Ohio & Mississippi Railway Co. v. Webb

Citations

• 142 Ill. 404
• 32 N.E. 527
• 1892 Ill. LEXIS 1063

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence — expert testimony — when it is admissible. In an action against a railway company to recover damage to crops by flooding plaintiff's upper lands by means of an embankment across a watercourse, the defendant called a witness as an expert, and sought to show by him that the overflow which produced the injury was the result of natural causes, and not of the construction of the embankment, which the court refused to admit: Held, error to refuse the proposed evidence.</p> <p>2. Upon questions relating to the arts or sciences the opinions of persons who have made the. subject matter of inquiry the object of particular study and attention are admissible.</p> <p>3. Where the subject matter of inquiry is of such a character that it may be presumed to be within the common experience of all men of common education moving in ordinary walks of life, the opinions of experts are inadmissible.</p>