Dando v. Director General of Railroads
Dando v. Director General of Railroads
Opinion of the Court
The defendant by this rule seeks to have set aside a verdict rendered'in favor of the plaintiff in an action brought b3^ her to recover the pecuniary loss sustained by the next of kin of her decedent, his death having resulted through a collision between a milk wagon and team of horses which he was driving, and a train being operated by the defendant over the Erie Railroad' Company’s tracks near Ridgewood, in Bergen county. The grounds of negligence averred in the complaint were that the defendant failéd to give the statutory signal of the approach of the train, and that he failed to take extra precautions for the protection of travelers along the highway, notwithstanding that it was his duty to do so by reason of the fact “that buildings, telegraph poles and trees and other obstructions filong the right of way of the railroad, on the easterly side thereof, the side from which the plaintiff’s intestate approached said crossing, obstructed his view and prevented him from seeing the train which killed him approach said crossings.”
The principal ground upon which defendant seeks to be relieved from this verdict is, that the trial* court improperly left it to the jury to determine whether'this crossing was extraordinarily dangerous, and was rendered so by the defendant, or the company which he represented, and permitted them, if they so found, to award damages against him because of his failure to take extraordinary precautions (that is„ precautions other than the ringing of a'bell, or blowing- of a whistle, as provided by the statute) for the protection of travelers along the highway. Our examination of the testimony sent up with the rule satisfies us that the defendant is right in his contention. Very little effort ifas made to prove the existence of any serious obstruction to the view of travel’s along the highway by reason of the presence of buildings, trees and poles. For is it contended before us on behalf of the plaintiff that the question should have been left to the
The rule to.show cause will he made absolute.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ELIZA C. DANDO, ADMINISTRATRIX v. DIRECTOR GENERAL OF RAILROADS
- Status
- Published