Court Opinion

ID: 9644419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:55:38.03884+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:13.280458
License: Public Domain

MARIS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I agree with the District Court that the evidence in this case, wholly circumstantial in character, was insufficient to support a reasonable inference, as contrasted with a conjecture or guess, that the plaintiff’s decedent was injured by a lump of coal falling or thrown from a train of the defendant. It seems to me that the jury might just as well have inferred that Lukon, somewhat unsteady because of his recently injured toe, had received his fatal injury when he stumbled against a projecting part of the passing train which happened to be covered with coal dust and that he fell in a place where lumps of coal were lying which had dropped from earlier trains. But this would likewise have been only a guess. I, therefore, think that the action of the court in setting aside the verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff and directing entry of judgment in favor of the defendant was right and should be affirmed. I accordingly dissent from the judgment of reversal now entered by this court.