142 N.W. 22 | N.D. | 1913
Lead Opinion
(after stating the facts as above). Appellant relies upon four propositions for a reversal of this judgment: (1) That there was no proof of negligence on the part of the defendant; (2) that there is proof of contributory negligence; (3) that the proof offered does not in any way justify the awarding of anything hut nominal damages; (4) that the evidence in relation to the switch engine which was seen by the haekman at about 10 o’clock and probably an hour prior to the accident was improperly admitted.
On the first two objections it is argued that there is evidence which tends to show that a man could have been seen on the night in question at a distance of 30 feet, and that the outlines of a box car could have been seen from 150 to 200 feet. The proof, however, also shows that the night was very cold and stormy, and that a strong wind was blowing with a velocity of from 30 to 45 miles an hour, and that dust and gravel and debris were in the air; the thermometer registered 18 degrees below zero; the yards were not lighted. There is also evidence that at about 10 o’clock a haekman drove close to an engine upon the track, which the evidence strongly tends to show was the one which ran over the deceased, without even seeing the same or hearing any bell or signal sounded. There is also evidence that blood was found upon the wheels and tender of a switch engine of the defendant the next morning. On the other hand, the engineer testified that there were lights on both ends of his engine, and that he sounded his bell whenever he passed the crossing. We do not believe that this evidence overcomes the presumption of ordinary care which is based upon the instinct of self-preservation. Kunkel v. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. 18 N. D. 367, 121 N. W. 830, and cases there cited, 1 Moore, Facts, §§ 554, 555; Hanlon v. Milwaukee Electric R. & Light Co. 118 Wis. 210, 95 N. W. 100. It is true that this presumption does not overcome direct, probative evidence, but as we view the case, there is nothing in the record which rises to the dignity of such. ■
The plaintiff’s intestate was killed on the crossing of a public highway, and within the limits of the city. There is no real dispute upon this question. The mangled remains of the body, and the clothes found in the frog in the highway, is sufficient evidence of this. The presumption of the law is that a man has not committed suicide; and therefore that the deceased did not voluntarily throw himself upon the track.
But counsel for defendant and appellant argues that improper evidence was admitted, and that much of the evidence which is urged in support of the verdict was inadmissible. He objected and still objects strenuously to the introduction of the testimony of the hackman, Chapin, to the effect that at some time and about 10 o’clock he saw a switch engine upon the track at the crossing, without a tail light; that this engine almost ran into him, and that he heard no bell or gong sounded. It is urged, in short, that proof of prior negligence cannot be had in
We now come to the proof of the damages. Appellant insists that since no mortality tables were introduced, there is no proof of the expectancy of life either of the deceased or of his relatives. As we understand the law, and as held by this court in the case of Ruehl v. Lidgerwood Rural Teleph. Co. 23 N. D. 6, — L.R.A.(N.S.) —, 135 N. W. 793, the admission in evidence of such tables is not necessary to a recovery of substantial damages. According to the common law, standard tables were competent and proper evidence, but they were not absolutely necessary. Under § 7303 of the Code of North Dakota, the Carlisletables are admissible, but their admission is not necessary. We have-discussed this question at some length in the case of Ruehl v. Lidgerwood Rural Teleph. Co. before referred to, and we believe that no extended discussion is necessary here. We know that counsel for the appellant makes a distinction between a case where the expectancy of the-life of the deceased and the expectancy of the life of the beneficiary are-concerned, but we can find no such distinction in the authorities. We have examined the cases cited by appellant, and the case of Rhoads v. Chicago & A. R. Co. 227 Ill. 328, 11 L.R.A.(N.S.) 623, 81 N. E. 371, and the notes to that case as reported in 10 Ann. Cas. Ill, 113, and can find no support for the proposition. All that the cases hold is that there must be some proof of a pecuniary loss to the beneficiaries, and that in such cases mortality tables are competent evidence. All that the case of' Rhoads v. Chicago & A. R. Co. supra, held was that in a case where the mortality tables had been introduced it was error for the court to instruct the jury that a father was entitled to a sum equal to the earnings of his son during the son’s expectancy of life, when the tables showed that the life of the son would have been twenty-eight years longer than that of his father. In other words, the court held that all the father could possibly recover would be a sum equal to the support that he
