Texas Pacific Railway Co. v. Wisenor

Citations

• 66 Tex. 674
• 2 S.W. 667
• 1886 Tex. LEXIS 595

Syllabus

<p>1. Master and servant—Negligence—-Practice.—Plaintiff was a brakeman on defendant’s train. The engineer of the train being a new man, the conductor traveled m the locomotive in order to show him the grades, etc., and put plaintiff in charge of the caboose. During the night, while performing his duties at the caboose, he was severely injured, by reason of a defective step of the caboose. Held:</p> <p>(1) If the company’s officers or agents knew of the defective step, or ought to have known of it, and if plaintiff did not know of it and was not chargeable with negligence in not knowing it, and was not negligent under the circumstances, he was entitled to damages.</p> <p>(2) There being no evidence of incompetency or negligence on the part of the engineer, it was reversible error to charge the jury that plaintiff was entitled to recover if the injury was caused by the negligence of the company in employing an incompetent engineer, and such negligence was the proximate cause of the injury. (Railway Company v. Faber, 63 Tex., 344, and other authorities cited.)</p>