MR. JUSTICE VAN DEVANTER delivered the opinion of the court.
This was an action against a railroad company to recover for personal injuries sustained by an employe while both were engaged in interstate commerce. The plaintiff secured a verdict and judgment in the Circuit Court, and the defendant sued out this direct writ of error, claiming
The injury to the plaintiff occurred in the night time, in the month of February, in the railroad yards of the defendant at North Fork, West Virginia, while he was piloting a locomotive through several switches to a main track, where the locomotive was to be attached to an interstate train to assist in moving it over an upgrade in the direction of the next station. He carried a torch and was proceeding in advance of the locomotive to see whether the switches were in proper position, and, if not, to change them. Upon reaching the first switch, known as No. 3, he found it in proper position, signaled the engineer accordingly, and advanced along the track, between the rails, to a point near the next switch, known as No. 2, where the engine overtook him and inflicted serious injuries upon him, resulting in the loss of his right leg. He had not yet signaled to the engineer whether that switch was in proper position, and one of the questions controverted at the trial was, whether the engineer was negligent in attempting to pass over that switch without waiting for a signal. The evidence for the plaintiff was to the effect that it was the established custom in that yard for the engineer to await a signal from the pilot before proceeding over a switch and that the pilot was entitled to rely upon the engineer's conforming to that custom; while the evidence for the defendant was to the effect that by the settled custom the engineer, although required to await a signal before passing over the first
In its charge to the jury the court, after saying that the mere occurrence of the injury was no evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant or its engineer and that the burden was on the plaintiff to establish such negligence by affirmative evidence, gave the following instructions at the defendant's request:
"The court further instructs the jury that if they shall believe from the evidence that the custom and practice in the North Fork yard was for the engineer to follow the fireman with his engine as he lined up the switches, and not to wait for a signal to proceed after the first switch, then it was not the duty of the engineer to wait for such
"The court instructs the jury that if they shall believe from the evidence that it was the custom and practice in the North Fork yard for the fireman to line up the switches and for the engineer to follow him at a rate of three or four miles per hour without signals, or upon signal to proceed given at switch No. 3 [the first one], and if they shall further believe from the evidence that plaintiff was familiar with this custom and practice in said yard, and that at and before the accident which resulted in plaintiff's injury, engineer Drawbond was proceeding in accordance with this custom, then they are told that said engineer Drawbond had the right to act on the assumption and belief that the plaintiff in lining up the switches would take reasonable precaution for his own safety against the approaching engine."
The defendant complains that the court refused to say to the jury in that connection that the engineer was not required to keep any lookout for the plaintiff. We think the refusal was right. As before indicated, there was evidence tending to show that it was usual for the pilot to walk between the rails in advance of the locomotive, that the conditions outside the track made it necessary to do so in the night time, and that all this was known to the engineer. Whether this evidence was true was for the jury to determine, and if it was true it certainly could not be said as matter of law that the engineer was in the exercise of ordinary care, which was the controlling standard for him, if he made no effort to see whether the plaintiff was on the track and took no precautions for his protection. Upon that question the court rightly gave the following instruction:
Complaint is also made of the refusal to give an instruction requested by the defendant upon the subject of assumption of risk. But the instruction was couched in such general and sweeping terms that it was not calculated to give the jury an accurate understanding of the law upon that subject or to direct their attention to the particular phase of the case to which it was deemed applicable. Consequently, the refusal to give it was not error.
The declaration alleged that the plaintiff's damages amounted to $20,000, and prayed judgment for that sum. One paragraph of the charge to the jury dealt at some length with the question of the measure of damages and contained the statement that, if the verdict was for the plaintiff, he should be awarded "such an amount of damages, not exceeding $20,000 as" would compensate him for the injury. An exception was taken to this paragraph, without indicating wherein it was deemed objectionable, and complaint is now made that it erroneously conveyed to the jury an intimation that a finding that the plaintiff's
The third section of the Employers' Liability Act declares, subject to a proviso not material here, that "the fact that the employe may have been guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employe;" and in its charge the court dealt with the subject of contributory negligence as follows:
"Contributory negligence is the negligent act of a plaintiff, which concurring and cooperating with the negligent act of a defendant is the proximate cause of the injury. If you should find that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, the act of Congress under which this suit was brought provides that such contributory negligence is not to defeat a recovery altogether, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employe. So, if you reach that point in your deliberations where you find it necessary to consider the defence of contributory negligence, the negligence of the plaintiff is not a bar to a recovery, but it goes by way of diminution of damages in proportion to his negligence as compared with the negligence of the defendant. If the defendant relies upon the defence of contributory
An exception to this instruction was reserved, without suggesting any other objection to it than that the Employers' Liability Act was deemed unconstitutional. It is now criticised (a) because, instead of saying that, if the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, the jury "must diminish the damages," it merely said that such negligence "goes by way of diminution of damages," and (b) because it prescribed a wrong rule for the diminution in that it directed or permitted it to be made upon a comparison of the plaintiff's negligence with that of the defendant. Both criticisms were advanced in the Circuit Court in support of a motion for a new trial which was overruled, the court stating that neither criticism had been suggested before.
We think there is no merit whatever in the first criticism. In one sentence the instruction plainly stated that the statute requires, where the plaintiff has been guilty of contributory negligence, that "the damages shall be diminished by the jury," and the statement in the next sentence that such negligence "goes by way of diminution of damages" was evidently intended as a mere repetition of the statutory requirement in somewhat different words. Its purpose was to give effect to what went before, not to qualify it, and it is not reasonable to believe that the jury could have thought otherwise.
The other criticism deserves more discussion. The thought which the instruction expressed and made plain was that, if the plaintiff had contributed to his injury by his own negligence, the diminution in the damages should be in proportion to the amount of his negligence. This was twice said, each time in terms readily understood. But for the use in the second instance of the additional words "as compared with the negligence of the defendant" there would be no room for criticism.
Not improbably the mistake in the instruction was purely verbal and would have been promptly corrected had attention been specially called to it, and possibly it was not prejudicial to the defendant. But, be that as it may, the record discloses that full opportunity for presenting objections was afforded and that the one now pointed out was not made. We must therefore apply the rule that where an instruction embodies several propositions of law, to some of which no objection properly could be taken, a general exception to the entire instruction will not entitle the exceptor to take advantage of a mistake or error in some single or minor proposition therein. Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Co. v. Mackey, 157 U.S. 72, 86; McDermott v. Severe, supra.
Judgment affirmed.
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