Daily v. Richmond & Danville Railroad
Daily v. Richmond & Danville Railroad
Opinion of the Court
after stating the facts: We concur with the Court below in the opinion that plaintiff is not, in any view of the testimony, entitled to recover. He could not, according to the evidence, have seen the approaching train until he stepped off the Narrow-gauge road and was within six feet of the main track along which it was coming. There is no testimony tending to show how near it was to him when he attempted to cross, and it would have been impossible for the jury to have determined whether the defendant’s agents were negligent in failing to stop the train (if it was their duty to make any attempt to stop at all) without information as to the actual distance between him and the engine at the moment when he passed upon the track in front of it, and in the absence of proof as to the number of yards within which the train could have been stopped by the use of all the appliances at the command of the engineer,
§ 320; Parker v. Railroad, 86 N. C., 221; Wharton Neg., 389a; McAdoo v. Railroad, 105 N. C., 140. In the absence of actual knowledge or information as to the plaintiff’s infirmity, and of opportunity for recognizing him, the engineer was justified in assuming that the plaintiff was a man of ordinary intelligence and would get off the track in time to avert danger, and that it was not necessary to delay the train by checking its speed merely because an apparently and presumably reasonable human being was crossing at a point far enough in his front to enable him to stop it, if he chose, before reaching such a person. McAdoo v. Railroad, supra.
No error. Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.