10 Pa. Super. 19 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1899
Opnnxxsr by
This case was properly described by the learned trial judge in the first sentence of the charge to the jury, viz: “ The case that you have before you to decide is one which raises many questions of fact, and it is one about which you will have difficulty in reaching a conclusion.” The defendant contends that, under the circumstances disclosed by all the evidence in the case, the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence in driving upon the crossing, and that the court should have directed the jury to return a verdict in its favor.
To warrant such a direction there must be no doubt or uncertainty about the facts attending the accident in order to justify the courts in treating the question of contributory negligence as one of law: Davidson v. Railway Co., 171 Pa. 522. In Ely v. Railway, 158 Pa. 233, the legal duty.of persons driving over a grade crossing is defined in clear and expressive language, and is repeated in Gray v. Railroad, 172 Pa. 383, viz: “ The cases beginning with Railroad v. Heileman, 49 Pa. 60, and Railroad v. Beale, 73 Pa. 504, have established not only the rule that the traveler about to cross a railroad track must stop, look, and listen, as an absolute and unbending rule of law founded in public policy for the protection of passengers in railroad trains as much as for travelers on the common highways, but also that such stopping, looking, and
The speed of the train; the use of appropriate signals; the view of the track being obstructed by trees, vines, and a train, which was standing on another track a short distance from the crossing; the place he selected so as to see and hear; and the subsequent removal of objects, alleged to have interfered with a fair view of the tracks, were each fully investigated and each thoroughly pressed and disputed. The plaintiff’s testimony, if believed, made out a case clear of contributory negligence, and the fact that it was to some extent impaired by one of his own witnesses would not justify the court in ignoring it altogether.
The decree of contradiction must be such as to make it mani fest that the plaintiff is wilfully misstating the facts, or that he is entirely mistaken in his. recollection of them, or, as was said
The judgment is affirmed.