Werner

The defendant appeals from a verdict and judgment against it in the sum of eight thousand five hundred dollars damages for the death of plaintiff’s intestate in a railroad accident. Both defendant and the deceased were at the time of the accident admittedly employed in interstate commerce, and the action is brought under the federal Employers’ Liability Act of April 22, 1908, (Act April 22, 1908, e. 149, 35 Stat. 65 [U. S. Comp. Stats., sees, 8657-8665; 8 Fed. Stats. Ann., 2d ed., pp. 1208, 1339]).

The decedent was run over and killed while engaged as a member of a switching crew in the yards of the defendant company in Stockton, California, on the night of November 2, 1915. The undisputed narrative of the facts discloses that on the night in question the crew was switching two freight-cars by the method known as a running-switch or “high-ball.” To effect such a running-switch as was here attempted, the engine approached the switch, with the two cars attached, at sufficient speed to give the cars momentum enough to carry them past the switch upon the main line. When near the switch the engine is slackened sufficiently to enable the man in charge of that part' of the work to…