Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Clutter

Citations

• 82 Ill. 123

Syllabus

<p>1. Railroads—liability for injury from neglect to keep fence in repair. Where stock is killed or injured by reason of the insufficiency of the fences of a railway company along its track, and the fences have been out of repair so long that the company must have known it, and the owner of the stock is guilty of no negligence, the company will'be liable for the injury.</p> <p>2. Pleading—declaration—surplusage. Where the value of stock killed by a railroad company, through negligence, is laid, under a videlicet, at $200, an averment that the cattle were of the value of §19.50 each, may be regarded as surplusage.</p> <p>3. Instruction—assessed value in, construed. Where an instruction informed the jury that, in case of a finding for the plaintiff, in an action against a railway company for killing stock, the plaintiff’s damages would be the “ assessed value” of the cattle, and there was no proof of any assessment of their value, it was held, that these words must have been used and understood as the value proved or estimated by the jury, from the evidence before them.</p> <p>4. Negligence—weeds and grass on right of way. It is negligence on the part of a railway company to permit grass or weeds to grow on its grounds so as to obstruct the view of stock by the engine-driver.</p>