Higgins v. Wilmington City Railway Co.

Citations

• 15 Del. 352

Syllabus

<p>Street Bailway. Highways.—a street railway company has a right to use all that portion of the street which is included within the lines of its track, and within those lines it has a superior right and must not be unnecessarily interfered with or impeded. Such superior right, however, does not give the right either carelessly or recklessly to injure others.</p> <p>Highways. Negligence.—Leaving a horse, harnessed to a carriage or a wagon on the streets of the city, unhitched or unattended by, and out of the control and - reach of the driver, is negligence; and if such negligence is the proximate cause of the injury, the plaintiff cannot recover.</p> <p>Street Railway. Highway. Negligence.—If the wheels of a wagon be dangerously near the track, and the motorman of an approaching car either did see it, or by using proper care could have seen it in time to have stopped the car, and dees not do so, then the plaintift would be entitled to recover. 1</p> <p>Same.—But if the wagon was standing still on the side of the street far enough from the track for the car to pass without striking it when it came into the view of the motorman, then the motorman had a right to presume that the wagon would remain still and had a right to go on; and if when the car approaches the horses, they become scared and back the wagon into the car, that is an accident and something that the defendant could not have foreseen and was not bound to foresee. In that case the plaintiff could not recover.</p> <p>Measure Of Damages.—In an action against a street railway company for injury to a vehicle from a collision with a car, caused by negligence of the motorman, the measure of damages is the actual damages proved.</p> <p>Evidence.—In civil causes the jury must be governed by the weight or preponder- ' anee of the evidence. In estimating this evidence, they must take into consideration the fairness of the witnesses, their opportunities for seeing, their intelligence, their appearance on the stand, t