St. Louis Southwestern Railway Co. v. Smith

SPEER, Associate Justice.

Upon the trial of this cause, which was an action to recover damages for injuries to a car of horses occasioned by the negligence of appellant, the court defined negligence to be “the failure to do what a reasonable and prudent person would ordinarily have done under the circumstances of the situation, or doing what such a person under the existing circumstances would not have done.” To this charge the first error is assigned.

While we are not disposed to sanction the use of the words “a reasonable and prudent person,” rather than the often approved expression “a…