Mason v. Richmond & Danville Railroad

Citations

• 19 S.E. 362
• 114 N.C. 718

Syllabus

<p>Action for Damages — Negligence—Contributory Negligence— Proximate Cause of Injury — Brakeman Coupling Cars— Disobedience to Rules — Waiver—Vice-principal.</p> <p>1. Where a plaintiff brakeman disregarded the rules of a railroad company forbidding brakemen to go between the cars in coupling them, which he had agreed to observe, and was injured, the fact that the conductor of the train, who had previously seen him go between cars in coupling them, told him to ‘1 hurry up and couple the cars ’ ’ did not amount to an order to go between the cars so as to relieve the plaintiff from the imputation of contributory negligence in so doing.</p> <p>2. While a brakeman is not culpable for exposing himself to danger in disregard of the rules of the company but in obedience to the orders of the conductor in charge of the train, yet the fact that a conductor under whom a brakeman formerly served told him to go between the cars when they could not otherwise be coupled did not justify him in doing so several months later when under the control of another conductor who gave no such order.</p> <p>3. Where plaintiff and defendant were both concurrently negligent and the negligence of the former was the proximate cause of injury to the plaintiff the latter cannot recover damages for the same.</p> <p>4. A conductor in charge of a railroad company’s train is, as to those subject to his orders on the same train, a vice-principal acting for the company.</p>