But defendant and appellant says that there is no proof of any pecuniary loss on which a recovery can be "based, even if the mortality tables had been introduced or were unnecessary. Counsel argues that there is no direct proof as to the money contributed by the son to his family, or of the monetary condition and needs of that family. We do not so understand the evidence. We have held in the case of Satterberg v. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. 19 N. D. 38, 121 N. W. 70, that a legal obligation to support is not necessary to a recovery in such ■cases. The evidence shows that the boy’s earning capacity was about $4 a day; that he was in business with his father; and that he and his father made no division of the profits, but turned all of their earnings into the family fund. The evidence shows that the father was fifty-three years of age, and we must infer that the mother was at least forty-six. There was a girl of fifteen years of age, and a boy of about nineteen. The earning capacity of the family as a whole was not, it is true, shown, but it was shown that the father and son were both carpenters and concrete makers and in what may be termed the poorer class of society. In fact, the evidence conclusively shows that all of the earnings were turned into a joint fund for the family support. We think that the evidence was sufficient to warrant the recovery of substantial dam
The judgment of the District Court is affirmed.
Rehearing
On Petition for Rehearing.
Counsel for appellant files a sweeping petition for rehearing, alleging that the opinion in chief “is in decided conflict with, and ignores controlling decisions of, this court. That it is based upon errors of law and errors of fact, upon omissions of material facts and misleading statements of fact; that it appears that it was rendered hastily, and that the facts as shown by the record were not carefully considered.” When we come to a specification of the errors alleged to have been committed by the court, however, we find that they revolve around its conclusion as to contributory negligence, its allegation that the night was stormy and that such storm was of any moment; that there was proof by which the jury might find negligence in the case; that the fact that the defendant had introduced no evidence was of any moment; that the opinion of the court was based upon the assumption that the witness, Chapin, saw the switch engine testified to at 11:15 o’clock, and not at 10:20 o’clock, p. m. ; that evidence of a switch engine passing the crossing at 10' :20 without a light was not admissible; that the court arbitrarily assumed that decedent’s mother’s age was forty-six years, and that the court held that damages could be based on the total life expectancy, not merely of the deceased, but of his beneficiaries.
From the petition we now assume that counsel for appellant concedes that expectancy tables are not necessary to be introduced in such cases. He says: “We will assume, for the sake of argument, that no expectancy tables are necessary in cases of this kind, although we venture to predict that the loose practices thereby permitted will be of untold harm.” If such is the result, this court cannot possibly be charged with inaugurating the custom or with overruling the established principles of the past. As stated in the opinion, we have yet to find, and
Counsel, we know, criticizes the court for assuming that the mother of the deceased must have been forty-six years of age, and for then stating that if she was forty-eight years of age, her expectancy of life would be 22.50 years. “It has,” he says, “been our experience that men sometimes marry women of all ages; and how the court can deliberately find the age of a person, and arbitrarily insert that age in the record, and then figure out the mother’s expectancy, so as to arrive at what her damages would have been by reason of the death of her son, is beyond our ken.” The answer to this is that the court did not assess any damages in this case. It merely stated the life expectancy of the different parties interested. It did not even, as counsel inferred, suggest or hint that the plaintiff would be entitled to a recovery which would be based upon the entire life expectancy of any or all of the relatives of the deceased, or of the deceased, or that any allowance could be made in regard to the minors after they had reached the age of twenty-one. It merely stated what the tables would have proved if they had been introduced, as being something of which the court might take judicial notice. In our opinion, indeed, the exact age of the mother is immaterial. If she had married the father of the deceased when at the age of fifteen, or, on the other hand, at the age of thirty, it would have made no difference in our conclusion. The jury were justified at any rate in finding that she had some expectancy. In our opinion the verdict of the jury is abundantly sustained on the basis of damages to the father and the minor brothers and sisters, alone, and we can exclude the mother from the ease altogether. Sieber v. Great Northern R. Co. 76 Minn. 269, 79 N. W. 95. It is not the habit of courts to set aside verdicts of this kind, for reasons of this kind. “To justify interference by the court
