Hackley

This appeal is by the defendant from a judgment obtained in an action prosecuted by the plaintiff under the provisions of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, to recover damages on account of the death of the husband of the plaintiff, alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant. The plaintiff's intestate came to his death by falling from the rear platform of the last ear of train No. 22, on the morning of the 18th of February, 1932. The train in question was being operated on the lines of the Southern Pacific Railway Company running from Oakland, California, to Ogden, Utah, by way of Sacramento, California, and Reno, Nevada. The accident, by means of which the plaintiff’s intestate met his death, occurred on the line of the railway operated by the defendant a short distance west of the town of Reno. There were no eye-witnesses to the accident, and the judgment of the trial court appears to have been based upon the circumstantial testimony and the inferences drawn from the circumstances and conditions surrounding the incident which led to the death of Lewis R. Hackley.

The rear platform of the car from which the decedent fell was situate on a private or…