Court Opinion

ID: 9807844
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:17:25.805047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:03:30.103500
License: Public Domain

Eaircloth, C. J.,
dissenting: I agree with the majority of the Court in its construction of the Act of 1897, chapter 109. I am unable to agree with the Court on the question of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff’s intestate. I think the defendant was guilty of negligence, and that the plaintiff’s intestate was guilty of contributory negligence on the evidence, and that the Court should have so held as a matter of law without submitting the second issue to the jury.
I do not recite the evidence, as it fully appears in the case. The evidence that-the train was backing under the shed at a speed not more than four miles an hour and that the bell on the engine was ringing all the time —that there were two lights under the shed on the hotel side and some lights in business places on the opposite side of the shed, and that the defendant’s track was the second one from the latter named lights, is not contradicted by any witness or denied in the argument. A few witnesses said it was very dark under the shed, but they do not deny the existence of the lights located as stated above. It does not appear that there was any obstruction between the backing train and the lights on the east side of the shed, and we can take notice that lights will cast their rays out and produce some light, such as the bulk of the witnesses say was present, and called by them “dim lights” at the place of the injury. The intestate was necessarily on the track when hurt, instead of the safe spaces between the tracks, and no witness says otherwise. That he was looking across *843the shed at another train, instead of looking along the track north, on which he voluntarily took his stand and that he stepped on the track so recently before he was struck as to give the defendant no last chance to avoid striking, is not contradicted by any of the evidence. A railroad track is universally regarded as a place of danger, and all authorities require persons going along or crossing the same to look and listen for trains. This is prudent and the exercise of ordinary care only. It does not appear that the intestate was doing either; in fact, it appears that he was otherwise engaged and looking across the tracks under the shed. If he had exercised such ordinary care, I cannot understand why he would not have under the present circumstances discovered an object the size of a freight car within a few feet of him, nor why he would not have heard the noise of a moving-freight train. I am aware of the rule that in doubtful cases the better course is to submit the questions tó a jury. There is another rule equally well settled, and that is that the Judge should not submit a question to the jury unless the evidence be of such a character that it would warrant the jury in returning a verdict against the party introducing it, who has the burden of proof. The duty of deciding such questions is a delicate one, and I think it can be best performed by the application of reasonable common sense rules in each case. I think upon the case now before us the plaintiff is not entitled to recover any damages.