New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago Railroad Co. v. Gassoway
| Decision Date | 29 May 1916 |
| Docket Number | 17903 |
| Citation | 71 So. 806,111 Miss. 509 |
| Parties | NEW ORLEANS MOBILE & CHICAGO RAILROAD COMPANY v. GASSOWAY ET AL |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the circuit court of Union county, HON. H. K. MAHON Judge.
Suit by Mary Gassoway and others against the New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago Railroad Company. From a judgment for plaintiff defendant appeals.
The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.
Cause reversed and suit dismissed.
Flowers Brown, Chambers & Cooper, for appellant.
Stephens & Kenneday, for appellees.
This is an appeal from the circuit court of Union county. The plaintiffs in this suit, the next of kin of Dr. Gassoway, who died in New Albany, Miss., probably as the result of certain injuries received by him a few days before his death, recovered judgment for twenty thousand dollars against the New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago Railroad Company, defendants in the court below and appellants here.
Dr. Gassoway was a gentleman of about seventy-four years of age, but was in the active practice of his profession--that of a physician. On the occasion of his injury, he had been out in his buggy making a professional call, and, while returning to the town of New Albany, his horse ran away. This occurred about eleven o'clock at night. The railroad of the defendant is in the heart of the business district of New Albany, and it was the custom at about the hour of eleven o'clock at night, the time when this accident occurred, for the night crew on the switch engine used in the company's yards at New Albany to take a lunch at a small restaurant near the railroad on a street crossing the railroad called "Mill street." And on this occasion, while the crew of the switch engine were backing the engine to some point near the restaurant mentioned, the runaway horse which Dr. Gassoway was driving ran directly in front of the defendant company's switch engine above mentioned. It was contended by the plaintiffs in the court below that the switch engine struck the buggy, and that Dr. Gassoway, himself, was either struck by the engine or the engine caused the buggy in which he was riding to be turned over, and that he thereby received his injuries. At any rate, it was plaintiff's theory that Dr. Gassoway received the injuries from which he died through the negligent operation of the defendant railroad company's engine.
There is circumstantial evidence in the record tending to show that a wheel of the buggy was struck by the train there were marks on one of the wheels which indicated that it had been struck by the switch engine. However,...
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