Case Name: BECKER v. BALTIMORE & O. R. CO.
Court: United States Circuit Court for the District of Indiana
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1893-07-19
Citations: 57 F. 188
Docket Number: No. 8,749
Parties: BECKER v. BALTIMORE & O. R. CO.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter
Volume: 57
Pages: 188–189

Head Matter:
BECKER v. BALTIMORE & O. R. CO.
(Circuit Court, D. Indiana.
July 19, 1893.)
No. 8,749.
1. Master and Servant — Fellow Servants — Conductor and Baggage Master. .
In Indiana a brakeman on a freight train is considered the coservant of the conductor of another train, through whose negligence a collision occurs. Kerlin v. Railroad Co., 50 Fed. Rep. 185, followed.
2. Same — Federal Courts — Following State Decision.
The control of the relation of master and servant is reserved to the-states, and federal courts, when administering state law upon this subject, should follow the decisions of the state courts. Kerlin v. Railroad Co., 50 Fed. Rep. 185, followed.
At Law. Action by John P. Becker, administrator, against the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, to recover damages for the alleged wrongful death of his intestate while in its employment. On demurrer to the complaint.
Demurrer sustained.
L. W. Welker and Wm. L. Taylor, for plaintiff J. H. Collins, for defendant.

Opinion:
BAKER, District Judge.
The defendant demurs to the second and third paragraphs of complaint for the reason that neither of them states facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The plaintiff's intestate was employed by defendant as a brakeman on one of its freight trains, and was killed by the carelessness and negligence-of the conductor and other employes of defendant in charge of and operating one of its passenger trains, which, by their carelessness, came into collision with the former. This case presents the precise-question raised and decided in Kerlin v. Railroad Co., 50 Fed. Rep. 185. On the authority of that ease, and for the reasons therein stated, the demurrer to each paragraph of the complaint must be sustained, and it is so ordered.