Kird v. New Orleans & Northwestern Railroad

Citations

• 105 La. 226

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>1. The exception of no cause of action (demurrer) admits, for the purpose of the trial thereof, the truth of the averments of the petition.</p> <p>2. Conceding the matters of fact alleged, this plea tenders the issue, on the face of the petition, that no case is presented entitling the plaintiff in law to recover.</p> <p>3. Cotton on a railway platform, at a station, Is presumed to be in the company’s custody and care, and responsibility for the manner in which it is placed or piled on the platform is presumed to rest on the company. The burden of rebutting this presumption is on the company, if it may be rebutted at all.</p> <p>■4. Cotton in bales piled upon a platform in such way that the bales project over the same towards the railway track, so that they become an obstruction to passing trains, is manifestly carelessly stored.</p> <p>5. It is gross carelessness and negligence to construct a platform so near a railway track that cotton piled properly upon it becomes an obstruction to passing trains.</p> <p>6. It was gross negligence on part of the engineer of the train to have endeavored to pass on his way when it was evident that the proximity of the cotton to the track, as piled on the platform, would result In the train striking the same. A prudent course to pursue would have been to have delayed his train until the obstruction was removed.</p> <p>7. Human life and limb weigh more in the scales of consideration than do' the dispatch and speed of railway trains.</p> <p>8. Where the arm of a passenger was projecting from a car window and was injured by one of the bales from the platform faling upon it. it is a question to be determined from the evidence, under all the circumstances of the case, whether or not this was negligence on part of the passenger barring recovery.</p>