Taliaferro v. Vicksburg, S. & P. Ry. Co.

Citations

• 115 La. 444
• 39 So. 437
• 1905 La. LEXIS 674

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and Servant — Injury to Servant —Proximate Cause.</p> <p>The servant’s want of care was not the proximate cause of death. He attempted to perform the duty in the mode usual among railroad émployés in running a freight train.</p> <p>2. Same — Evidence.</p> <p>The rule of the company did not require the flagman to remain in the caboose of the last car while the train was stopped at a station and cars were cut off to be left on a switch on the way.</p> <p>3. Same.</p> <p>The servant was near the conductor, under whose orders he was, who gave the signal from the ground, where he was standing, to leave the station.</p> <p>4. Same.</p> <p>He afterwards boarded the train, climbed to the top, and walked on the moving train to1 ward the caboose, and in the opposite direction of the telltale warning and the headway bridge the train was fast approaching.</p> <p>5. Same.</p> <p>He was killed under the bridge. His head struck a beam of the lower part of the roof of the bridge, and thereon left an imprint. From' the top of the bridge on which he was walking to the under side of the bridge above him, there was not clearance enough, and hence the blow he received.</p> <p>6. Saids — Knowledge of Danger.</p> <p>Beyond mere inference, nothing shows that he had knowledge of the height of the bridge.</p> <p>7. Same — Low Bridge — Telltale Signals.</p> <p>There was a telltale signal at,the required distance from the bridge to warn employes walking on the train to stoop down. The provisions of Act No. 39, p. 51, of 1882, requires that telltale signals shall hang low enough to touch persons on top of the ordinary box car, and should be put up in such a way as to be ample warning.</p> <p>8. Same — Evidence.</p> <p>The testimony does not lead to the inference that the telltales were low enough, and the ample warning intended by the statute. A measurement of the, height of the average car, considered in connection with the height of the deceased, shows that he could pass without