SUPREME COURT OF THE CANAL ZONE.

For a complete understanding of this assignment of error it is necessary to refer somewhat to the evidence as disclosed upon the trial. The evidence showed that the Acting Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, who was also the Vice President of the Panama Railroad Company, granted permission to the plaintiff and others to run a special train, consisting of an engine of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and coaches of the defendant company, from Las Cascadas to Panama on the night of June 11, 1910, for the purpose of permitting certain employees of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the Panama Railroad Company to attend a grand opera performance in the city of Panama. The original permission to run said special train contemplated and authorized the running thereof from Las Cascadas to Panama and return. The special train was made up in the yards at Empire and taken from there north to Las Cascadas and thence to Panama. After the opera performance, and prior to the return of the train from Panama to Las Cascadas, the plaintiff, as the conductor of said special train, received from the train dispatcher at Panama the following train order:
11.48 p. m. Engine No. 326 has until 1.30 a. m. to run extra Panama to Las Cascadas and return to Empire.
Repeated at 11.48.
Signed A. K. S.
Pursuant to this train order the plaintiff proceeded with the said extra train from Panama to Las Cascadas on the northbound track. After discharging all passengers at Las Cascadas he proceeded, pursuant to said order, to return from Las Cascadas to Empire upon the southbound track, this being the proper track for him to take for that purpose as the evidence clearly disclosed. Prior to the extra train reaching Las Cascadas, engine No. 658, drawing an extra freight train from Colon to Panama, had stalled north of Las Cascadas, and said train had been broken in two, and the engineer, Falkner, in charge of engine No. 658, was proceeding south on the southbound track to Empire. The evidence shows that this portion of the extra freight train going south to Empire passed the extra passenger train, in charge of the plaintiff as conductor, between Empire and Las Cascadas, and that said extra freight train had no lights on the rear car thereof, the absence of which would indicate that there were other cars left behind for which the engine must necessarily return. As before stated, appellant claims that appellee was guilty of contributory negligence in going upon the southbound track thereafter. But we

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