Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. v. Irving

Sarah J. Irving, defendant in error here (we will call her plaintiff), brought action for damages for injuries against the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, plaintiff in error here (called defendant). She was a passenger upon a regular train operated by the appellant company between Chicago and Seattle, and as the train was leaving Chicago, and while running between Western avenue and Pacific junction in that city, the engine *563 and part of the train were derailed. The railroad company pleaded, in substance, that it was not responsible for the derailment of its train, but that it was caused by the removal of spikes and angle bars and the displacement of the rail at the point of derailment, and was the work of trespassers or others unknown to it who designed to wreck the train.

Reducing what the testimony tended to show to the briefest possible form, the substance of it may be stated as follows:

Plaintiff said that she left Chicago at 10:15 in the night of March 21, 1914; that in 15 or 20 minutes, as they were leaving the city of Chicago, and while she was washing in a toilet room of the tourist car, the train was suddenly thrown backwards and forwards, and she was…