Counsel for appellant charges that on the question of contributory negligence of the deceased the court erred in “overruling controlling decisions. Also, its conclusion is based on an erroneous and misleading statement of fact.” “Even if we were to assume that the statements in the opinion as to the night being ‘stormy’ are true,” counsel says, “we still have a condition existing that anyone who cared to use his eyes could see, one who cared to look on that night could see a box car from a distance of 150 to 200 feet, — this with the cold wind and everything else. What possible difference, we ask, can it make how cold the night was, or how great was the velocity of the wind, or even how stormy it was, if, considering all these conditions, one could see a man 30 feet distant and a box car from a distance of 150 to 200 feet?” Why counsel is so reluctant to concede that the night was stormy we are unable to understand. The word “stormy” does not necessarily include either rain or snow, nor does the word “storm.” It includes “a violent disturbance of the atmosphere, attended by wind, rain, snow, hail, or thunder and lightning. Storm is violent agitation or commotion of the elements by wind, etc., but not necessarily implying ih.e fall of anything from the clouds.” (Webster’s International Dictionary.) The word “stormy” includes “agitated, with furious winds.” (Ibid.) Whether snowing or not, the fact remains that it was bitterly cold; that a strong wind of the velocity of from 30 to 40 miles an hour was blowing. There is also evidence that sand and gravel and debris were flying in the air. Counsel says that “this court has already decided that the presumption of due care created where one has met death, no one seeing the accident, only arises where doubt exists as to the deceased’s ability to see or hear the train or cars which caused his death.” There is no doubt upon this proposition. But can we say, as a matter of lay?, that one battling against a storm and cold weather of this kind was necessarily negligent
The complaint alleges negligence in maintaining an improperly guarded frog in the highway. That there was a frog in the highway is undisputed. It was not in the planking, but about 4 feet therefrom in the highway. The jury was perfectly justified, from the evidence, in holding that the deceased was caught in this frog, and even if headlights and tail lights were maintained upon the engines of the defendant, the condition of the crossing may still have been the proximate cause of the injury. Added to this was the testimony of the defendant’s engineer that he did not see the deceased, and did not know of the accident at the time of its occurrence. The testimony shows that the highway was 80 feet in width. The planicing was only 16 feet. The presumption is that the deceased was not guilty of contributory negligence, and that the instinct of self-preservation was in operation. The jury would have been perfectly justified from the evidence in holding that the deceased was caught in this frog, and even if headlights and tail lights were both maintained upon the engine, such fact may have been the proximate cause of the injury. It was for the jury to say whether, under the circumstances of the ease, the defendant was negligent in running this engine across this crossing in the way that it did and on the night in question. Even if the deceased could have seen a box car 150 feet away, it does not follow by any means that it was negligence on his part to cross the tracks, nor when he has a perfect right to use the whole of the highway would it be presumed to be negligence for him, on a dark night and in a storm such as that which prevailed on the night in question, to walk on the side of the few feet of planking that was furnished. In McNamara v. New York C. & H. R. R. Co. 136 N. Y. 650, 32 N. E. 165, it was held that the testimony of a witness as to the ability of the deceased to see was not conclusive upon the jury, but merely an expression
The evidence on this point was brought out on the examination of the witness Wordeman, the engineer of the switching engine, and is as follows:
Q. Did you at any time push five, six, or seven cars over the crossing that night?
A. No, sir. There were cars west of the crossing that night pushed by my engine. I took several cars. It might have been seven to ten. I have no way of finding out except how far we came. I pulled them up. My engine was facing east when I was pulling. I backed my engine up. It was some time about 9 o’clock when I pulled those cars up there. I cannot say that was the only time I pulled any cars up there. My engine was facing east and pulling a string of from seven to ten cars. I pulled over this crossing probably four or five times, I would say several times. I pulled over this crossing sometimes two and three or four car lengths.
