Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Weir

Citations

• 63 Fla. 69

Syllabus

<p>1. While the operative of an unregistered motor vehicle upon the public highways of the State is made unlawful, the statute does not provide that a failure to comply with its provisions will deprive the owner of a motor vehicle of a right to recover damages for an injury to an unlicensed vehicle caused by the negligence of another, and it does not modify the statutory provisions relative to the liability of railroad companies for negligent injuries to others.</p> <p>2. If a person’s unlawful a.ct contributes proximately to his own injury he may not recover damages of another for negligent participation in that injury; but if an unlawful act of an injured party has no causal relation to his injury that proximately results from another’s mere negligence, a recovery may be had under the principles of the common law, if the plaintiff is not guilty of contributory .negligence.</p> <p>3. The principles of the common law require the operators of railroad trains and road vehicles to exercise such care, prudence and caution as the circumstances of a crossing reasonably demand of each of them.</p> <p>4. The drivers of vehicles on public highways are required by law to exercise due care, and to have the vehicles in control on approaching a railroad grade crossing, and to use reasonable ordinary care to discover approaching trains.</p> <p>5. Where the owner of an automobile valued at $1,600.00, is operating it at twenty miles an hour on a country road at a point where it crosses a railroad track of which crossing the owner knew, and notice of the approach of a train was not given by the bell or whistle of the engine, but the approach of the train could have been seen several hundred yards away, and the automobile was not stopped before it got upon th$ railroad track on the side of the road and was struck and destroyed by the engine, a judgment for $1,000.00 damages to the automobile will be reversed, since the damages were not apportioned by the jury in proportion to the amo