Sloan v. Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co.

Citations

• 231 Pa. 332
• 80 A. 366
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 844

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Railroads—Act of April 4, 1868, P. L. 68.</p> <p>1. Where a person drives a buggy on the premises of a railroad company for the purpose of superintending the work of his employee in unloading a car of coal on a siding belonging to the railroad company, and after so doing continues to drive along the siding for about 100 feet, and then turns across the tracks at a permissive crossing and is struck and injured by a train negligently operated, such person is not barred from recovering damages from the railroad company by reason of the Act of April 4, 1868, P. L. 58.</p> <p>2. In such a case as the plaintiff’s business of superintending the work he had on hand on the railroad company’s premises had ceased, and as he was on his way at the time of the accident to attend to business with which the railroad company was not related, he was no longer in the position of a fellow servant of the railroad company’s employee whose negligence caused the accident.</p> <p>Practice, C. P. — Perverse verdict — New trial — Judgment non obstante veredicto.</p> <p>3. The credibility of testimony in general is for the jury, and the remedy for a perverse verdict, or one against the weight of the reasonable and properly credible evidence, is a new trial — a remedy that ought to be freely applied whenever the verdict in the opinion of the court is perverse in the sense that it goes beyond the limits of a reasonable difference of opinion upon the facts as found or admitted. But the remedy in this form is not the same as that of nonsuit, and care should be taken to avoid confusing them; and this applies equally when judgment non obstante is resorted to as a remedy.</p>