244 Mo. 1 | Mo. | 1912
Lead Opinion
This is an action for damages on account of the death of plaintiff’s husband, Alonzo Power, tried in the Gentry county circuit court, where, on a peremptory instruction in the nature of a demurrer to the evidence, there was a verdict for defendant ¡and plaintiff has appealed.
The deceased had been employed as a section hand of defendant almost two years, working on the section at Stanberry. On October 25, 1907, a freight train of twenty-nine cars was wrecked about twenty-two miles ■east of Stanberry, just oast of what is known as the
The trestle was about twenty feet long, under which was a farm'crossing, with precipitous sides, apparently a ravine about twenty feet deep. There was no railing along the sides of the trestle and no guards at the end. When night came on it was misting rain and at eight-thirty o’clock was, of course, very dark. Neither the ears nor the trestle were marked with lights. The glimmer from bonfires, torches, and probably an occasional lantern from the eastward revealed. the dim outline of cars on or near the trestle, but did not show the trestle, or bank. Several workmen had torches, and-some of them used torches in going to and from supper.0
Prom the time the train had returned from Me-Fall, the workmen, from time to time, as their work would permit, had been going in squads of four or five to their supper which was served in the dining car standing west of the trestle. In the meanwhile the train including the dining car was shifted from time to time. So far as the evidence shows, the workmen
About half after eight Power, accompanied by Oogdill, Wilson and Gray, his fellow workmen, started to supper. Oogdill and Wilson were witnesses for the plaintiff, but they differed radically' in their testimony. Oogdill says, that they walked on the outside of the ties in going along the track to their supper, giving as a reason for so doing as follows, “well, it is a whole lot -easier walking out there than it is stepping from one tie to the other.” Wilson testified that they were all walking between the rails on the track, and that when they reached .the cars, Power and Cogdill stepped off the north side of the track, and he and Gray off the south side. All started around the cars. At that time one of the cars was standing partly on the trestle and partly east of it. .It had not been there over thirty minutes. Some workmen with a torch had returned from supper over the unobstructed trestle to where Power was at work just before Power and his companions started. The dining car was further on west.
All six of the plaintiff’s witnesses, who were all at the wreck, testified that they knew about the trestle; and four of them said that Power worked at times within sixty feet of the trestle. The deceased had no knowledge of the vicinity, except what he acquired on that occasion. The principal part of the wreck was about three hundred and sixty feet east of the bridge.
Oogdill testified as follows: “'Q. I will ask you to tell the jury whether you walked up to supper with Mr. Powers that evening or started to? A. Yes sir. I walked up on the north side of the track — -on the cinders. We wasn’t on the ties. The truck car was on the culvert, and the supply car, with rails and ties, was east. Before we got to the culvert, recollect, I said
“Q. At that time, you didn’t know you were that close to it? A. I didn’t know we were that near the culvert.
“Q. And he didn’t either? A. If he did, he wouldn’t have fell.
“ Q. If you had been in front of Mr. Powers, this accident would occurred to you?
“By Mr. Perry, Counsel for Defendant: Hold on, I object. A. I don’t know whether it would or not, because—
“By the Court: Hold on. When an objection is made, you must keep quiet until I pass on it.
“Q. Well— A. I’ll tell you, Mr. Showen, if he hadn’t knowed the road so well, I wouldn’t have followed him. But he knew where he was going. But I didn’t. I knew there was a bridge there, and I was going to take care of myself. I wouldn’t have went just then. There was nobody told us to go to supper at all.”
