Cawley v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

Citations

• 44 Pa. Super. 340
• 1910 Pa. Super. LEXIS 176

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Death—Crossing tracks — Evidence.</p> <p>1. Where a man is found dead on the tracks of a railroad thirty feet from a public crossing shortly after an express train had passed, and nq witness saw the accident, and no traces of blood were found at the crossing, and there is no evidence whatever that the deceased was struck while on the crossing, it is reversible error to permit a jury to draw the inference that the deceased was on the crossing when he was struck, and that the railroad company was guilty of negligence. 2. Where every fact proved will support an inference that excludes liability just as strongly as a contrary one, a jury is stepping into the field of speculation and conjecture when they undertake to say that the theory upon which negligence rests is the one that truly accounts for what actually happened.</p>