Slater v. South Carolina Railway Co.

Citations

• 29 S.C. 96
• 6 S.E. 936
• 1888 S.C. LEXIS 110

Syllabus

<p>1. A non-suit is proper where there is a total absence of testimony to all of the material averments in the complaint, or to any one of them; or where the plaintiff’s case is defeated by a defence admitted by him or established without controversy by his witnesses in their examination, direct or cross.</p> <p>2. A common carrier is not liable for an injury done to chattels in his possession, if he can show that the entire cause of the injury was an act of God — the burden of proof resting on the carrier.</p> <p>3. A mixed train of cars left Augusta. Ga., for Charleston, S. C., on schedule, just one hour after the first shock of the earthquake of August 31, 1886, and ran on schedule time, without extra precautions, until it was wrecked at a washout in the road caused by floods from mill dams which were broken by the earthquake. Held, that there was no negligence on the part of the railroad company, but that the earthquake — an act of God — was the entire cause of the accident.</p>