Wilson testified as follows:
“Q. Tell the jury, then, just how he went and all about it, up to the time of this accident. A. There was Harry Gray and myself arid Mr. Cogdill — William Cogdill — and Mr. Powers started up the track to the dining ear. We came to those cars, and we stepped off — Harry Gray and myself stepped off on the south side of the track, and Mr. Cogdill and Mr. Powers on the north side, and, about that time, I spoke to Harry and told him we were getting somewhere near that*8 culvert. I couldn’t tell just where. He stopped and he said, ‘Yes.’ I heard a naan fall then. About that time, Mr. Cogdill called to Mr. Powers, he didn’t answer him, and I says: £Mr. Powers fell in that culvert.’ ”
The petition was broad enough to cover all phases of the evidence and the answer is a general denial, and also a plea of contributory negligence and the assumption of risk
I. Let it be conceded for the purposes of this case that it was not negligence on the part of the company to have no rails or guards at the trestle; and also that it was not negligence under the circumstances to let the car stand on the trestle as shown in evidence. We do not undertake to pass on those questions, but concede them in order to get right at the main points in this case, i. e.: Were the circumstances in evidence such as to authorize a jury to find that the defendant was negligent in failing to mark the location of the trestle by a light or lights so that passing workmen would see the embankment and not fall over? And is the evidence such that the trial court was justified in holding as a matter of law that the deceased was guilty of such contributory negligence as prohibited plaintiff’s recovery? ■ •
The changes along and on that railroad track at the scene of the wreck, after the work of reconstruction began had been kaleidoscopic.- The track was being reconstructed, wrecked.cars were being removed. Old land.marks were constantly disappearing and new ones taking their places. Daylight was gone and the clouds and rain intensified the darkness.. The,flicker of distant lights revealed .prominent objects, such as cars, in dim outline, but intensified the darkness at their feet. There is nothing to show from what point deceased started to supper; but, supposing he went from the point of the principal damage, he had over a
The evidence of Wilson shows that he and Gray might have fallen if they had not at the moment heard Power fall.
Counsel for defendant cite Thomas v. Railroad, 109 Mo. 1. c. 199, where it is said in speaking of the workmen, “He must not go blindly and heedlessly to his work, when there is danger. He must inform himself. This is the law everywhere.” That is certainly law which no one doubts. But suppose he did just twenty or thirty minutes before ascertain that the trestle was clear and that one car was east of the trestle and the others, including the dining car, were west of the trestle, and suppose that, under all the circumstances, he reasonably believed that tbe situation in that respect remained unchanged, would not his act be based on what he supposed was actual knowledge that the way was safe? When he said “Follow me, and I will take you through all right” he may have been
Neither do we think that Railroad v. Jackson, 65 Fed. 1. c. 50, is like this case. That was a- case of tearing up, moving and relaying a portion of the track which was in danger of being washed into the river by high water, It was held that the workman had no reason to suppose that the right of way where he was at work would be kept free at every moment from all such impediments as might cause him to lose his footing.
In this ease the dangerous condition was not in that part of the road being reconstructed. The condition of the trestle *and the crossing was not being changed. It remained untouched by the work that was going on. It was between the workmen and their supper; a situation created by the defendant. A lantern hung at nightfall on or near the trestle would have prevented all mistakes.
Counsel for appellant in their printed argument say that deceased had worked in sixty feet of the trestle all that afternoon. The record shows that at times he did so work, but that he was in a work which took the workmen along the track the full length of the wreck. If it were a fact that he worked all afternoon-in sixty feet of the trestle, we could presume he started for his supper from the point where he was at work and then knew that the trestle was about sixty feet in front of him. In that case the contributory negligence would be evident enough. But the evidence shows that he worked all along the line of the wreck, and may have had the full distance to go to his supper. It may be that without being negligent, he miscalculated the distance he had to go to the trestle. He may have been depending on some landmark that had disappeared or had changed its position, as, for instance, the car. His
In Huhn v. Railroad, 92 Mo. 1. c. 450, it is said that where different inferences may he fairly drawn from the undisputed facts, the question of negligence' should he submitted to the jury. See also Paden v. Van Blarcom, 181 Mo. 1. c. 128; Powers v. Transit Co., 202 Mo. 1. c. 280; Railroad v. Ives, 144 U. S. 417.
The cause should not have been taken from the jury.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
This case coming into Banc from Division Two on the dissent of Ferriss, P. J., was heard in Banc and the opinion of Rot, C., was adopted by the court.
Concurrence Opinion
CONCURRING OPINION.
I concur in the opinion written in this ease by Rot, C., in division, not only for the reasons stated by him, hut also for the reason that the testimony of Wilson, who testified for appellant, shows that Powers, the deceased, was walking between the rails and not on the north side of the track, until he reached the car, standing partially upon the trestle and partially east of it, and then stepped from between the rails to the north and upon taking a step or two west, fell into the culvert and sustained the injuries which resulted in his death.
This evidence considered in connnection with that stated in the opinion, shows conclusively that Powers, at the time, believed said car was standing between
Upon that state of facts, I think men of ordinary prudence might have drawn different inferences as to the danger or safety attending an attempt to pass over the trestle under the facts and circumstances disclosed by this record.
Dissenting Opinion
DISSENTING OPINION.
