55 Mo. 580 | Mo. | 1874
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was an action by plaintiff against the railroad company for killing a cow belonging to him, commenced before a justice of the peace, and taken by appeal by defendant to the Circuit Court.
Upon the trial the evidence conduced to prove that.the cow had been killed by an engine of defendant. The evidence also conduced to show that the defendant had, on the day previous to the.night the cow was killed, unloaded some salt,
The only point made is that there was no evidence of negligence on the part of the defendant and, if there was, the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence by letting his cow run out when he had notice that there was salt spilt on the road. The evidence, in my judgment is amply sufficient to prove negligence in the servants of defendant, in leaving salt on the track, which it is well known will attract cattle. Although the plaintiff may have known salt was on the track, it was not his, but the defendant’s, business to remove it. And he might well presume, that the defendant’s'servants would attend to their own business without any prompting from him.
Judgment affirmed