Keiser v. Lehigh Valley Railroad

Citations

• 212 Pa. 409
• 61 A. 903
• 1905 Pa. LEXIS 630

Syllabus

<p>Negligence—Railroads—Running behind schedule time—Speed—Signals— Evidence—Grade crossing.</p> <p>It is not negligence for a railroad company to run a passenger train after midnight, twenty-five minutes behind its schedule time.</p> <p>It is not negligence for a railroad company to run a fast passenger train in the nighttime over a country crossing at the rate of thirty-five miles an hour.</p> <p>Where the exact rate of speed of a train shown by its schedule and fixed by the train record made by the conductor at the time shows a rate of thirty-five miles an hour, the court will consider of no value the testimony of a witness who states that the train was running very fast, but does not state how fast, nor fix any standard by which the speed of the train could be ascertained.</p> <p>In a railroad grade crossing accident case, the negative testimony of nine witnesses that they did not hear the whistle blown nor the bell rung on a stormy and windy night, amounting only to a scintilla, cannot prevail against the overwhelming and positive testimony of fourteen witnesses, which conclusively established the fact that these duties were performed. In such a case the trial judge is warranted in giving binding instructions to the jury to return a verdict in favor of the defendant.</p>