• A. Once we stopped for a few minutes.
Q. ITow much ? Three minutes or four minutes, or how long ?
A. I could not say. I did not look at my watch.
Q. Was it more than three minutes ?
A. Might have been. I stood there some length of time. I will not swear that I was on that crossing five minutes. I will swear that I was on that crossing three minutes.
Q. What for?
A. I do not know.
By defendant: You were watching for signals from the switchmen while you were stopping on the crossing, weren’t you ?
A. Yes.
Prior to this time the witness had testified: “I tell the court that I run and switched that engine all that night back and forth across the crossing. I run my engine across the crossing that night. I cannot say when I first commenced to run across that crossing. It may have been at any time after I o’clock. I cannot tell this court at what hour I went across this crossing. It was exactly 12 o’clock when I left the engine. Up to the time I pulled the engine in and went to dinner, from 10 o’clock, I had been switching in that part of the yard and over this crossing at various times. I was throwing these cars back on the various tracks in the yard at various times as a switchman called upon me to switch them back. While doing this I had occasion at various times to pull up over this crossing, may be five or six times. During those times I would pull mot exceeding five car lengths over the crossing.”
Section 4320 of the Code provides that “all railway companies operating a line of railway in this state shall build or cause to be built and kept in good repair, good and sufficient crossings over such line at all points where any public highway in use is now or may hereafter be intersected by the same.” Subdivision 2 of § 4321 provides that “plank shall be firmly spiked on and for the full length of the ties used in the roadbed of such railway where such crossing occurs, and shall be laid not more than 1 inch apart except where the rail prevents; the plank next inside of the rail shall not be more than 2i¿ inches from the inside
In the case of Korab v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. 149 Iowa, 711, 41 L.R.A.(N.S.) 32, 128 N. W. 529, the court said: “The admitted facts make it practically certain that deceased, while walking or running by the side of the moving train in the direction of the switch he was expected to close, stepped between the ends of the moving cars for some purpose not disclosed by the evidence, and, catching his foot in the unblocked guard, was quickly drawn under the wheels. There is no claim on the part of appellee that frogs or guards of this kind are not a source of peril to train men having occasion to walk over them in the performance of their duties, nor is it claimed that such peril may not be measurably removed or lessened by the use of blocks or wedges for that purpose. Indeed, it appears from appellee’s evidence that blocks were formerly in use in its station yards, but for some reason not explained had for a considerable period been abandoned. Service of train men and switchmen in railway station yards is essentially dangerous at best; but it is incumbent upon the companies operating them to use reasonable care to make them as safe for their employees as is consistent
So, too, we still adhere to the proposition that the evidence that an engine was seen crossing the crossing an hour or so before the accident was admissible, if not to show custom, to show the condition of the trains and the method of the use of the track on the night in question, there being no eyewitnesses to the death, and such facts being pertinent. There is no contention that any foreign railway company was using the tracks. There is no dispute that two of these switch engines of the company were using the tracks. There is no dispute that one engine passed the crossing a number of times. If one of these engines was seen without a tail light an hour before the accident, the evidence of such fact may not be conclusive, but it is competent.
In this connection, as well as in connection with the admissibility of the evidence in regard to the condition of the lights upon the engine before the accident, the case of Southern E. Co. v. Posey, 124 Ala. 486, 26 So. 914, is suggestive. In that case the court held that in an action against a railway company for injuries sustained at a crossing, and where it did not appear that the driver of the wagon knew the condition of the crossing, or that, in the darkness, it could have seen the defect which caused the accident, his deflection within the road from the usually traveled part was not negligence, he having a right to assume that the entire width of the road was in proper condition. The court also1 held that testimony of a witness tlvat he came near having a similar accident at the same place a short time before was competent as tending to show an unsafe condition of the crossing existing at the time of the accident. See also Malmstrom v. Northern P. R. Co. 20 Wash. 195, 55 Pac. 38.
