Hartwyk v. Shea

This case arose out of a collision at a road intersection between an automobile and a bus. The issues were negligence and contributory negligence. The trial judge before he charged the jury was not requested to charge that the burden of proving contributory negligence rested upon the defendant.

Plaintiffs counsel argues that he was justified in the expectation that the court would charge the controlling legal principles and, therefore, he made no request until he observed the omission. He then called the court’s attention to the omission in a clear and precise manner.

In Rowland v. Wunderlich,…