Nixon v. Illinois Central Railroad

Citations

• 103 Miss. 405
• 60 So. 566

Syllabus

<p>1. Railroads. Injuries to persons on track. Sufficiency of evidence. Excessive speed. Peremptory instructions. Burden of proof.</p> <p>In a suit for the death of a party by a running railroad train where it is uncertain from the evidence which of several trains of defendants railroad killed a person on its tracks, and the evidence only clearly exonerates the servants in charge of one of the trains from blame, it is improper to give a peremptory instruction for the defendant.</p> <p>2. Railroads. Operation. Excessive speed.</p> <p>It is negligence in a, railroad company to run its train in the night time at such speed that it is impossible, by the use of ordinary means and appliances, to stop the train within the distance in which the obstruction upon the track can be seen by the aid of the headlight of the engine, and if anything in surrounding conditions and circumstances suggest an increase of care in the operation of a railroad train to avoid peril and damage, the duty to increase such care proportionately increases.</p> <p>3. Railroads. Injuries to persons on track. Burden of proof.</p> <p>When it is shown that an injury was caused by a running train, it is incumbent upon the railroad company not only to prove just how the injury occurred, but, to entitle it to a peremptory instruction, it must also appear beyond reasonable disputation that its servants were free from negligence in the operation of the train.</p>