Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 143, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1913 — Important Railroad Decision. [ARTICLE]

Important Railroad Decision.

A brakeman on a freight train has no right to remove a trespasser, under a decision by the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts in Harrington vs. Boston. The court said it has never been decided before that such is the law of the commonwealth, and there is a conflict of authority in decisions from other states. Those favoring the rule do so on the theory that a brakeman in charge of a car is a servant of the railroad charged with authority to remove trespassers therefrom. Those opposed maintain that the doctrine is not applicable to the case of a freight train where there is a conductor, who is the person presumably in charge of the train, and for this reason giving the brakeman no authority over the passengers or the collection of fares. The Massachusetts court concludes: “On the whole, we think that on principle and the weight of authority the proposition that in a case like the present there is a presumption that the brakeman as such id vested with authority to remove passengers is not sound.”