Patterson v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.

Citations

• 210 Pa. 47
• 59 A. 318
• 1904 Pa. LEXIS 833

Syllabus

<p>Negligence—Railroads—Grade crossing—■“ Stop, look and listen ”—Death— Presumption—Rebuttal of presumption—Evidence.</p> <p>In au action against a railroad company to recover damages for death at a grade crossing, the presumption is that the deceased did his duty to “stop, look and listen ” before driving on the tracks. Whether that presumption is rebutted is for the jury unless the evidence to the contrary is clear, positive, credible, and either uncontradicted or so indisputable in weight and amount as to justify the court in holding that a verdict against it must be set aside as a matter of law.</p> <p>In such a case the court cannot say as a matter of law that the presumption had been rebutted where three witnesses testify to having seen the deceased as he approached the crossing, and that they did not see him stop, but none of them covered the entire approach, and one of them stated that there was a bump in the road, and that the deceased was back of this long enough to stop.</p>