79 Iowa 402 | Iowa | 1890
II. The jury found specially that three of the horses were struck by the defendant’s train upon the depot grounds at Brown’s Station. It is claimed that this finding is contrary to evidence. We cannot reproduce all of the evidence upon this question of fact without unduly extending this opinion. A careful examination of the record has led us to the conclusion that the evidence fully supports the finding, and we are content to dispose of the question in this general way.
It is urged that this instruction is erroneous, because under the rule announced by this court in the case of Monahan v. Railway Co., 45 Iowa, 523, there can be no liability under the statute in any case, unless the stock are injured and killed upon the depot grounds. But that was a case where the injury occurred before the train entered upon the depot grounds. The defendant had the right to run its train at more than eight miles an hour until it reached the depot grounds. It is true, there is language in the opinion by which liability is stated to be limited to inquiries on the station ground. But here we have another illustration of the necessity of adhering to the very question before the court for determination. The instruction above cited is about as strong an argument as can be made in support of the idea that, where a law is violated, the violator should be held liable for the direct consequences of his unlawful act. If the language of the opinion in the cited case is to be held applicable to all cases, and limited to injuries actually inflicted upon animals on the station ground, a railroad company would not be liable if it should run through station grounds at forty miles an hour, and pick up an animal on the pilot, and carry it safely beyond the station grounds, and injure it by throwing it off at a place beyond the station. Such a construction of the statute would not be entertained by any court; and where, by excessive speed upon the station grounds, animals are stampeded, and run upon the