Kovarik v. Lehigh Valley Railroad
Kovarik v. Lehigh Valley Railroad
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
In this action the plaintiff sought to recover damages for personal injuries resulting from the alleged negligence of the defendant company. The specific act charged was the running of an engine and tender backwards at a dark hour of the night, without lights and without giving warning, over a permissive crossing, which was daily used by the public, and which the plaintiff had been in the habit of using night and morning while going to and from his work. At the place where the plaintiff alleges the accident occurred there were five or six tracks. One of them is elevated above the others, and runs for some distance on an embankment ending in a wall near which the plaintiff says the accident happened. From that point the elevated track com tinues upon a trestle to the coal pockets. On each side pf this elevated track there were several other tracks on the surface of the ground. There was evidence upon
The questions involved were carefully presented to the jury by the trial judge. He called attention to the fact that plaintiff, while corroborated to some extént as to his statements regarding other matters, stood alone in his account of the accident itself, and as to the precise place where it happened; while five or six witnesses who testified on the part of defendant contradicted his statement of the occurrence. The court further said to the jury: “If the accident occurred as the defendant’s witnesses say it occurred, your verdict must be for the defendant, because if their story is true there is no negligence attributable to the defendant, and, without negligence which was the proximate cause of the injury, there can be no recovery. If' you believe their story, your duty would end' there. On the other hand, if you find, in considering all.the evidence in the case, that the defendant is guilty of negligence in the manner alleged, and that the plaintiff was free from contributory negligence, it would then be your duty to consider the question of damages.” Throughout the charge the contention of each side was impartially presented. The facts were certainly not free from doubt, nor were the inferences to be drawn from them clear. That being
The trial judge affirmed without qualification eleven points for charge submitted by counsel for the defendant. The only points which were refused were those which prayed for binding instructions. If counsel were not satisfied with the instructions as given, or if it seemed to them desirable that the attention of the jury should be more specifically or emphatically directed to particular phases of the evidence, they should have framed and submitted additional points expressive of their wish. Opportunity for correction or enlargement of the instructions was given by the court at the close of the charge, when he inquired directly of counsel if there was anything else that they desired to have brought to the attention of the jury. No further request was made, and therefore counsel are not now in a position to conn plain of the charge in this respect. In none of the assignments of error do we discover anything of substantial merit. The questions involved were essentially disputed questions of fact, which could only be determined by the jury. Of the manner in which these questions were submitted by the trial judge, we do not see that the appellant has any reasonable cause to complain.
The assignments of error aré overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Kovarik v. Lehigh Valley Railroad Co.
- Cited By
- 1 case
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- Published
- Syllabus
- Negligence — Railroads — Pedestrians — Permissive crossing — Warning — Court -and jury — Instruction. 1. In an action against a railroad company to recover damages •for personal injuries the case is for the jury, where the evidence of the plaintiff goes to show that he was struck in the use of a permissive crossing by an engine of the defendant company moving quietly in the darkness, without signal, although the defendant introduces several witnesses who testify that plaintiff was injured while undertaking to jump on the end of the tender of the engine. 2. In such a case the defense is not in position to complain of a charge, where the trial judge carefully presents to the jury the questions involved and affirms without qualification eleven points for charge submitted by the defense, refusing only those praying for binding instructions, and further gives an opportunity for correction or enlargement of the instruction at the close of the charge by inquiring directly of counsel if there was anything else that they desired to have brought to the attention of the jury.