Loughney v Caledonian Railway Company
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 07 January 1902 |
| Docket Number | No. 77. |
| Date | 07 January 1902 |
| Court | Court of Session |
Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Young, Lord Moncreiff.
Reparation—Negligence—Master and Servant—Removal of barrels from lorry to railway platform—Relevancy.—
A labourer raised an action of damages for personal injuries against a railway company, averring that while he and two other workmen were engaged in the employment of the defenders in removing barrels, each weighing about 5 cwt., from a lorry to a railway platform a few inches higher than the lorry, the pursuer's forefinger was jammed between two of the barrels, causing the injuries on account of which he sued; that the barrels were much too heavy for safe removal from the lorry to the platform by means only of three men; that it was usual and necessary for the safety of the men employed in such operations either to have a larger number of men engaged in the operation or to carry it through by means of a crane or a block and tackle, or with the aid of levers and sprags or grappling-irons; and that the accident was due to the fault of the defenders in pursuing a method of working which they knew, or ought to have known, to be unusual, improper, and unsafe. The defenders pleaded that the action was irrelevant.
The Court, in respect that as matter of common knowledge and experience the precautions specified by the pursuer were unnecessary, dismissed the action as irrelevant.
In July 1901 Owen Loughney, labourer, Glasgow, raised an action in the Sheriff Court at Glasgow against the Caledonian Railway Company for £500 as damages for personal injuries at common law, and alternatively for £156, as damages under the Employers Liability Act, 1880.
The pursuer averred;—(Cond. 3) ‘On or about Wednesday, the 27th day of February 1901, the pursuer was in the employment of the defenders at their goods station, Kinning Park, Glasgow. He entered their service for the first time on the day preceding, and had had no experience of such work as that at which he was engaged.’ (Cond. 4) ‘On the date in question the pursuer was engaged, on the instructions of the defenders, or of those delegated by them in that behalf, in assisting two other workmen, also in the employment of the defenders, in transferring three barrels, each weighing about 5 cwt. and containing white lead or other material, from a lorry on to a table.’ (Cond. 5) ‘The table was a few inches higher than the lorry referred to. The lorry having been placed lengthwise to the table, the pursuer and the two other workmen rolled the first of the three...
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