Court Opinion

ID: 9528350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:40:14.485244+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:46.407428
License: Public Domain

WOLFE, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I concur in the opinion of Mr. Justice HENRIOD for the following reason:
Admitting that only a failure to couple upon impact need be shown to establish the liability of the Railroad under *607the Safety Appliance Act, I do not think the plaintiff is entitled to recover solely upon the strength of his opinion that the cars would not have coupled had he not intervened and pushed the drawbar with his foot, even though the opinion be that of a workman experienced in switching operations, there being evidence that the lateral play of the drawbars was not greater than necessary for railroad operation. Whether the cars would have coupled upon impact had the plaintiff not interceded is a question which has been by his interceding action forever relegated into the realm of conjecture and thus there is a failure of proof of this element of the plaintiff’s case.