Dorsey v. Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulp Railway Co.

Citations

• 104 La. 478

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>Defendant appeals and asks for the review and reversal of a judgment condemning it to pay damages to the plaintiff who is the widow of the deceased.</p> <p>Defendant’s brakeman, instead of waiting a few moments to oust a trespasser after a stop of the train, chose to pelt him with rocks and clods to make him get off the rods where he was riding, stealing a ride, under the car.</p> <p>The trespasser, in endeavoring to escape from under the car while it was running, fell and was killed. It was within the course of the brakeman’s employment to compel him to stop trespassing and leave the car, and had he exercised the right in a proper and legal manner, there would have been no good cause to complain. The damage arose from the manner of the removal. It -was unnecessarily violent and illegal. The act of trespassing was not, of itself, contributory negligence justifying defendant's servant to resort to the acts he did, when there is not the least reason to infer that there was necessity to resort to any violence at all to remove the trespasser.</p>