Giminski v. Irving

The accident happened on May 5,1922, at about eleven p. m. The refusal of the trial court to charge that “ failure to have a light on the defendant’s car establishes a prima facie case of negligence ” was error. (Martin v. Herzog, 228 N. Y. 164.)

In the main charge the court said: “ The mere fact that there wasn’t any light on that motor vehicle does not necessarily make the defendant guilty of negligence, but it is an element to be taken *344into consideration as to whether or not he was guilty of negligence; it is only negligent provided that it was the proximate cause of the accident. If the…