Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Co. v. Williams

The certificate in this case is as follows:

The United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, sitting at the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, on the tenth day of July, A. D. 1907, certifies that the record on file in .the action'above entitled, which is pending,in this, court upon writ of error duly issued to review a judgment rendered in this action in favor of the defendant in error, iii the United States Circuit Court for the Western District of Missouri, discloses the following facts':

The judgment which the writ of error challenges was rendered after a trial and a verdict of a jury for $5,000 damages. At the trial these facts were conclusively .established: The defendant in'error was injured by the.negligence of the'servants of the railway company while he was riding in a caboose' of a cattle train under a contract between him and the railway company for the transportation of his cattle at the regular rate, - in which contract the railway company had agreed' to transport him free and he had agreed in consideration of the free transportation-that the railway company should not be liable to him for any injury or damage, from whatever cause, -which he might suffer or incur while he was so carried, that the cattle should be in’his •charge for the purpose of. attention and care.and that the railway company should not be responsible for such attention and. care, but he should load, unload, water and feed them. He was not constrained, required or requested to make this contract, or one of this nature, in order to secure transportation for his cattle by the railway company at the same rate and on the same

terms in its care, but he had the option to have them transported at the same rate in the care of the railway company and to ride bn a passenger train from the point of shipment to the destination of the cattle for the regular fare,' or to ride free in the caboose car of the cattle train under his contract to hold the railway company exempt from liability for his injuries and tp care for the cattle himself. He freely exercised this option and chose the latter alternative. The danger of injury to one riding in the caboose of a cattle train is about four times the danger to one riding over the same railroad in the coach of a passenger train. Upon these facts the railway' company, which had pleaded its exemption from liability under the contract, requested the court to instruct the jury to return á verdict in its favor, the court refused, an exception was taken to this ruling,, and this ruling and many others have been assigned as errors and are pending in this court for determination. .

And the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit further certifies that other questions of law which relate to the admission of evidence are presented by the assignment of errors in this case and are pending for the decision of this court, but that the following questions of law are also presented by the assignment, of errors and their decision is "indispensable to a determination of this case in this court, and that to the end that this court may properly decide the issues of law presented it desires the instruction of the Supreme Court of the United States upon the following questions of law:

1. In a contract between an owner of cattle and a railway' company for the transportation of the cattle at the regular rate which contains the further agreement that the owner shall be transported on the cattle train free in consideration that he contracts that the railway company shall not be liable to him for any injury or damage which he sustains while he is being so .carried and that he will load, unload, feed and care for the cattle during the transportation, is his agreement that the railway company shall not be liable to him for any injury or damage which he sustains while being so carried a valid contract?

2. Where the owner of the cattle is not constrained,' required or requested to make the.contract described in the foregoing question in order to have his cattle transported at the regular rate, but 'freely chooses to make such an agreement in preférénce to contracting for the transportation of his cattle at the regular rate at the risk of the railway company and riding himself on a passenger train to the destination of the cattle at the regular rate, is'his agreement that the railway company shall not be liable to him for any injury or damage which he sustains while being so carried a valid contract?

3. Do the facts which were established at the trial and which are set forth in the statement which precedes these questions show a valid.contract by the owner of the cattle, the plaintiff below, that the railway company should not be liable to hinf for any injury or damage whichhe sustained while he was riding in the caboose of the cattle train under the contract specified in the.'statement?

For a precedent for this question see Fourth Street Bank v. Yardley, 165 U. S. 634 , 637.