McLamb v. Wilmington & Weldon Railroad

Citations

• 29 S.E. 894
• 122 N.C. 862
• 1898 N.C. LEXIS 364

Syllabus

<p>Action for Damages — Railroads—Negligence■—Damages —Evidence—Trial—Remarks of Counsel.</p> <p>1. Where, on the trial of an action, the remarks of counsel are improper, or not warranted by the evidence, and are calculated to mislead or prejudice the jury, it is the duty of the Court to interfere. '</p> <p>2. Where the trial judge interferes to stop the improx>er remarks of counsel and cautions the jury against their effect, no exception to the same can be sustained on appeal.</p> <p>8. In the trial of an action for damages for injuries resulting in the death of plaintiff’s intestate, it appeared that deceased was negligently standing on atrestle, 30 feet high and 400 feet long; that defendant’s engineer was running a heavy train down grade at the rate of about a mile a minute; that, when three.fourths of a mile away, he saw deceased, but made no attempt to slow up, and gave no signal until he was so near deceased that the train could not be stox>ped before it struck and killed deceased, and that the engineer thought that deceased was a trestle hand who could take care of himself by standing on the edge of a platform in the middle of the trestle. Held, that defendant was negligent and liable.</p> <p>4. Where, in the trial of an action for damages, the trial judge instructed the jury that the measure of damages for negligently causing the death of plaintiff’s intestate was the gross income, less living expenses, and in another part of the charge told the jury to consider decedent’s capacity for earning money in determining his income; Held, that such instruction was not calculated to mislead the jury into believing that they might consider any source of income other than decedent’s earnings, esx>ecially when the argument of counsel showed that the jury understood the instruction.</p> <p>5. It is competent to show the value of the personal services of a dece-</p> <p>dent, who was a skilled farmer, by the estimates of experienced farmers who were well acquainted with