Jacksonville Electric Co. v. Hellenthal

Citations

• 56 Fla. 443

Syllabus

<p>1. The court gave the following instruction: “You are instructed, gentlemen of the jjiry, that street cars, regardless of the power by which they are impelled, have no superior rights to other vehicles at regular crossings, but their respective rights are simply equal. It was the duty of the company’s employees to keep a vigilant lookout for persons on or approaching the tracks, especially at street corners, and if you are not satisfied from the evidence that defendant has overcome the presumption of negligence existing against it by showing such vigilance on the part of its employees you will find for the plaintiff.” Held, this charge is not erroneous, in that it would induce the jury to believe that, if the defendant failed to keep a proper lookout,the plaintiff was entitled to recover irrespective of the question as to whether the failure to keep a proper lookout had any- • thing to do with the injury or not, especially as other instruc tions made this clear.</p> <p>2. The following charge given by the court is approved: “All charges given by the court of its own motion and at the request of the plaintiff and the defendant are to be taken together as the law governing you in this case.”</p> <p>3. The court did not err in refusing to give the following charge, where the same proposition of law was fully covered in substance by other instructions given by the court: “If the jury find from the evidence that the injury to the plaintiff was the result of accident without any negligence on the part of any one, then the jury should find the defendant not guilty.”</p> <p>4. The refusal of the court' to give the following instruction was not error, since the propositions contained therein were substantially covered by other instructions: “A railroad company having the right to operate its cars upon its tracks, its cars cannot, from the nature of things, deviate therefrom as persons can, and hence, it is the duty of a person driving a vehicle in approaching the track or