Wagner v. Peoples Railway Co.

Citations

• 23 Del. 393
• 7 Penne. 393
• 75 A. 610
• 1909 Del. LEXIS 21

Syllabus

<p>Personal Injuries—Negligence—Street Railway—Sagging Wire— Electricity; Danger Of—Due Care on Part of Company and Traveler—Damages</p> <p>1. If a trolley wire erected and maintained by a railway company sagged from the effect of an unusual storm of wind and rain, which the defendant could not reasonably have anticipated, there would be no negligence on the part of the defendant; but there would be negligence on the part of the defendant if, after actual or constructive notice of the injury to the wire, the defendant failed to repair the injury within a reasonable time thereafter; and the plaintiff would be entitled to recover, unless he himself was guilty of contributory negligence.</p> <p>2. _ Where trolley cars are propelled by electricity great care is required in the construction and maintenance of electricity-bearing wire, so that life and property may be reasonably protected and accidents prevented. But this common knowledge of the danger of electricity imposes like great care and precaution upon the traveler upon the highway who has been warned of its dangerous condition.</p> <p>3. Such warning imposes upon the traveler the duty of the reasonable exercise of all his faculties to prevent accident, and if he fail so to do at the time of the accident he would be guilty of contributory negligence. If he could, by the reasonable use of his eyesight, have seen the sagged wire in time to prevent the accident and failed to do so, he cannot recover, even though the defendant was also negligent.</p>