Dimery v. Bennettsville & Cheraw R. R.
Dimery v. Bennettsville & Cheraw R. R.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This is an action for damages for an injury sustained by plaintiff in the following manner : While walking along the defendant’s railroad, she got her foot caught between a rail of the main line and a switch rail, and while so held upon the track, an engine and train of cars came along, and ran over her leg just above her foot and crushed it so that her foot had to be cut off.
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There was evidence tending to prove that, at the place where the injury occurred, the defendant’s track was used by the public- — men and women and children — going to and from town and school and church, just like it was a public street, and that it was so used with the knowledge and acquiescence of defendant that the train of cars was run backwards — the tender being in front of the engine — very fast over the track so used, without lookout and without signalling its approach by ringing the bell or blowing the whistle. From this the jury might have inferred a spirit of indifference to the rights of those so using the track, or a conscious failure to observe due care for their safety. Sanders v. Ry., 90 S. C. 331.
There was conflict in the testimony as to whether a proper lookout was kept and the approach of the train signalled by the ringing of the bell or blowing the whistle, and also as to whether, if a proper lookout had been kept, the signals of distress given by plaintiff’s sister and others near her, when it was first discovered that she could not get off the track, *172 could have been seen in time to stop the train before injuring her. But these questions should have been submitted to the jury.
Reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.