Anest v. Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad

Citations

• 89 Wash. 609
• 154 P. 1100
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 837

Syllabus

<p>Commerce — Interstate Commerce — Track Inspectors. One employed in inspecting the main line of an interstate railroad doing also an intrastate business, to see that no obstruction or defects existed, is engaged in interstate commerce.</p> <p>Master and Servant — Injury to Servant — Negligence—Reversed Engine — Failure to Keep Lookout — Evidence—Sufficiency. A finding of negligence, as a matter of fact, in running down a track inspector, is sustained by the evidence, where it appears that he was struck while alighting from a speeder by a lone engine backing around a curve, that the rules of the company required a forward lookout on the end car of backing trains and provided that an engine without cars in service on the road shall be considered a train, that no forward lookout was placed on the tender, and that the fireman and also the brakeman, who was looking ahead from the cab window, had an unobstructed view of the track for 1000 feet, that the fireman first discovered the speeder when within 150 feet and gave the signal to stop, and that the brakeman first discovered it when within 300 feet, but gave no signal to stop, and that the engineer stopped the engine when within about 300 feet after receiving the fireman’s signal.</p> <p>Same — Contributory Negligence — Track Inspector — Evidence— Sufficiency. A track inspector whose duty it is to look out for the safety of the trains as well as himself, and who allowed himself to be overtaken on a curve in a situation where he could not stop in time to get off the track, was guilty of contributory negligence.</p> <p>Same — Contributory Negligence — Federal Employers’ Liability Act — Comparative Negligence. Under the Federal employers’ liability act, the contributory negligence of the plaintiff does not bar a recovery, but reduces the amount proportionally as the negligence of the defendant and of the plaintiff contribute to the causation of the injury.</p> <p>Same. The negligence of a track inspector on a speeder, wh