Bearden v. St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co.
Supreme Court of Arkansas
Appeal from Lonoke Circuit Court; Eugene Lankford, Judge; STATEMENT BY THE COURT. The appellant was sixty-eight years old. She was illiterate and incapable of transacting business. She relied on her son to transact all of her business for her. She had been deaf in one ear since childhood. On May 9, 1911, she was hurt on a passenger train of appellee at Beebe.
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Appeal from Lonoke Circuit Court; Eugene Lankford, Judge; STATEMENT BY THE COURT. The appellant was sixty-eight years old. She was illiterate and incapable of transacting business. She relied on her son to transact all of her business for her. She had been deaf in one ear since childhood. On May 9, 1911, she was hurt on a passenger train of appellee at Beebe. She sued the appellee for damages for the injury, alleging, in substance, that after the train had stopped for the station at Beebe she 'arose from her seat with the view of getting off the train at the station; that as she started to…
1Opinion of the Court
Wood, J.,
(after stating the facts). Among the instructions given at the instance of the appellee were the following:
“4. You are instructed that, although a person may make a compromise or settlement when not in a normal condition, mentally or physically, yet, when she regains her normal condition mentally, she may and does ratify her act, if she has knowledge of it, by silence and retaining the benefit, if any, accruing to her from said act.”
“8. If you find from the evidence that the plaintiff did not authorize this suit to be brought, then under the law neither her son nor any one else had…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. BrownSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1904
3Cited by5 opinions
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- Pekin Cooperage Co. v. GibbsSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1914
- Power Manufacturing Company v. SaundersSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1925
- Texas Company v. WilliamsSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1929
- United Insurance Co. of America v. WallSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1961