Motyka v. Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railway Co.

In each of these three consolidated cases, plaintiff’s decedent was a boy about 18 years of age. On March 17, 1924, near eight o’clock in the morning of a clear day, the three boys, walking abreast on Harper avenue in Detroit and passing on the crossing of defendant’s railway tracks with Harper avenue, were run over by a backing locomotive. One boy was killed instantly; one survived several hours; and the other, it was found, also survived for a short time.

In one case there was recovery under the death act, and in the other cases, it appears, under the survival act. Each of the three verdicts…