Patterson v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Patterson v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co., 210 Pa. 47 (Pa. 1904)
59 A. 318; 1904 Pa. LEXIS 833
Brown, Dean, Fell, Mestrezat, Mitchell, Potter, Thompson

Patterson v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam,

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; *49Three witnesses testified 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. Even Wise, the most important witness of all, testified there was a “ bump ” (a dip) in the road where he lost sight of the deceased, and in answer to the question “ before they (the deceased) went on the track that day did they stop or did they not?” answered “ they was back there long enough to stop behind that bump ” and being asked to give his best judgment, said “ I would say they must have stopped for they was back there long enough to stop.” While there was testimony persuasive that they did not stop, it was not so positive or so complete as to justify the judge in saying as a matter of law that the presumption had been rebutted.

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.