Court Opinion

ID: 9528351
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:40:14.490671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:46.413972
License: Public Domain

HENRIOD, Justice
(concurring and dissenting).
I concur in that portion of the opinion holding no error in rejecting evidence of company rules violation, but respectfully dissent from the remainder. There appears little or nothing of consequence in this case indicating that any injury resulted from any “defect * * * due to negligence” of the defendant, or that the coupler in question would not “couple automatically upon impact”. It appears undisputed that this particular coupling device was not defective, but was normal in every way, not unlike thousands of others satisfying the requirements of the Act. The drawbar of the car to which a coupling was contemplated, was in alignment. The coupling device coupled while plaintiff still was pushing it with his foot. The only evidence that it may not have functioned properly was the personal opinion of plaintiff himself to the effect that the bar was out of alignment so that a coupling would not result. To hold defendant tortfeasant under such circumstances seems to raise the standard of care higher than that required or contemplated by the Act, placing the employer at the mercy of an employee’s possible poor judgment and ascribing to the Safety Appliance Act the insurability features of workmen’s compensation legislation. Difficult it is to turn a deaf ear to an injured workman, but we must not turn a deaf ear to an employer guilty of no statutory inhibition.
*608A careful examination of the authorities set out in the majority opinion, it is urged, indicates that except for one case cited, but not recognized by the majority,6 none is in point which would substantiate the thesis of the majority that the opinion of an employee as to what might or might not have happened (but didn’t) is sufficient evidence to carry to the jury the question whether or not the device actually did or did not fail, would or would not have failed, or was or was not defective because of negligence in violation of the Act.
In O’Donnell v. Elgin, J. & E. R. Co., cited by the majority with approval, an actual broken coupler was proved, constituting defective equipment — not the case here. In Carter v. Atlantic R. Co., there was actual failure to couple, as was not the case here. The same was true in Atlantic City Ry. Co. v. Parker, in Chi., St. P. & O. Ry. Co. v. Muldowney and in Chi. R. I. & P. R. v. Brown. In Geraghty v. Lehigh Valley R. Co. the device was “badly worn”, in the language of the main opinion, — obviously defective. In San Antonio & A. P. R. Co. v. Wagner, the court pointed out that there was evidence 1) that the coupling pin failed to drop, and 2) that the drawbar was out of alignment and 3) that there was expert testimony to the effect that the mechanism was defective, an aggregate of evidence appropriate for jury determination, which is absent here. The main opinion states that Hampton v. Des Moines & C. I. R. Co. held that the opinion evidence given
“was sufficient to sustain a judgment * * * even though the coupling actually was made upon impact.”
This quoted statement of the majority opinion is not entirely reflective of the ratio decidendi of the Hampton case, since the opinion evidence there was based on the admitted factual hypothesis that the drawbar had a lateral play of *609“four or five” inches, twice that existing in the instant case, obviously abnormal and actually defective. It is little wonder that the court there concluded that such a draw-bar “will not couple upon impact,” and that it was “not such a coupler as the law required”, and it is significant that the court recognized that in a case more nearly akin to the instant case, “the customary play of an inch or a little more does not interfere with their coupling upon impact.” What the court said in the Hampton case, as contra-distinguished with what the majority opinion said the court held, was that
“We think that the testimony of the plaintiff and * * * his expert that a drawbar four or five inches out of line laterally will not couple upon impact constituted substantial evidence that the coupler was defective, and made that question one of fact for the jury.”
That was testimony of impossibility of performance, obviously in violation of the Act. In the instant case there was no testimony that would reflect any impossibility of function where a 2 inch lateral play existed. It is difficult to determine how an admittedly defective mechanism can be cited to analogize and predicate recovery in a case where the mechanism is shown to be perfectly normal, and where the lateral play, according to undisputed testimony, was not possibly in excess of normal, — where logic and reason would convince that the coupler being normal, normally would couple, given the opportunity. The best that can be said of plaintiff’s opinion, in the light of the evidence establishing that the coupler was not defective, is that plaintiff may or may not have used good judgment. Everything else being normal and free from defect, it would seem incorrect to hold, as is done here, that liability can attach solely on an employee’s opinion as to what he thinks the capabilities of a mechanism are or would be. It may well be that his own possible mistaken judgment being the only evidence, itself may lack normality, albeit the mechanism may be perfectly normal. To allow recovery in such case *610seems to carry logic, reason and the law to an extreme not yet reached by the authorities, including those cited in the main opinion. It respectfully is suggested that such latter authorities stand for nothing more than the proposition stated by the prevailing opinion that “failure of the coupler to perform properly is a violation of the Act”, — a proposition quite foreign to the instant case, since it is predicated on actual failure as opposed to some sort of conjectural failure extant here. As a corollary to that quoted above, the main opinion goes on to say that
“failure to couple * * * on account of a misalignment * * * is sufficient to sustain a finding of a violation of the act has been many times held by the courts [citing several cases].”
This dissent holds no brief against either of the statements, but ventures the assertion that neither is pertinent here. They are bottomed on actual failure, and not, as here, upon actual coupling, implemented by the judgment of a person who merely thought there would be no coupling, — a fact made impossible of determination for lack of opportunity to demonstrate mechanical capability.
It is further suggested that the majority opinion has arrived at a false conclusion and an ipse dixit when it volunteers the statement that there was no evidence that the rocker type carrier arm always eliminates the occurrence of misalignment, or that it never occurs where the lateral movement is no greater than is required for rounding curves (a normal condition), thus implying that absent such evidence there must have been a misalignment. Quite as significant is the fact that there likewise was no evidence that such a normal rocker arm does not eliminate such misalignment, and there is no evidence that the lateral movement required for rounding curves (a normal condition) does or even can produce coupling failure. Such absence of evidence does not prove either alignment or misalignment, directly or by implication.
*611The prevailing opinion attempts to distinguish Kansas City M. & O. Ry. Co. v. Wood, which this dissent suggests is the only cited case in point, by stating minor differences ■in the fact situation. It overlooks the fact that the court was confronted with and made its decision solely on consideration of the opinion evidence, as must be done here. This is apparent from the court’s unequivocal statement that there is
“nothing to support plaintiff’s contention save his own observations and opinion as to what would have happened had he not gone between the cars. This, we think, is leaving the domain of fact and invading the realm of fancy, and is too meager to sustain a recovery against appellant.” [262 S. W. 523].
The same conclusion is inescapable in the instant case, and no amount of distinction between the facts there and here can justify a difference in result, since the opinion evidence in both cases is the sine qua non of the conclusion.
It is urged that the majority opinion attempts to apply analogy where analogy is absent, to assign as precedents for its conclusion authorities which have no application in fact or principle, not warranting an affirmance of the judgment below.

 Kansas City M. & O. R. Co. v. Wood, 1924, Tex. Civ. App., 262 S. W. 520.