Cox v. Pennsylvania Railroad
Cox v. Pennsylvania Railroad
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Rachel Cox and Alfred Cox are plaintiffs, respectively, in suits instituted against.the defendant railroad company to recover damages resulting from a fire which destroyed their property at Juliustown, in this state, on the 28th day of April, 1906. The defendant’s right of way extended along the northerly side of the property of Rachel Cox and the property of Pitman & Stackhouse, on which latter property was located a hay press, which was distant about thirty-three feet from the centre of defendant’s main track. The defendant company also maintained a siding, connecting with a freight station and a platform contiguous to the Pitman & Stackhouse building. The testimony of plaintiff’s witnesses presented a condition, showing that the weather had been dry, and that between the rails of the siding,
That verdict, not being reviewable here upon this writ, the defendant urges, as matter of law, that the plaintiff’s loss was attributable, not to the fire, originating, as we must assume in view of the verdict, by defendant’s negligence on its right of way, but to the spreading of the fire from the Pitman ■& Stackhouse building, which intervened in point of time between tne negligent act of defendant and the destruction of plaintiff’s buildings.
The questions of causal connection and remoteness of damage thus presented are not res nova in this court.
Mr. Justice Depue, in Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Co. v. Salmon, 10 Vroom 299, 308, after a most thorough examination of the authorities upon these questions in this and other jurisdictions, assimilated the principle here involved to that enunciated in the celebrated Squib ease. Scott v. Shepherd, 2 W. Bl. 892.
It were a task of supererogation to again review the cases and apply the distinctions, as was done in the Salmon case.
Under this rule the questions of causal connection and intervening cause, if any existed, were properly .left by the court to the determination of the jury, and their verdict under the circumstances upon this writ cannot be disturbed.
Uo error appearing upon the record the judgment should be affirmed.
For affirmance—The Chancellor, Chiee Justice, Gar.EISON, SWAVIZE, REED, TeENOHARD, PARKER, BERGEN, VOORhees, Minturn, Bogert, Vredenburgi-i, Vroom, Green, Gray, Dill, J.J. 16.
For reversal—Hone.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- RACHEL COX, IN ERROR v. PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY, IN ERROR ALFRED COX, IN ERROR v. PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY, IN ERROR
- Status
- Published