Truman v. Wilmington City Railway Co.

Citations

• 23 Del. 192
• 7 Penne. 192
• 78 A. 636
• 1908 Del. LEXIS 15

Syllabus

<p>Street Railway—Duty of Railway Company and duty of Traveler on Public Highway—Negligence—Contributory Negligence— Due Care—Proximate Cause—Position of Danger— Conflict of Testimony—Preponderance of Evidence—-Measure of Damages.</p> <p>1. The respective rights of a street railway company and the public upon the streets of a city, defined.</p> <p>2. As a general rule, the person in the management of the car and the pedestrian are both bound to the reasonable use of their sight and hearing for the prevention of accidents, and to the exercise of such reasonable caution as an ordinarily careful and prudent person would use under like circumstances.</p> <p>3. Duty of a person approaching railway crossing defined.</p> <p>4. If the deceased moved from a position of safety to a position of danger near or upon the tracks of the defendant on which the car was running, so suddenly as to make it impossible for the motorman to stop the car before the collision, the defendant cannot be held liable for the resulting injury to the plaintiff’s intestate; so if the motorman, after he saw, or by the exercise of reasonable care could have seen the plaintiffs’ intestate in a position of danger, did everything that a reasonably careful man could and would do under like circumstances to prevent the accident, the plaintiffs cannot recover.</p> <p>5. The burden of proving negligence on the part of the defendant company is upon the plaintiffs, and there is no presumption of negligence on the part of the defendant from the single fact that the plaintiffs’ intestate was injured by being struck by a car owned or operated by the defendant company.</p> <p>6. Proximate cause and contributory negligence defined.</p> <p>7. The burden of proving negligence on the part of the plaintiffs’ intestate rests upon the defendant, and no presumption of negligence on the part of the deceased is to be drawn from the mere fact that he was injured by a car of the defendant company.</p> <p>8. As a general rule,