Similar Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v, Vaughan v Menlove, Blyth v Birmingham Waterwor, Brown v Kendall, Garratt v Dailey | ||
Chicago B. & Q.R. Co. v. Krayenbuhl (1902) 65 Neb. 899, 91 N.W. 880. was a case that established negligent liability on a railroad company.
The appellant maintained a railway turntable (a rotating platform with a track for turning a locomotive) near a publicly traveled path. The appellee, a 4 year old child of the Krayenbuhl family, discovered that the turntable was unlocked, climbed on it, and while playing on it with a group of children got his foot caught between the rails, which severed it at the ankle joint.
The Supreme Court of Nebraska held that it was negligent for Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad not to keep the turntable locked and guarded. They noted that the business of railroading is facilitated by the use of turntables, so it would go against the public good to require the appellant to invest so heavily in safeguards that it interfered with appellant's ability to use the turntables for their intended, beneficial use. However, the burden of keeping the turntable locked was so small that the danger of not doing so outweighed the burden.