Legal Opinion

Christian v. Illinois Central Railroad

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided October 15, 1893PublishedCited by 4 opinions

From the circuit court of the first district of Panola county. Hon. Eugene Johnson, Judge. Action by R. J. H. Christian against the Illinois Central Railroad Company to recover for personal injuries sustained by him while a trespasser on its track.

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From the circuit court of the first district of Panola county. Hon. Eugene Johnson, Judge. Action by R. J. H. Christian against the Illinois Central Railroad Company to recover for personal injuries sustained by him while a trespasser on its track. The case was in this court on appeal at a former term, and a judgment in favor of the defendant ivas reversed, the court holding that, under the evidence, the action of the court in having granted a peremptory instruction for the defendant was error. (MS. Op.) The cause, having been remanded, was again tried, many instructions having been given on…

1Opinion of the CourtCooper, J.

We will not review particularly the sixteen instructions asked and received by the defendant. Some of them may be correct, but throughout them, as a whole, runs the wholly erroneous proposition that the mere negligent injury of a trespasser by the servants of a railway company is not ground of action by the trespasser. Under the sixth instruction, the jury was, in effect, tqld that the plaintiff could not recover unless the engineer intentionally or purposely ran him down. If that were true, the plaintiff, being a trespasser, must show such injury that, if it had resulted in his death, the…

2Cases cited1 opinion

  1. Jamison v. Illinois Central RailroadMississippi Supreme Court · 1885

3Cited by4 opinions

  1. Fuller v. Illinois Central RailroadMississippi Supreme Court · 1911
  2. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad v. LandrumMississippi Supreme Court · 1906
  3. Southern Railway Co. v. PittmanMississippi Supreme Court · 1910
  4. Morehead v. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley RailroadMississippi Supreme Court · 1904

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