Court Opinion

ID: 9631860
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:53:23.655101+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:02.772071
License: Public Domain

Parker, J.
(dissenting): My time is limited and I recognize that a dissenting opinion is of no value to the bench and bar as a precedent, hence my views will be stated very briefly.
In order to recover from the appellants the appellee had the burden of establishing negligence on the part of the driver of the motor transport. Since there were no eye witnesses to the collision she attempted to do so by evidence showing the physical facts and circumstances existing immediately prior to and after its occurrence. It is my view the most that can be said for the evidence, as set forth in the majority opinion, giving it the benefit of every inference to which it may be entitled under our decisions, is that it merely dis*438closes facts and circumstances consistent with appellee’s theory the driver of the motor transport attempted to cross the crossing in front of the approaching train in violation of law and without exercising the degree of care thereby required. In my opinion, that evidence is not only insufficient to overcome the legal presumption of due care and observance of law with which the driver was clothed at the moment of the collision but fails to affirmatively establish that his negligence in the operation of the motor transport was the proximate and legal cause of the accident. Therefore I would reverse the judgment with directions to sustain the appellants’ demurrer to appellee’s evidence.
Smith and Wertz, JJ., join in the foregoing dissenting opinion.