Bannon v. The Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 29 Pa. Super. 231
• 1905 Pa. Super. LEXIS 302

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Proximate and remote cause — Presumption. ^</p> <p>The general -rule is that a man is answerable for the consequences of a fault which are natural and probable, and might therefore be foreseen by ordinary forecast, but an individual is not presumed to contemplate the coincidence of events having no probable or natural connection in the mind, and which cannot by ordinary thoughtfulness be foreseen as likely to happen in consequence of the act in which he is engaged.</p> <p>Where there has intervened between the defendant's act and the injury, an independent illegal act of a third person, or one induced by irresponsible agencies or trespassers, which produced the injury, and without which it would not have happened, and such act is held to be the approximate cause of the injury, the defendant is not liable.</p> <p>Where the effect of the evidence is merely to establish that there are two independent causes, either of which may have been the proximate cause of the injury, the burden is upon the plaintiff to show that the cause for which the defendant is responsible, was the one which produced the injury for which recovery is sought.</p> <p>The question of negligence is one of law for the court, only where the facts are such that all responsible minds must draw the same conclusions from them, but when the conclusion follows as a matter of law, that the plaintiff’s right to recover is not made out upon any view that can be properly taken of the facts the evidence tends to establish, it is the duty of the court to withdraw the case from the consideration of the jury and direct a verdict.</p> <p>Negligence — Fall of fence — Proximate and remote cause — Evidence—Question for court.</p> <p>In an action against the owner of a fence to recover damages for personal injuries caused by the fall of the fence, binding instructions for the defendant should be given to the jury where the uneontradicted evidence showed that the fall of the fence had been caused by a la