This is an appeal from a judgment entered on a verdict for defendant which the court directed the jury to return at the close of plaintiff’s evidence in an action for damages for the death of Alonzo Power, who succumbed to injuries resulting from a fall off the top of a fill at the end of a trestle over a farm crossing near McFall, Missouri.
The allegations of the petition were considerably broader than the evidence (hereafter stated) offered to support it, and the answer consisted of a general denial and pleas of contributory negligence and assumption of risk.
Power was a section hand and had been in defendant’s employment in that capacity for a year and nine months and in other capacities had worked for the same company some three months. The section gang with which he worked had head-quarters at Stan-berry, and on October 25, 1907, a freight train consisting of twenty-nine cars was wrecked at a point about twenty-two miles east of Stanberry, about four and one-half miles east of .McFall and a short distance east of a trestle, known as the “curve trestle,” spanning a farm crossing. This trestle was about twenty feet above the roadway which ran beneath it. The wrecker left Stanberry about twelve m. on the day mentioned. It consisted of the wrecking car, engine and tender,
The train arrived at the wreck about one thirty p. m. The engine and wrecking car carrying the derrick were detached from the rest of the train and proceeded to the wrecked cars, leaving the truck car or tool car, supply car and dining car near the trestle, some three hundred and fifty feet west of the wreck. As ties and rails were needed during the afternoon and evening the supply car was resorted to and materials desired were unloaded therefrom some sixty feet east of the trestle and carried by the section men east to the place where they were to be used. Power assisted in this work in the afternoon and probably in the evening, and worked for some time in plain view of the trestle and within sixty feet of it. He had*, crossed the trestle in daylight going to his place at the-wreck, but whether on foot or on one of the cars does-not appear. The men had no fixed duties but did whatever the exigencies of the constantly changing situation! demanded. The truck car, supply car and dining car were sometimes west of the trestle, sometimes on the trestle, and sometimes nearly or quite east of it, being moved about as the necessities of the work at the wreck required.
The engine and wrecking car, commencing at the west end of the wrecked train, worked backward and forward along; the wreck clearing away cars and the section men unloaded cars, burning those which were badly damaged.
During the evening the truck car, supply car and - dining car were pushed backward and forward and, according to the evidence, “they had them up and down,
Late in the afternoon the wrecker, engine and cars, ran back west to McFall and remained there while an east bound passenger train proceeded to the place of the wreck, exchanged passengers, mail, etc., with a west bound passenger train, and returned to McFall. The wrecking train then returned to the wreck and the work proceeded as before, the engine and derrick car or wrecker being detached from the supply car, tool car and dining car, and this last left west of the trestle. Whether the truck car and supply car were then left west of the trestle or detached from the dining car and pulled down east of the trestle does not appear.
Darkness then had fallen and it was a cloudy, drizzly night. The section men went, back to the dining car for supper as they could get away, by twos and threes , and fours, the accommodations not being sufficient for all at one. time, and the work at the wreck proceeded without interruption. Some of the men who went to supper before Power started carried lights and some did not. Two who went to the dining car and returned about thirty minutes before Power started found no cars on the trestle at either time they crossed it. Bonfires were burning near the wreck, but there was no fire or light at the trestle. The trestle itself had no guard rails and in that respect was like all others of its kind. The only testimony on this point is that of a section hand who said he had never seen a trestle of the kind with guard rails.
Between eight and nine o’clock, Power, William Cogdill, Mose Wilson and Barry Gray started from
“Q. I will ask you to tell the jury whether yon walked np to snpper with Mr. Powers that evening, or started to? A. Yes, sir. I walked np on the north side of the track — on the cinders. We wasn’t on the ties. The truck car was on the cnlvert, and the supply car, with rails and ties, was east. Before we got to the cnlvert, recollect, I said to Lon — I said: ‘Lon, there is a bridge here some place, but I don’t know where abonts. ’ I knew there was a bridge there, and so did he. He says: ‘Well, yon follow me.’ Of course I won’t make the remarks he did. He said: ‘Yon follow me, and I will take yon through all right.’ Well, he hadn’t any more than got the words out of his month until he fell. Well, I stepped on the block he fell off of. ■ I come that near falling.
“Q. At that time, yon didn’t know yon were that close to it? A. I didn’t know we were that near the culvert.
“Q. And he didn’t either? A. If he did, he wouldn’t have fell.
