116 Ark. 47 | Ark. | 1914
Geo. P. Taylor sued the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company to recover damages for the alleged negligent killing of his dog by one of defendant’s passenger trains. The facts were as follows:
On July 31, 1913, one of defendant’s north-bound passenger trains struck the dog of the plaintiff and killed it while the dog was on the railroad crossing in the town of Forrest City. The train did not slow down before or after striking the dog. The crossing was ninety steps north of the depot. The track curved there and the dog came on the track at the crossing about fifteen or twenty feet ahead of the engine.
According to the testimony of the witnesses for the plaintiff, there was no obstruction along the right-of-way at that point, and, in their judgment, the employees of the railroad company who were in the cab of the engine could have seen the dog 'approaching the track.
Neither the engineer nor the fireman of the train which struck the dog testified. Another engineer, who had run on that particular piece of road for many years, testified that the engineer sat on the right-hand side of the cab, and that at that particular crossing where the dog was killed he could not have seen the dog go on the track fifteen feet ahead of the engine. He also testified that it was the custom for the fireman to commence coaling the engine after the train left the station.
The value of the dog was proved.
The court directed the jury to return a verdict for the defendant, and the plaintiff has appealed.
The injury occurred at a public crossing in a populous town, and the jury might have found from all the evidence that the engineer alone could not have, kept an efficient lockout.
It follows that the judgment must be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.