Snack v. New York Central Railroad

The plaintiff was a tenant on a farm in Rensselaer county. The pasture on this farm adjoined defendant’s right of way. Along its lands the defendant had erected and was maintaining a fence. The railroad tracks ran through an artificial cut made in rocks at a depth of sixty to seventy feet below the level of the pasture. The fence was built within eight or ten feet of this precipitous cliff.

During the early part of the year 1920 the portion of the railroad fence at the top of the cliff was permitted by the defendant to become out of repair, of which fact it had notice. A horse belonging to…