Faulk v. Central Railroad & Banking Co.
Faulk v. Central Railroad & Banking Co.
Opinion of the Court
In charging the jury as quoted in the head-note, the court assumed that it would be negligence in the boy to climb over the bumpers and pass between the cars at the flagman’s suggestion, if the boy had capacity to know the danger and the intelligence to understand the risk of so doing. If the court referred to the risk and danger which would have been incurred had the flagman said nothing to invite or encourage the boy to climb over the bumpers and pass between the cars, this instruction was irrelevant to the hypothesis with which the court was dealing; and if the reference was to risk and danger which might be expected to attend such an act when done under the prompting of the flagman, the doctrine of the charge is wholly unsound; for little or no danger whatever was reasonably to be expected on account of changing the train from a state of rest to a state of motion before sufficient time had elapsed for doing that by the boy which the flagman suggested to be done. As the flagman was stationed by the railway company to guard the crossing and tell the public when to cross and when not, the boy, whatever his capacity might have been, could well assume that the train would stand still long enough for the suggestion or invitation to be complied with safely, and that the flagman knew or had ascertained with adequate certainty that it would do so. To say the least, it was a question for the jury whether the boy, who was only twelve or thirteen years of age, acted rashly or otherwise in not judging of the situation for himself, and in not deciding that what the flagman’s suggestion implied
Judgment reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Faulk v. The Central Railroad and Banking Company
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published