Brannock v St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad

Jason "Jasa" Brannock, son of James F. Brannock, and Amanda (Bennett) Brannock was born 6 July 1872 and died in a railroad accident on 10 January 1903. Jasa was married to Telano Underhill, and  together they had two children; only one, Ralph Bryan Brannock, would survive infancy. Sadly for "Lano", their son Ralph would suffer the same fate (more to come on that in a later post).

 Jasa worked as a switchman at the Cape Girardeau Railroad yard in Cape Girardeau, Missouri from approximately August 1902- January 1903. Part of his duties were to couple and uncouple cars while trains were being made up or changed on the tracks.

Cape Girardeau Depot 1909

On the date of his accident, Jasa attempted to uncouple two freight cars from a train of eleven cars. He was killed when his foot slipped off of the brake beam of the front car; which caused him to fall over the guardrail. The car in the rear ran over his left foot, crushed his left thigh and arm, and also injured his left hand. He died from these injuries a few hours later.
















 Jasa's widow, Lano, took the case to court.

March Term 1910
LONA BRANNOCK, Respondent v. ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO RAILROAD COMPANY, Appellant

St. Louis Court of Appeals, March 8, 1910

Death of switchman caused by unblocked guardrail while going between moving cars. Brannock v. Railroad

A witness at trial described what happened:

"We was at the south of what we call the track lead, and was backing toward Track No.7, that crossed this Gulf track , and Jase was standing there, and I told him to cut off two cars and he caught hold of the lever and run along five or six feet and dropped the lever and caught hold of the hand hold, and put his feet on the brake beam and his foot slipped off the brake beam. And I says. "Look out Jase, you will get your feet in that frog', and and he was trying to get his feet away from the wheels, and he fell kinder on his hands and knees; and I saw the wheels was going to run him over and I turned around.
     Q: Did he take any steps after his feet slipped off the brake beam?
"It looked like he went four or five feet with his right foot wobbling along the ground or rail, trying to get his feet away from the wheels."


 The verdict of the jury read:

"Respondent's husband was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law in needlessly going between the cars to uncouple them when he had a comparatively safe place to perform that duty by remaining on the outside of the cars."