Florida Central & Peninsular Railroad v. Mooney

Citations

• 45 Fla. 286

Syllabus

<p>1. In an action for negligence, questions seeking to elicit testimony relating to other accidents causing injury to persons and property in no wise relevant to the case being tried, as well as opinions of witnesses with reference to matters as to which opinion evidence is inadmissble, are . properly excluded.</p> <p>2. Letters by a witness produced by a party concerning the subject-matter of the litigation written to the opposite party, tending to discredit the witness’ testimony, are admissible in evidence.</p> <p>8. If in the performance of his duties an employe had no instructions to pursue a particular method, and two or more methods were open to him, he can not be said to have been negligent if he in good faith adopted that which was more hazardous than another, if the one adopted was one which reasonable and prudent persons would have adopted under like circumstances.</p> <p>4. Shifsting cars by means of the kicking back process is not, as a matter of law, necessarily at all times an act of negligence per se, even though there may be a safer method of shifting them.</p> <p>5. An instruction that a servant, injured by the negligence of a fellow servant, “was bound to exercise ordinary care for his own safety, or that degree of care which prudent persons usually exercise under similar circumstances, ■ and if he was injured by failure to exercise such care, then the” master will not be liable, correctly expresses the statutory rule that a servant must be entirely free from fault in order to recover from the master on account of the negligence of a fellow servant.</p> <p>6. In an action for personal injury where there is no evidence tending to prove negligence of so gross a character as to authorize the infliction of exemplary damages, and the court gives no instructions whatever upon the subject of damages, it is error to refuse a request to charge that “if you should find that the plaintiff is entitled to any damages you should state how much, and in making u