Baltimore Traction Co. v. Appel

Citations

• 80 Md. 603
• 31 A. 964
• 1895 Md. LEXIS 28

Syllabus

<p>Special Findings of Fact — When Request for them to be Made — Contributory Negligence — Driving Across Tracks of Street Railway Company.</p> <p>When a party asks to have the jury instructed to render a special finding concerning a material fact, under the Act of 1894, chap. 185, the request should be made at the time the prayers are submitted. It is too late to present such request after the close of the argument, and when the jury are about to retire.</p> <p>Plaintiff drove in a wagon slowly across the tracks of the defendant, a street electric railway company, and was struck by a car which he first saw approaching when about three hundred feet distant. In an action to recover damages, Held, that the jury were properly instructed that if the plaintiff was guilty of the want of ordinary care in attempting to cross the tracks of the defendant under the circumstances of the case, then he is not entitled to recover, unless they believe from the evidence that the motorman could have avoided the accident by the use of ordinary care after he saw, or by the use of ordinary care might have seen, that the plaintiff was on the track and was in danger of being struck by the car.</p> <p>The evidence in this case being conflicting as to whether the motorman rang the gong before the collision, or made an effort to avoid the same after seeing that the plaintiff was in a position of peril, the plaintiff’s conduct was not such contributory negligence in law as to justify the trial Court in withdrawing the case from the jury.</p>