Harold Harstad v. United States of America, Vernita G. Harstad v. United States

Appeals by plaintiffs, Harold Harstad and wife, from adverse judgments in their separate suits against the United States, brought under the Tort Claims Act, to recover judgment for damages sustained as a result of an accident involving Harold and a train of the government owned and operated Alaska Railroad.

Harold was a paying passenger on the train; his legs were severed by its wheels when he alighted from one of the coaches at an unscheduled stop and stepped between two of the coaches to relieve himself just as, or immediately before, the train started up.

Plaintiffs’ theory of the case was negligence, it being their contention that defendant, knowing Harold was too intoxicated to protect himself from the dangers incident to the trip, failed to exercise due care for his personal safety. At the trial, the principal controversy centered upon the degree of Harold’s intoxication. The evidence on the subject ranged from “dead drunk” to “cold sober.” But the district judge, sitting in his statutory capacity as fact-finder, was persuaded and found that, although Harold “was to some extent under the influence of alcohol, plaintiff has not established by a preponderance of the credible…