McCloskey v. Chautauqua Lake Ice Co.

Citations

• 174 Pa. 34
• 34 A. 287
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 842

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Definition of negligence.</p> <p>Negligence is the want of care required by the circumstances. It may lie in omission or commission, in the failure to do what a reasonable and prudent person would ordinarily have done under the circumstances of the situation, or in doing what such a person under the existing circumstances would not have done.</p> <p>Negligence — Evidence—Scintilla—Question for jury.</p> <p>He who alleges negligence as the basis of his suit must prove it, because the injury alone affords no cause of action. If the evidence submitted to sustain his allegation amounts to more than a scintilla, it presents a question for the jury, although it is flatly contradicted by the evidence of the defendant.</p> <p>Negligence — Evidence—Ice wagon — Backing of wagon against curb— Infant of tender years.</p> <p>In an action against an ice company to recover damages for personal injuries to a boy six years old, resulting from the alleged negligent backing of an ice wagon by one of defendant’s drivers, the case is for the jury, where the evidence tends to show that on the street where the accident occurred pavement blocks were piled in the cartway against the curb; that in front of a butcher shop an opening was left wide enough to let a wagon back in, that the boy was caught while entering this open space by an ice wagon backing in to deliver ice, and the evidence is conflicting as to whether the driver before backing his wagon looked to see whether any one was in the opening, or approaching it from the street.</p>