Chicago Great Western Ry. Co. v. Crotty

Citations

• 141 F. 913
• 4 L.R.A.N.S. 832
• 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 4059

Syllabus

<p>1. Negligence—Personal Injury—Assumption oe Risk and Contributory Negligence May Arise out oe Same Pacts.</p> <p>While assumption of risk and contributory negligence rest upon different grounds and are distinct and independent defenses, they are not necessarily incompatible, but may and sometimes do arise out of the same facts, as where the danger is not only known or obvious, but injury therefrom is so imminent that no person of ordinary prudence would assume the risk. 2.. Master and Servant—Servant Acting under Direction oe Superior.</p> <p>Where a servant knows and appreciates the danger of the act which he undertakes, he does not any the less assume the risk of injury or become chargeable with contributory negligence, as the case may be, because he undertakes it under the direction of his superior.</p> <p>[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 34, Cent. Dig. Master and Servant, §§ 649, 781.]</p> <p>8. Same—Staking oe Car.</p> <p>A brakeman, who, in the absence of an emergency justifying his action, participated in staking a car with full knowledge and appreciation of the danger, assumed the risk of injury, although the conductor may have been negligent in directing that the car be staked when there was another and safe method of accomplishing the same result, and in directing the use of an engine and train in the process of staking when the use of the engine alone was reasonably possible and less dangerous; and, where the danger was so imminent that no person of ordinary prudence would have assumed the risk, the brakeman was also guilty of contributory negligence.</p> <p>4. Same—Iowa Statute—Negligence oe Co-Employé on Railroad—Assumption oe Risk.</p> <p>The statute of Iowa (Code 1897, § 2071) abrogates in respect of the “use and operation of any railway” the common-law rule that an employé by his contract of employment assumes the risk of injury from the future negligence of a fellow servant; but it does not affect the rule that, where an employé undertakes