“Q. If yon had been in front of Mr. Powers, this accident would occurred to yon? A. I don’t know whether it would or not, because — I’ll tell yon, Mr. Showen, if he hadn’t knowed the road so well, I. wouldn’t have followed him. But he knew where he was going. But I didn’t. I knew! there was a bridge there, and I was going to take care of myself. I wouldn’t have went just then. There was nobody told ns to go to snpper at all.
“Q. Yon say yon walked on the cinders. What do yon mean by that ? A. Along the dump.
“Q. That is, on the middle of the track? A. No, sir. It is on the outskirts of the rails — of the ties.
“Q. Why did yon walk out there? A. Well, it is a whole lot easier walking out thére than it is stepping from one tie to the other.
*16 “Q. Was there anything to warn you-people that this car was standing half on the bridge and half on the track or the road-bed? A. No, I don’t know as there was. We wasn’t looking for such as that. We was hunting our suppers.
“Q. Well, state to the jury whether or not you and Mr. Power— A. Well, I knew the bridge was there.
“Q. ' Wait until I ask the question — had any information as to the fact that that car stood half on the bridge and half on the track just east of the bridge, at that time. A. Well, we knew that the dining car was west of the bridge. There is where we were working for.
“Q. But you don’t answer my question. Read the question, Mr. Stenographer.”
Thereupon, the last question propounded to the witness by counsel for plaintiff was read to him by the stenographer, in the words and figures following, to-wit: “Q. Well, state to the jury whether or not you and Mr. Power had any information as to the fact that that car stood half on the bridge and half on the track just east,of the bridge, at that time. A. Oh, no, I didn’t know where the car'stood, as far as that is concerned.
■ “Q. I will get you to tell the jury whether it was dark or not, at that time? A. Well, it was.
“Q. Well, what was the condition of the atmosphere? Raining? A. It was cloudy and misting.”
On cross-examination this witness testified as follows :
“Q.. Now, Mr. Cogdill, you and Mr. Power both had worked up there near this bridge that afternoon, hadn’t you? A. Yes, sir. We had been all along there.
“Q. In plain sight of it, hadn’t you? A. Yes, sir. Not over two rails’ length from the culvert.
“Q. Not over two rails’ length from it. You*17 could see the bridge and could see the ravine there? A. Oh, yes.
“Q. You knew there was a place there? A. Oh, yes, I knew it.
‘ ‘ Q. And you were back and forth, up and down that track, carrying rails and material, all that afternoon? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And when you got up here to where these two cars were standing, you could see the outlines of the cars on the track, couldn’t you? A. Of course yon could see them.
“Q. The truck car and the supply car? A. The supply car and the truck car.
“Q. Of course you couldn’t see the bridge? A. Oh, no.
“Q. Now this wasn’t really a bridge? A. I could call it a culvert.
“Q. It was an underground farm crossing, and it was out in the country? A. Yes.
‘‘Q. And it didn’t have any guard rails? A. No, sir.
“Q. You never saw a bridge or a railroad crossing of that kind with guard rails, did you, out in the country? A. I never did.
“Q. Now then, nobody didn’t order you and Mr. Power to go to supper? A. Oh, no. No.
“Q. Yon went of your own accord? A. Of our own accord.
“Q. Now, when you got up here to where you could see the outline and could see this truck car and this supply car, and were walking along the side of them there, you said to Mr. Power: ‘Lon, look out!
There is a bridge here somewhere. ’ A. That is what I did.
“Q. And he says, ‘You follow me, and yon will be all right. ’ A. Yes, sir. That is just the very words that he made.
*18 “Q. And, just after lie had said that — just after he had said that, he took one or two steps and fell? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Now men had been going back and forth there all evening to their suppers, hadn’t they?”
“By the Court: Do you mean evening or afternoon, Mr. Peery?
“By Mr. Peery, Counsel for Defendant: I meant evening. After night.
“A. Yes, sir. There had been several down and back.
‘ ‘ Q. Your boy had been up there and got his supper? A. Yes.
“Q. Now this truck car and this supply ear were standing there in this same position before it got dark, were they not? A. They were there.
“Q. You had seen them standing there the last time you had seen them? A. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Of course we was here, there and every place else. Where we was called is where we had to go to work.
“Q. Yes. But the last time you had seen this supply car and this truck car, they were there on that bridge, in that same position? A. Yes, sir.
