Montgomery-Ward & Co., Inc. v. Sewell

RUSSELL, Circuit Judge.

The only person who could give an accurate account of the manner in which W. M. Sewell, the husband of appellee, Juanita Sewell, sustained his fatal injuries on July 17, 1950, would be the decedent. Since his lips were thereby sealed, plaintiffs, in this suit to recover damages suffered by them as a result of his death, necessarily had to rely solely upon circumstantial evidence to sustain the burden of proving their allegation that defendant’s negligence was the proximate cause of Sewell’s death. The jury, by its verdict, found that the burden thus cast upon them had…