Nordgard

In an action in the court below, brought by a brakeman of a railway train of the defendants in error to recover damages for personal injuries under the provisions of the Employers’ Liability Act of Congress of 1908, the court below directed a verdict for the defendants, the defendants in error here, on the ground that the defendants were not engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. '

The record shows that the defendant the Stimson Mill Company was engaged in the logging and lumber business, and carried logs on the Marysville & Northern Railway Company, its logging road, from its own timber lands in the forest to the waters of Puget Sound. It dumped all its logs into those waters. A portion of the logs was thereafter sold to various mills on the Sound, and the remainder was taken to the defendant’s mill at Ballard, and there manufactured into lumber. The lumber was-piled in the mill company’s lumber yard. About 20 per cent, of it was sold in the local market, and the remainder, on orders thereafter obtained, was shipped to points in other states and countries. A portion of the timber so hauled on the logging road consisted of poles for electric wires.

One Vollans, a dealer in…

(dissenting). This is a personal injury case, and the real question is whether either of the defendants in error was, at the time the plaintiff in error received the injuries for which he sued, a carrier by* railroad engaged in interstate commerce — the action being based upon the Employers’ Liability Act of Congress of 1908 ( 35 Stat. 65 ). If so, then manifestly the plaintiff in error was likewise so engaged, as he was one of the brakemen of one of the *741 railroad trains of the defendants in error at the time of his injury. The trial court granted a motion of the defendants for a directed verdict in their favor, which having been returned, and. a judgment against the plaintiff below entered, he sued out the present writ of error.

The substantial facts appear to be these: * The defendant in error Stimson Mill Company is the owner of a large body of timber land in Snohomish county, state of Washington, which it is engaged in logging, and it also owns and operates a large lumber mill at Ballard, a suburb of the city of Seattle, of that state. For the purpose of transporting its logs, it caused the defendant in error Marysville & Northern Railway Company to be incorporated and…