“ Q. Now the light from the derrick that you had down here to work by was not sufficient to show the bridge and this ravine, was it? A. Oh, no. Oh, no.
“Q. But it did show the outlines of these two cars? A. Oh, yes. You could see the cars.
“Q. How? A. You could see the cars.
“Q. You could see the cars when you got up there? A. Yes. But you couldn’t see anything else.
“Q. And you and Mr. Powers were not on the track at all? A. Oh, no.
“Q. You were on the dump? A. We were on the dump — on the cinders.
“Q. On the cinders all the time? A. We were walking along on the cinders. Yes.
*19 “Q. .Are you working for the company now? A. No, sir. I hain’t.”
Wilson’s testimony concerning the matter was as follows:
“Q. I will ask you to tell the jury whether or not you started to supper in the same bunch with Mr. Powers. A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Tell the jury, then, just how he went and all about it, up to the time of this accident? A. There was Harry Gray and myself and Mr. Cogdill — William Cogdill — and Mr. Powers started up the track to the dining car. We came to those cars, and we stepped off — Harry Gray and myself stepped off on the south side of the track, and Mr. Cogdill and Mr. Powers on the north side, and, about that time, I spoke to Harry and told him we were getting somewhere near that culvert. I couldn’t tell just where. He stopped, and he said, ‘Yes.’ I’heard a man fall then. About that time, Mr. Cog-dill called to Mr. Powers, he didn’t answer him, and I says: ‘Mr. Powers fell in that culvert.’ We got down the dump and got to where we could get over the fence into the roadway, and we went under the railroad. We started to him. I told Harry to go back and get the lantern, and he started back, and someone came in with a lantern before he came back — come in and struck a match first. Some fellow. I don’t know who it was. And we found him. I went to him. The lantern come pretty soon, and we picked him up, with lanterns and torches. There was several come, in a few minutes. We took him to the car and loaded him.
“Q. Was it very dark, or otherwise? A. It was pretty dark.
“Q. Could you see this car until you got to it? A. We could see the bulk of it off some distance. Yes.
“Q. In coming up to that car, you were between the rails, in the middle of the track? A. Yes, sir.
*20 “Q. Two of you went to the right and two to .the left? A. Yes, sir.
“ Q. I will ask you to tell the jury if you heard any conversation there by this deceased, Power, stating that there was a bridge there that he knew of, or anything that Mr. Cogdill testified to? A. I didn’t pay any attention to it. No.
“Q. Did you hear any such talk as that? A. I don’t know as I did.
ÍCQ. The first time you heard of any bridge mentioned was when your partner, Mr. Graham, mentioned it? A. I spoke to Mr. Gray.
“Q. Mr. Gray? A. They were on one side of the ear, and me on the other.
“Q. You didn’t know when you were going up there that that bridge stood on — that that car stood on the bridge, until you got up to it, did you? A. No, sir. I hadn’t paid any attention to it.
“Q. . As a matter of fact, the cars that had been up in that part had been down a couple of rails’ length , east of the bridge in the evening, hadn’t they? A. Oh, they might have been. I didn’t pay any attention to them.
“Q. Do you know anything about how they came to be there? A. They unhooked from them and left them there, I suppose.
“Q. I will ask you to tell the jury whether it is a fact, or not, that the train-men were jamming those ears back and forth, up and down the track, to suit their convenience, all evening, and not leaving them standing in one place? A. Oh, they made repeated .trips to McFall and back.
“Q. They changed the cars around in different places all evening? A. Yes, sir.”
On cross-examination, he testified as follows:
“Q. Mr. Wilson, you assisted that afternoon in unloading rails and ties from this supply car up near this bridge, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.
*21 “Q. And in plain sight of it? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And you saw Mr. Power there, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Assisting in that work? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And he was in plain sight of this bridge over this underground crossing? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. That afternoon. And as you men came up, .going to supper, when you got up near these cars here, it was light enough that you could see the bulk of the cars and could see that they were there on the track, wasn’t it? A. Yes, sir..
“Q. And that light came from the lights that were further down the track east, towards the wreck and the derrick? A. I don’t know whether that light had any effect up there, or not.
“Q. At all events, it was either that light, or else — ■ A. — The sky light.
