Gangawer v. Philadelphia & Reading R. R.
Gangawer v. Philadelphia & Reading R. R.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff is the widow of Edwin G. Gangawer. Her husband, while driving a two-horse farm wagon near Bingen station, over a grade crossing of defendant’s railroad, about 8 in the morning of 11th of June, 1892, was struck by an express train and killed. The plaintiff averred her husband’s death was caused by defendant’s negligence in not giving travelers on the highway, at a proper distance from the crossing, warning of the approaching train. The defendant replied by denying its negligence, and averring negligence on part of deceased. When plaintiff closed her evidence, the learned judge of the court below, being of opinion she had not made out a case clear of contributory negligence, directed a compulsory nonsuit, which afterwards, on motion, he refused to take off, and from that judgment we have this appeal.
Appellant prefers here seven assignments of error; three of them to the entry of judgment of nonsuit, and four to rejection of evidence. To warrant the judgment of nonsuit, either plaintiff’s evidence must have failed to show negligence of defendant, or, having adduced evidence tending to make out her case in that particular, must also have disclosed the fact that her husband was guilty of contributory negligence.» Assuming there was some evidence of negligence on the part of the railroad, and sufficient so far as concerns that question, to have sent the case to the jury, did plaintiff’s evidence also show that her husband, by his negligence, contributed to the accident?
The general direction of the railroad at this point is north and south; there are two tracks, one for north, the other for south-bound trains ; the deceased came from the highway, traveling eastward; crossed the south-bound track, and was struck
As to the assignments of error to the rejection of testimony, tending to show affirmatively that deceased stopped, looked and
The case here, on the facts, is not distinguishable from Myers v. Railroad Co., 150 Pa. 386, and Urias v. Railroad Co., 152 Pa. 326, except that the contributory negligence of the injured party, is, if possible, here clearer than in either of those cases.
The judgment is affirmed, and the appeal dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Mary Gangawer v. Philadelphia & Reading R. R.
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- Negligence — Railroads—Grade crossings — “Stop, look and listen.” In an action to recover damages for the death of plaintiff’s husband killed at a grade crossing, it appeared that at the point where the accident occurred the general direction of the railroad was north and south. There were two tracks, one for the north- and one for the south-bound trains. The deceased, driving in an open two-horse farm wagon, came from the highway traveling eastward, crossed the south-bound track, and was struck by a train bound north on the other track. In approaching the railroad, he stopped at a point about forty feet from the track where a train could be seen coming from either direction for eight hundred or one thousand feet. As this distance diminished on nearing the track the view of the railroad was rapidly extended until at the crossing a train could be seen for more than a third of a mile. The undisputed evidence showed that the deceased could have seen the train which killed him, if he had looked when he was fifteen or twenty feet from the track. Held, that the deceased was guilty of contributory negligence, and that plaintiff was not entitled to recover. In such a case the fact that the deceased stopped, looked and listened at a point forty feet from the railroad, did not exempt him from the charge of contributory negligence, if he drove forty feet to the crossing, with an approaching train in view.