any sound reason why the principles announced in that case should not be sustained. In my judgment, the conductor of railroad train is the representative of the company in respect of its management, all the other employees on the train are his subordinates in matters involved in such management, and for injury received by any one of those subordinates during the management of the train by reason of the negligence of the conductor the railroad company should be held responsible. As the conductor commands the movements of the train and has general control over the employees connected with its operation, the company represented by him ought to be held responsible for his negligence resulting in injury to other employees discharging their duties under his immediate orders. If in such case the conductor be not a vice-principal, it is difficult to say who among the officers or agents of a corporation sued by one of its employees for personal injuries ought to be regarded as belonging to that class. Having these views, I am compelled to withhold my assent from the opinion and judgment in this case.

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