King v. Lehigh Valley Railroad

Citations

• 245 Pa. 25
• 91 A. 214
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 824

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Proximate cause — Injury to switch connection — Manager of yard — Injury while inspecting repairs — Contributory negligence — Judgment n. o. v.</p> <p>1. The test of proximate cause is whether the facts constitute a continuous succession of events so linked together that they become a natural whole, or whether the chain of events is so broken that they become independent, and the final result cannot be said to be the natural and probable consequence of the primary cause, the negligence of the defendants.</p> <p>■ 2. In an action against a railroad company to recover damages for personal injuries, the court does not err in directing the entry of a judgment for the defendant non obstante veredicto where it appears that the plaintiff was one of the lessees and the manager of a coal yard that had a switch connection with the defendant’s tracks; that a loaded car was pushed on to the switch with such force as to injure the trestle work upon which the tracks were laid, to break down the bumper at the end of the track, to injure the studding of the shed covering the tracks, and to move from its support the end of a plank of the footwalk on the trestle work along side the tracks; that a week after the occurrence the defendant’s carpenters went to the shed to make the repairs and during the progress of the work the plaintiff, in walking towards the carpenters from the end of the shed opposite that at which they had commenced work, stepped on the end of the plank that was without support and fell into one of the bins beneath the trestles; that the carpenters had done nothing to the walk and it was then in the condition caused by the impact of the car a week before; and that during the week the plaintiff had carried on his business in tbe yard as usual, and tbe nature and extent of tbe injury to tbe sbed and walk were apparent.</p>