Cleveland v. Central Railroad
Cleveland v. Central Railroad
Opinion of the Court
[Mrs. Kate Lavier brought suit against the Central Railroad for the homicide of her husband, and the jury found in her favor $6,000.00. The court below granted a new trial, and his ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court, on the ground that he had not. abused his discretion (71 Oa., 222), Pending the case, the plaintiff re-married, and is now Mrs. Kate Cleveland. On the second trial, with the same evidence as before, the jury again found $6,000.00. A motion for new trial was again made, on the ground that the verdict was contrary to law, evidence and the charge of the court, and because the damages found were excessive. The court again granted a new trial, holding that, if the evidence made out any case at all, the verdict was excessive under the facts.
The evidence for the plaintiff was, in brief, as follows : Lavier was a lumber inspector for the firm of I). C. Bacon & Company, and as such attended to their lumber-yard at the railroad yard of the Central Railroad. On the day of the accident, he wanted some lumber “ drilled,” and so informed the engineer of the switch-engine plying in the yard, but the latter said he had some boxes to carry to the “New York shed,” and when he came back, he would drill the lumber. There were several tracks at that point; the engine went down one of them, and Lavier and one Müller went down another in the same direction, to where some cars of lumber were standing. Lavier got upon them,
The evidence for the defendant differed from that of the plaintiff in the following material points: The engineer told Lavier that he would move his lumber as soon as he could move the box-car, and went on down the track. He had to move the box car out of the way in order to reach the river-front. As the engine came back, the bell was rung, and both the engineer and fireman were leaning out of the windows watching the track in the direction in which they were moving. The speed was not
To the grant of the new trial plaintiff excepted.]
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Cleveland v. The Central Railroad
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published