Case Name: MARGARET P. HAMILTON, ADMINISTRATRIX, v. THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1888-02
Citations: 50 N.J.L. 263
Docket Number: 
Parties: MARGARET P. HAMILTON, ADMINISTRATRIX, v. THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY.
Judges: before Beasley, Chief Justice, and Justices Dixon, Reed and Mague.
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 50
Pages: 263–264

Head Matter:
MARGARET P. HAMILTON, ADMINISTRATRIX, v. THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY.
The plaintiff, and administratrix, brought suit against the defendant, a railroad company, under act relating to deaths caused by negligence,, and by her own evidence showed that the deceased went on the track without looking to the right or left, a train being in sight, by which she was killed. Held, the plaintiff should have been non-suited.
On motion for a new trial.
Argued at November Term, 1887,
before Beasley, Chief Justice, and Justices Dixon, Reed and Mague.
For the motion, Cortlandt Parher.
Contra, James W. Field.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
This suit was brought by an administratrix under the statute relating to deaths caused by negligence. The deceased was crossing the track of the defendant's road and was killed by a passing train.
We think, on the proofs exhibited at the trial, that there should have been a non-suit. On the plaintiff^ own case it was indisputable that the accident was*, in fact, occasioned by want of care by the deceased in crossing the road. Her own witness testified in distinct terms, and the statement was repeated, that the deceased walked upon the track without looking either up or down it. If she had looked she would have seen the train in plain sight. It cannot be claimed that she was thrown off her guard by her attention being attracted by any object. There is nothing in the case on which to found such an inference. The testimony referred to is not either explained or contradicted. There is no legal foundation for this verdict.
The rule must be made absolute.