In the case of Chicago & N. W. R. Co. v. Netolicky, 14 C. C. A. 615, 32 U. S. App. 168, 406, 67 Fed. 665, it was held that “it was not error, in any action against a railway company for damages for an accident at a grade crossing, to permit witnesses who are familiar with the locality to testify to narrow escapes they have had at the same crossing, in connection with descriptions of the locality, for the purpose of showing the nature of the crossing and the difficulties of travelers in passing over it.”
“The questions of evidence that arise in actions for death,” says Tif
Again, in the case of Phillips v. Milwaukee & N. R. Co. 77 Wis. 352, 9 L.R.A. 521, 46 N. W. 543, we find the following: “There being no' witness to this painful accident, how the deceased came to be on the' sidewalk at that place, and whether walking north or south on it, must be determined, if at all, by circumstantial evidence. The learned counsel of the appellant contends that it is unaccountable how the deceased came to be there, and it is entirely a matter of conjecture. That may be so, but is it necessary that the plaintiff account for his being on the sidewalk at that time and place ? If it is shown that he met his death while walking on the sidewalk where he had a right to be, that is sufficient for
In the case of Union Stock Yards Co. v. Conoyer, 41 Neb. 617, 59 N. W. 950, the court said: “The counsel for plaintiff in error, in an able brief and argument, strenuously contend that there was no evidence which tends to prove that there was any negligence on the part of the company, which was the proximate cause of the injury to the plaintiff; that the verdict of the jury was predicated upon speculation and conjecture, and not upon facts proved or admitted in the case, or inferences deduced from such proved or admitted facts. We will now go back to what we have heretofore alluded to, viz., that the plaintiff in error did not introduce any testimony, hut allowed the case to he submitted to the jury on the evidence on behalf of the plaintiff. The rule of the law in this state on the subject of contributory negligence, as expressed in the case of Lincoln v. Walker, 18 Neb. 244, 20 N. W. 113, and Anderson v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. 35 Neb. 95, 52 N. W. 840, is as follows: ‘In an action for negligence, where the plaintiff can prove his case without disclosing any negligence on his part, contributory negligence is a matter of defense, the burden of proving it being on the defendant.’ And the supreme court of Wisconsin has said that there being no witnesses as to how the death of a traveler at a railroad crossing occurred, deceased will be assumed to have been free from contributory negligence, where the circumstances and position in which he
In the case of Gray v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. 143 Iowa, 268, 121 N. W. 1091, 1102, the court said: “Seasonable vigilance to know that a public crossing is clear is a duty resting upon those operating railway trains, and that vigilance must bear some reasonable proportion to the known peculiarly dangerous character of the particular ■crossing which they are approaching. In this case, as we have seen, the fireman was not on guard at his window, and the engineer was in a position from which no effective view of the crossing could be Trad. In this manner they swept over the crossing at a very high rate of speed. While such facts do not present a case of negligence per se, they do present a situation from which a jnry may fairly find :actual negligence.” In the case of Bolinger v. St. Paul & D. R. Co. 36 Minn. 418, 1 Am. St. Rep. 680, 31 N. W. 856, it was held that it was for the jury to determine whether a flagman or other precautions not used were necessary for the safety of travelers at a particular place, and how far any negligence which might rightfully be imputed to the defendant in any of the particulars mentioned was the efficient •cause of the accident. In Patterson on Railway Accident Law, § 164,
We are not unmindful of the statement to be found in vol. 1, § 556 of Moore on Facts, that “the presumption that a traveler looked and listened before attempting to cross a railroad track does not overcome the presumption that a train approaching in plain view was seen by him. In such a case the presumption of due care would be at variance with the physical facts.” We, however, have examined all of the cases cited by the author in his note to the proposition. We fail to see that any of them present a case parallel to the one at bar. In none of them was the train one which was switching backwards and forwards over a crossing, which might be seen passing, but might return without warning, but a train in the proper sense of the word. So, too, in none of them, with the exception of the case of Kwiotkwoski v. Chicago & G. T. R. Co. 70 Mich. 549, 38 N. W. 463, was there evidence that the night was dark and stormy; in other words, that there was a wind of the velocity of from 30 to 40 miles an hour, and dust and gravel and debris flying, accompanied by a temperature of about 18 degrees below zero, and in practically all of them there was testimony of eyewitnesses which strongly negatived any idea of due care on the part of the deceased.
