Yazoo & M. V. R. v. Huff

Citations

• 111 Miss. 486
• 71 So. 757

Syllabus

<p>1. Bailroads. Death x>f persons on trades. Actions. Sufficiency of evidence. Negligence. Trespassers. Children. Precautions as to persons seen on trades. Incredible evidence. Weight.</p> <p>Where in an action for the death of a child on a railroad track, the evidence was undisputed that the child was very small, that he was lying between the rails at a point where there was a pronounced curve in the roadbed, that it was impossbile for the engineer to detect, or at first discern that the object he saw was a human being; and that when he first discovered that a human being was in danger, he applied the emergency brakes, sanded the rails and did everything in the world that an engineer could do to stop the train and prevent the accident, in such case the railroad company was not negligent nor liable for the death of the child.</p> <p>2. Negligence. Care as to trespassers. Children.</p> <p>A child though of tender years may be a trespasser upon a railroad track.</p> <p>3. Death of Persons on Track. Gare as to trespassers. Children.</p> <p>Until a child trespassing on a raliroad track has been seen and distinguished as a human being, the engineer was under no obligations to the child to check or stop his train.</p> <p>4. Same.</p> <p>If an engineer in the operation of a fast moving train discerns a helpless infant on the track he, as well as his company, is under the absolute duty of exercising the highest degree of care and doing everything possible to prevent injury to the child. This rule, however, presupposes knowledge, by the engineer of • the child’s presence and danger.</p> <p>5. Evidence. Weight. Incredible evidence.</p> <p>Where in ah action for death of a child on a railroad track, the engineer of a fast' train testified that he did not see the child even as an object, until within one hundred and fifty feet, such testimony is not necessarily rendered incredible by measurements after the accident, showing that an engineer could have seen the small child a di