Davis v. Consolidated Rail Corporation

788 F.2d 1260 (7th Cir. 1986)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

P was an experienced railroad worker who for the past six years had been employed as an inspector of cars by the Trailer Train Company, a lessor of piggyback cars to railroads. P driving an unmarked van that was the same color as the Conrail vans but with no markings arrived at the yard and saw a train coming in from east to west. He noticed that several of the cars in the train were Trailer Train cars that he was required to inspect. The train halted, and was decoupled near the front; the locomotive, followed by several cars, pulled away to the west. The remainder of the train was stretched out for three-quarters of a mile to the east; and because it lay on a curved section of the track, its rear end was not visible from the point of decoupling. An employee of Conrail named Lundy saw P sitting in his van, didn't know who he was, thought it was queer he was there but did nothing. P began to conduct the inspections by crawling underneath the cars to look for cracks. Unbeknownst to P, a locomotive had just coupled with the other (eastern) end of the train. It had a crew of four. Two were in the cab of the locomotive. The other two, one of whom was designated as the rear brakeman, were somewhere alongside the train. The crew was ordered to move the train several car lengths to the east because it was blocking a switch. The crew made the movement, but without blowing the train's horn or ringing its bell. P heard the sudden rush of air as the air brakes were activated. He tried to scramble to safety. His legs were caught beneath the wheels of the car as he crawled out from under it. One leg was severed just below the knee; most of the foot on the other leg was also sliced off. The train had not been 'blue flagged.' It is a law as well as custom in the railroad industry that whenever work is being done on a train a blue metal flag be placed at either end to warn employees not to move the train. Though well aware of the custom, P had neither blue flagged the train before crawling under it nor asked an employee of Conrail to blue flag it. P sued D. D impleaded Trailer Train, seeking contribution in the event it had to pay damages on the ground that Trailer Train had been negligent in failing to instruct P in proper safety procedures. The jury assessed damages at $3 million but found that Davis's own negligence had been one-third responsible for the accident, and therefore awarded damages of $2 million. The jury held that Trailer Train had been one-third responsible for the accident; it, therefore, ordered Trailer Train to reimburse Conrail for one-third of the $2 million in damages. D and Trailer Train appeal. D argues that it was not negligent at all.