Conway v. Pottsville Union Traction Co.

Citations

• 253 Pa. 211
• 97 A. 1058
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 810

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Joint tort feasors — Release of one — Release of all— Defenses — Presumptions—Judgment for defendant n. o. v.</p> <p>1. The test in determining whether or not a release or satisfaction in a proceeding founded on a negligent act is a bar to another proceeding for the same cause of action is whether there was joint negligence by the party released.</p> <p>2. Where the cause of action is the sama in several eases founded on tort, the inference is that defendants were joint tort feasors, and where defendant proves a release by the plaintiff to another defendant in an action on such cause there can be no recovery -in the absence of evidence by the plaintiff to rebut the prima facie case so established for defendant, by showing that the latter’s negligence alone caused the injury.</p> <p>3. In an action against a street railway' company to recover damages for the death of plaintiff’s husband resulting from injuries occasioned by a defect in a bridge during the course of its reconstruction, judgment for defendant non obstante veredicto was properly entered where it appeared that defendant hired a contractor to reconstruct the bridge and such contract was in turn let to a subcontractor who after the accident obtained a release from the plaintiff reciting the receipt of the sum of one thousand dollars “in full satisfaction and payment of such sum or sums of money payable and belonging to me by any means whatsoever for or on account of the death of my husband.”</p>