Ginn v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 220 Pa. 552
• 69 A. 992
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 814

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Passenger—Presumption—Burden of proof— Evidence — N onsuit.</p> <p>In an action by a passenger against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff in order to cast upon the defendant the burden of disproving negligence, must show that the injury complained of resulted from the breaking of machinery, collision, derailment of cars, or something improper or unsafe in the conduct of the business or in the appliances of transportation.</p> <p>Where a passenger on a railroad train while sitting at the window of a car is injured by a missile, the nature and origin of which are unknown, and there is nothing to connect the accident with a defect in any of the appliances of transportation or any negligence on the part of the company or its employees, there can be no recovery against the company.</p> <p>In an action by a passenger against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries by the breaking of a window pane of a car in which he was seated, a nonsuit is properly entered where the only evidence as to the cause of the accident is that of the plaintiff himself who said that immediately before the window was struck and broken, he heard two sharp reports like the explosion of a torpedo, and that an engine of a train on the track adjoining was just opposite his window.</p>