Court Opinion

ID: 9830213
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:59:04.675679+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:16.125321
License: Public Domain

on motion for rehearing.
As it is urged in this motion the evidence is not sufficient to sustain the finding that appellant was engaged with the railroad companies in operating the car from which appellee fell, and shared in the profits of the business, we will recite more at length the facts upon which we based such finding. It is to the effect that appellant has numerous patented cars, which it “parks” in different cities. These are refrigerator cars and it maintains repair tracks for them in Los Angeles, California, and elsewhere. Railroads do use those° cars, but can only do so by paying mileage. If the car stands still ho mileage is paid, and, therefore, Continental Fruit Express has agents at icing points who notify it of the arrival and departure of cars, and it also employs men who travel around and “hustle” the cars along; sometimes it sends men with the cars. The railroads pay the mileage, and the mileage on this particular car was paid to appellant. Refrigerator cars must be iced, and there is a profit in this icing; it maintains icing points, employs men to ice the cars and gets the profit for it. Its cars are operated all over the United States, and it settles claims for damages to fruit caused by insufficient icing. It pays for repairs on the cars; and, according to one witness, the cars are loaded and shipped by appellant and routed by their own agents.
Again, appellant complains of our finding that fastening the handhold with a lag-screw instead of a nut and bolt was negligence, the wood around the lag-screw being rotten, rendering the fastening thereby of the handhold defective and insecure, and covered with paint, so that the defect was concealed and could not be discovered by the railroad company, and that such defect existed when the appellant delivered the car to the railroad company to be used in carrying on the business in which it and the railroad companies were engaged, and appellant knew or was charged with knowledge thereof. The contention is that the jury could not have found, under the charge, from the evidence that the construction with a lag-screw was negligence. Let us see. Schouroup, rip-track foreman, testifies: “The outside layer of a box car is composed of material % inch thick—planking; it is nailed to the belt rails and side sills, side pieces and braces, what you might call studding. The lining of a box car is composed of V2 by 6-inch material, which comes up 3 or 4 feet from the floor. Handholds are attached with lag-screws and with nuts and bolts. When a bolt and nut is used it is put in from the inside of the car through the grab iron, and then the nut is put on; with a large headed bolt they do not use a washer; with this size (exhibiting it) they do. The purpose of the washer is to keep the head from pulling through the wood. The bolt and nut is the safer method of attaching handholds, because there is more wood to decay before this will pull through than in using the lag-screw—the lag-screw will pull out with the least rottening. Bolts go through the siding and through the lining; lag-screws only *596go through the siding—sometimes a small board is put inside the siding to hold it firm. To put in a lag-screw, you bore a hole 1-16 of an inch smaller than the screw, then drive in the screw two-thirds, then screw in with a wrench; lots of times they are driven clear in. In January, 1905, railroads were using about half and half of screws and bolts. I have seen cars come in with lag-screws pulled out, but in several years’ experience, have never seen one come in with nut and bolt pulled out.”
Leas testified: “The car the handhold pulled out of was Continental Fruit Express No. 10316, and it had been freshly'- painted. A lag-screw is driven in the car, except maybe a final twist or two with a wrench. A nut and bolt is put through, the nut put on and then the threads hammered so the nut won’t come off. The washer goes on the inside the car. The nut and bolt is the safer. If the wood rotted immediately around the threads of a lag-screw, it would pull out; with the nut and bolt it would have to rot enough to let the washer through.”
Kannary, conductor, testified: “The lag-screw pulled out on the east side; the wood must have been rotten—it was rotten. The car was a bright looking car, freshly painted.”
Lynch, yardmaster at Santa Rosa, testified: “The lag-screw pulled out, the wood around it was rotten. The car had been freshly painted. In January, 1905, the latest construction was with the nut and bolt; that is the safer—there is no chance for it to pull out. I think they were using about half and half of bolts and lag-screws.” E. Willott testified: “In January, 1905, the latest construction was with nut and bolt; they are the safer.”
The issue of whether the use of the lag-screws was negligence was submitted to the jury, and by their verdict they found that it was.
That the Master Car Builders’ Association authorized the use of lag-screws in construction of cars, does not. show as a matter of law that it was not negligence to use them as they were used on the car from which appellee fell. Not even a court can ordinarily take from a jury and decide a question of negligence when there is any evidence reasonably tending to show the act of negligence charged; and for a stronger reason no association can by its usage or authorization preclude the jury from determining such a question. Such usage or authorization may be, and often is, evidence tending to negative the charge of negligence; but the jury must determine from it in connection with other evidence whether the act charged was negligence.
Again, it is contended that there was no evidence that the car was rotten when it was received by the railroad. No other conclusion than that the- part of the car from which the lag-screw pulled out was rotten at that time, can be deduced from the evidence .
Other questions presented by the motion are sufficiently discussed in the original opinion. The motion is overruled.

Affirmed.

Writ of error refused.