“Q. — Or the sky light — one or the other. - You could see the bulk of the cars in front of you and see they were on the track? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Thereupon, you and Mr. Gray went to the south or to the left and Mr. Cogdill and Mr. Power went to the north? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And there was these two freight cars between you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And you said to Mr. Gray, ‘Look out for this trestle or this culvert?’ A. Yes, sir. I spoke something about the culvert.
“Q. And you don’t know what conversation occurred between Mr. Cogdill and Mr. Power, on the other side of the car, on the other side of the track, do you? A. No, sir. I didn’t pay no attention to that.”
Gray did not testify.
Railings on a trestle constructed over a farm crossing four miles in the country are not required or practicable in view of the use for which such trestle is designed and the lack of them does not tend to prove negligence in the circumstances of this case; further, de
Deceased knew of the existence of the trestle and that it was in the path he was following. He knew when he reached the truck car that he had not yet crossed the trestle and that both the trestle and dining car were ahead of him. He also knew that he could not continue indefinitely the course he was pursuing without falling into the roadway beneath the trestle. He knew that he was proceeding in the dark toward the trestle, and that there was no light marking its position, and was relying entirely on his own knowledge of the situation. He chose both the time he would go and the route he would take, and was master of his own movements, so far as orders were concerned, while making his way to the dining car. He undoubtedly assumed that the trestle was farther west than it was, and walked confidently along beside the track and truck car, assuring his companion he “would take him through all right” when the latter suggested they were approaching the trestle.
Deceased was bound to take notice of the changes at the wreck and the consequent increase or diminution of the distance of the west end of the wrecked train from the trestle because the only business he had there was to aid in bringing about those very changes until the entire wreck was cleared away and the track rebuilt. He was bound, also, to know that the truck car, supply car and dining car were not only not immovable but that their position was being changed as materials were needed and as the engine and wrecker pulled them down across and pushed them back to or beyond the trestle.' He had himself been aiding in the work of unloading materials from the supply car.
Deceased knew that he was walking in the dark
Oases in which recoveries have been upheld for injuries resulting from unblocked guard rails, defective and slippery sidewalks and passageways, uncovered hatchways, etc., are cited by. counsel. None is in point. In those cases it was not impossible for the employee to continue his labors without injury, while in this case injury from following the path deceased was traveling was as certain, if followed far enough, as the operation of the law of gravitation. This is not a case in which an employee fell into a negligently uncovered hatchway or opening in a passageway provided for his use, or platform on which he is put at work. Here there was no possibility of getting safely across the roadway unless deceased changed his route, got upon the track or cars or went down the fill and across the fences and thus around the trestle. Deceased knew the risk but elected to proceed toward the trestle in the dark, along the side of the car, on the assumption that the trestle was farther west than it was, knowing that if he had miscalculated the result would be what it was.
The case must rest upon its own peculiar circumstances and in view of them the trial court was right in holding that the deceased’s own negligence was tbe proximate cause of the injury and that there was no question for a jury to determine. Though plaintiff be given the benefit of every reasonable inference fair minded men might draw from the evidence adduced, there is no theory which would warrant a recovery. The authorities cited in the briefs lay down the principles by which this case must be ruled.
The judgment ought to be affirmed, therefore I dissent from the opinion of Boy, G.
Dissenting Opinion
DISSENTING- OPINION.
I dissent from the principal opinion of Commissioner Rot and concur in the opinion of Commissioner Blais, and put my vote on the ground that Power was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of la,w. Let it be conceded, for argument’s sake, that defendant was negligent in blocking in the night time the only safe passageway to the dining car by placing a car over the trestle and providing no temporary light there, yet the circumstances being out of the ordinary, there being a wreck and a sudden emergency, with cars-shifting here, and there constantly, decedent had no right to rely on a permanent location of the dining car at any certain place on the track, or at any given point bearing a certain permanent relation in distance to the ravine, or to any other car of the wrecking train. Things in that regard shifted every now and then and had to shift, all of which decedent knew. The dining car .might be on one side of the ravine at one time and on the other at another. Decedent knew that. He knew, too, of the dangerous embankment and ravine. There is no testimony that he cared for a torch, or asked for a light and was refused one or that he could not have had a torch for the asking. In this condition of things, he set out on his journey in the nighttime without a light, knowing that a car of the train might be between him and the dining car, and, what is more, might stand either over or on one side or the other of the ravine. While on that journey he came to such car. Observe, he knew he was close to the trestle and the embankment leading to it. His attention was jogged in that particular. Forewarned on that fact, he took his own course for it.