Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 2).pdf/150

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124
NORTH DAKOTA REPORTS.

best notice is that which a man must of necessity see, and which cannot confuse or mislead him. He needs no printed placard to announce a precipice when he stands before it." In a similar case, Hathaway v. Railroad Co., 51 Mich. 253, 16 N. W. Rep. 634, the court said: "In this case the danger consisted in the brakeman being caught between the two dead-woods as they came together. The dead-woods were in plain sight. They were really the most prominent objects on the end of the cars. The plaintiff had a full opportunity of examining the one by which he stood some moments before the cars came together. Its size, shape, and the location of the draw-bar were before him. He had only to look at it to be informed of any peril surrounding it. The moving car, at a distance of 20 feet, with its dead-wood and draw-bar in plain view, slowly approached the one where the plaintiff was standing. It does not appear that there was any hurry about the business. How could the plaintiff have been better warned? Certainly he knew the car was coming, and could see the dead-woods and draw-bar thereon as well as if he had made the coupling a thousand times before. He could not fail to see it, if he looked at all." See, also, Kelley v. Railroad Co., 21 Am. & Eng. R. R. Cases 633; Railroad Co. v. Black, 88 Ill. 112; Brewer v. Railroad Co., 56 Mich. 620, 23 N. W. Rep. 440; Railroad Co. v. Rice, 51 Ark. 467, 11 S. W. Rep. 699. In several of the cases referred to, the master had not, as in the case at bar, imposed upon the servant the duty of extra care, nor had he expressly granted to him sufficient time to enable him to examine the coupling apparatus before making the coupling. It must further be remembered that plaintiff was on the short side of the switch. He testified that he knew the distance would be shorter on the inside than on the outside of the curve. But he seems to have paid no attention to this obvious law. Being upon the shorter side, it was all the more important for him to ascertain whether there would be sufficient room between the car and the engine for him to stand with safety on the foot-board in making the coupling. It does not seem to be strenuously insisted that a charge of negligence can be predicated upon the curve of the switch. There is no evidence of the degree of the