Brinkmeier v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.

Citations

• 69 Kan. 738
• 77 P. 586
• 1904 Kan. LEXIS 327

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COUBT.</p> <p>1. Railroads—Injury to Employee — Notice to Company of Defective Apparatus Inferred. In an action against a railroad company for damages resulting from an injury caused by a patent defect in the original construction of the coupling apparatus of one of its own cars, notice to the company of the defect will be inferred.</p> <p>2. -■— Eislc Not Assumed Unless Knowledge of Danger he Shown or Imputed. A railroad brakeman whose duty requires him to couple cars does not assume the risk of injury from a defective coupling apparatus unless he knows, or from all the circumstances should know, the danger arising from its use.</p> <p>3. -Knowledge of Defect is Not Necessarily Knowledge of Danger. Contributory negligence in the use of a defective coupling apparatus cannot be imputed to a railroad brakeman merely because he knows it to be defective. In order to bar recovery, the danger of using the imperfect appliance must be so great and so apparent that a person of ordinary prudence would not encounter it.</p> <p>4. - When Choice of Dangerous Way Amounts to Negligence. If a workman have the choice of several ways in which to do his work, he will be negligent if he reject those which are safe for one which is dangerous; but he may adopt any one which a reasonably prudent man would adopt and not be negligent, although others may be absolutely safe.</p> <p>5. -Propriety of Employee's Method was a Question for the Jury. Under all the circumstances of this case, the propriety of the conduct of a brakeman in using his foot to control a refractory draw-bar while attempting to make a coupling should have been left to the jury to determine.</p>