Patterson v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.
Patterson v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
These two cases grew out of the same accident and raise the same question.
The plaintiff was entitled to go to the jury on the presumption that the deceased did his duty to “ stop, look and listen ” before driving on the tracks. Whether that presumption was rebutted was for the jury unless the evidence to the contrary was clear, positive, credible, and either uncontradicted or so.indisputable in weight and amount as to justify the court in holding that a verdict against it* must be set aside as a matter of law. The testimony in this cáse falls short of that standard;
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Patterson v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company
- Cited By
- 11 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Negligence—Railroads—Grade crossing—■“ Stop, look and listen ”—Death— Presumption—Rebuttal of presumption—Evidence. In au action against a railroad company to recover damages for death at a grade crossing, the presumption is that the deceased did his duty to “stop, look and listen ” before driving on the tracks. Whether that presumption is rebutted is for the jury unless the evidence to the contrary is clear, positive, credible, and either uncontradicted or so indisputable in weight and amount as to justify the court in holding that a verdict against it must be set aside as a matter of law. In such a case the court cannot say as a matter of law that the presumption had been rebutted where three witnesses testify to having seen the deceased as he approached the crossing, and that they did not see him stop, but none of them covered the entire approach, and one of them stated that there was a bump in the road, and that the deceased was back of this long enough to stop.