64 Miss. 637 | Miss. | 1887
delivered the opinion of the court.
The first instruction for the plaintiffs should not have been given. There is no evidence tending to show that the jumping from the train by the engineer had any influence in producing the death of the mules or that his remaining at his post of duty could have had any influence to avert the collision. The testimony is that everything possible had been done by the engineer to stop the train, and it was after this, and when he could do no more, and saw that a collision was inevitable under circumstances threatening peril to his own life, that he leaped from the engine. Called on to choose between his own safety and that of two mules, he had the right to prefer his own, and if he stood at his post as long as he could do anything effectual toward stopping the’ train, and abandoned it only after having done all he could and when it appeared that his own safety required it, he was not culpable, and this should not be made a ground of recovery against the company. Valuable-as a mule is, a human being is more so in legal contemplation.
Another instruction for the plaintiffs is that if the mules ran
Reversed and remanded for a new trial.