Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway v. White

Background

A railroad company was sued after an automobile was struck at a Memphis street rail crossing, killing the driver, W. B. White, and injuring others, including his son who rode beside him. The plaintiffs won judgments that the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed. Although the driver and his son knew no flagman was kept and were described as grossly negligent for entering the track, the courts found the railroad’s failure to follow a local ordinance requiring a flagman to be the proximate cause of the harm.

Reasoning

The main question was whether the old Memphis ordinance requiring a flagman was still valid when the railroad had installed an electric signal — a device mounted about fifteen feet above one side of the street that flashed a light and rang a bell automatically when a train came within 2,500 feet. The railroad argued the ordinance was obsolete, imposed an unnecessary burden, and conflicted with interstate commerce and due process. The Court found the particular crossing to be dangerous with steady day and night travel and held that the ordinance could not be declared indisputably unreasonable in that setting. The Court noted the electric device might be cheaper or generally better, but that fact did not control; a human flagman might still have stopped the plaintiffs, and a court should not overturn the legislature’s safety judgment.

Real world impact

The decision affirms that local safety rules can require human flagmen at dangerous street crossings even when railroads use electric warnings, and it leaves the victims’ judgments in place. The ruling turns on the crossing’s danger and the local ordinance’s application, and the judgments below were affirmed and the appeals dismissed.