We have also spent much time in examining the authorities cited by counsel for appellant, but our examination has satisfied us that none of them present facts similar to those to be found in the case at bar. It is sufficient to analyze but a few of them. The same criticism will apply to practically all.
In the case of Sherlock v. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. 24 N. D. 40, 138 N. W. 977, the accident took place in the broad daylight. The evidence showed that there was no natural physical obstruction to a view of the train for nearly a mile, and in addition to this the deceased was observed by at least four witnesses, “and at all times when so observed had his fur collar turned up over his ears, and was looking to the westward, while the train approached from the east.”
In the case of Tomlinson v. Chicago, M. & St. P. R. Co. 67 C. C. A. 218, 134 Fed. 233, the train was a regular passenger train. The view was unobstructed, and the locomotive headlight could have been seen when the train was at any point on the track within a half a mile or more of the crossing, by a traveler upon the highway at any point within 300 feet. It was 6 o’clock in the evening. There was a mist or fog, though there is no evidence that there was any wind or that it was cold. The surface of the highway at 100 feet west of the crossing was 5-| feet below the track. It was dark. One of the witnesses for the plaintiff said that he heard the train and saw the headlight about 4 miles away, and another testified that he saw it about 3 miles distant. In the case of Northern P. R. Co. v. Freeman, 174 U. S. 380, 43 L. ed. 1014, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 763, the train could have been seen at 40 feet for about 300 feet. The deceased was driving in a wagon at a trot. Witnesses testified that the deceased looked straight before him, without turning his head either way, and trotted directly
It will be seen that in the greater number of these cases there were eyewitnesses to the accident, and,that they were not cases where there was any need for the application of the presumption of self-preservation, and in none of the cases were the facts in regard to the weather .and the other physical facts similar to those in the case at bar. Where, indeed, in the case at bar is there any evidence of contributory negligence which would overcome the presumption of due care ? We must remember in North Dakota that not only is there a presumption of self-protection, but also that the burden of proof of contributory negligence is upon the defendant. Outside of the testimony of the engineer that he rang his bell, all the evidence of contributory negligence on the part of the deceased is to be found in the testimony that: “If a man was looking in the dark that night he might see a man 25 or 30 feet away. There was some lights in the yards that night. There were lights on
This testimony does not prove contributory negligence as a matter of law, so as to justify this court in taking the determination of the fact from the jury. There is no evidence that at any time before the deceased reached the track, the car or engine which occasioned the accident was within 200 feet of the crossing. The blood found upon the tender of the engine is at least some evidence that it was backed down upon the deceased. The evidence tends strongly to show that he stepped into the frog which was in the highway and from 4 to 6 feet east of the planking on the crossing. The jury were perfectly justified in inferring that when he reached the crossing he was for the first time aware of an engine approaching at a distance of 150 to 200 feet. Such a sight would naturally startle him, and it is by no means improbable that he stepped to the right, off the planking and into the frog. On a dark and stormy night, with a wind blowing at from 30 to 40 miles an hour, and dust, gravel, and debris blowing, which some of the testimony shows, it is not by any means improbable that in crossing the track he should have stepped to the side of the planking which he had a right to do, it being the duty of the railway company to plank the crossing for its entire width. At any rate, we cannot say that it would
The testimony of the witness Wordeman, the engineer on the freight engine, is as follows:
This switch engine has footboards. Two of them. One in front and one in the rear.
Q. Did you see any of the switch crew standing on the footboard as you went across this crossing that night?
Q. I asked you if at any time you saw anybody standing on the foot-board ?
A. Yes.
Q. When, that night, in point of time did you see anybody standing there ?
A. At all hours.
Q. Then you saw somebody standing on that footboard at 10 o’clock and right along every minute?
A. No, it is their business.
Q. I don’t ask you about their business. I want to know if you saw this switch crew standing on that footboard as you went west that night.
