Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. English

Citations

• 78 Fla. 211
• 82 So. 819

Syllabus

<p>1. When there is substantial evidence on which the jury might predicate ¿a finding for the plaintiff, it is not error to refuse to direct a verdict for the defendant.</p> <p>2. In operating trains over and across streets of cities and towns, a railroad company is bound to keep a lo'okout when switching cars by means known as the “kicking-bac” or “flying-switch” process, or methods equivalent thereto, and when it is apparent or when in the exercise of reasonable diligence commensurate with the surroundings, it should be apparent to the company, that the driver of a vehicle which is on defendant’s track or about to be driven on its track, is unaware of his danger 'or canont get out of the way, it becomes the duty of the company to use such precautions by warnings, appliqation of brakes, or other means as may ,be reasonably necessary to avoid injury to the person 'or property, and this requirement is not dispensed with merely by ringing the engine-bell.</p> <p>3. The credibility of witnesses and the weight .of evidence are to be determined by the jury.</p> <p>4. Questions of negligence or failure to perform duty, are for the jury t'o determine when the facts are controverted.</p> <p>6. Plaintiff's chauffeur was not guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, in approaching ,a railroad crossing at night at the intersection of two city streets, in plaintiff’s automobile, which was a covered car with closed sides having glass panels, when, it appeared that he was driving the automobile at a speed of seven or eight miles an hour and coould have stopped the same in a space of four or six feet; that the lights of the automobile were burning; that the street intersection was lighted by an electric light; that he could see through the glass panels of the ear; that upon approaching the crossing he sounded the ¡automobile horn; that it was his custom in approaching railroad crossings to look out for trains, and on the occasion 'on which plaintiff’s automobile was in