A. At certain times I did.
The supreme court of Michigan, in the Case of Cooper v. Lake Shore & M. S. R. Co. 66 Mich. 261, 11 Am. St. Rep. 482, 33 N. W. 306, held that it was gross negligence to back a train without a brakeman at the rear and as a lookout, across the main thoroughfare of a village where there is no flagman at the crossing, even at a rate but little faster than a person walks. It is not necessarily a sufficient exercise of care on the part of a railway company whose tracks cross a highway at a grade, to sound the whistle and ring the bell of its engines: but such company is bound to so manage its trains, and to give such other warnings of their approach, or take such other reasonable precautions as not to cause unnecessary risk to persons on or about the crossing. Chicago & N. W. R. Co. v. Netolicky, 14 C. C. A. 615, 32 U. S. App. 168, 406, 67 Fed. 665 ; Thompson v. New York C. & H. R. R. Co. 110 N. Y. 636, 17 N. E. 690.
It is, as we have before said, to be remembered that in North Dakota contributory negligence is a matter of defense, and freedom from the same is not necessary to be alleged in the complaint or proved by the plaintiff. This fact is well worth remembering, and it distinguishes many of the cases. The case of Grant v. Philadelphia, B. & W. R. Co. 215 Pa. 265, 64 Atl. 463, which is cited in § 37 of Moore on Pacts, as tending to support the proposition that the jury cannot guess as to contributory negligence, and that where it was equally
We hardly see, in the light of the decisions and of the record, how this court merits the charge made by the appellant in his petition for .a rehearing, that it has distorted the evidence, established erroneous rules of law, and destroyed the precedents of the past. We have not oven established a new rule in North Dakota. The rule in this state was thoroughly explained, if not laid down, by ex-Chief Justice Young-in the case of Pyke v. Jamestown, 15 N. D. 157, 107 N. W. 359, when he said: “The question of negligence, whether it be of a defendant or the alleged contributory negligence of a plaintiff, is primarily and generally a question of fact for the jury. The question becomes one of law, authorizing its withdrawal from the jury only when but one conclusion can be drawn from the undisputed facts. ‘If the undisputed facts are of such a character that reasonable men might draw different conclusions or deductions therefrom, then the question of negligence must be submitted to the jury.’ ” This doctrine has been recently affirmed by this court. See Kunkel v. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. 18 N. D. 367, 121 N. W. 830. It is abundantly borne out by the decisions of the American states.
See also: Allen v. Pennsylvania R. Co. 9 Sadler (Pa.) 382, 12 Atl. 493 ; Illinois C. R. Co. v. Norwicki, 148 Ill. 29, 35 N. E. 358 ; Richmond & D. R. Co. v. Powers, 149 U. S. 43, 37 L. ed. 642, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 748 ; Dalton v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. 104 Iowa, 26, 73 N. W. 349 ; Galvin v. New York, 112 N. Y. 223, 19 N. E. 675 ; Hemingway v. Illinois C. R. Co. 52 C. C. A. 477, 114 Fed. 843 ; Whaley v. Vidal, 27 S. D. 627, 132 N. W. 242 ; Texas & P. R. Co. v.
We are still of the opinion that there was sufficient evidence of financial interest to sustain the verdict of the jury, and that no error was committed in the admission of testimony. See 13 Cyc. 376, and cases cited; Sieber v. Great Northern R. Co. 76 Minn. 269, 79 N. W. 95. We, therefore, see no reason for reversing our former holding or for granting a rehearing. We have, however, after the filing of the petition, and influenced thereby, modified some of the statements made in the original opinion.
The petition for a rehearing is denied.
Concurrence Opinion
This case is governed on the merits by Hunk el v. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. R. Co. 18 N. D. 367, 121 N. W. 830, and inasmuch as that states the law of this jurisdiction, I concur.