Corcoran v. Boston & Albany Railroad
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, by the administratrix of George Corcoran, for personal injuries sustained by her intestate in his lifetime, while a brakeman upon a freight train of the defendant corporation. The declaration alleged that the injury was caused by the intestate being knocked from a ladder on the side of a car, (upon which it was his duty to go while the train was passing through a rocky cut,) by an accumulation of ice and snow, which the defendant had negligently suffered to be there.
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Tort, by the administratrix of George Corcoran, for personal injuries sustained by her intestate in his lifetime, while a brakeman upon a freight train of the defendant corporation. The declaration alleged that the injury was caused by the intestate being knocked from a ladder on the side of a car, (upon which it was his duty to go while the train was passing through a rocky cut,) by an accumulation of ice and snow, which the defendant had negligently suffered to be there. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Putnam, J., there was evidence tending to show the following facts: At a point…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
The burden of proof is upon the plaintiff to show that her intestate was using due care when the accident happened, and that his death was not instantaneous, so that a right of action existed in him which would survive to her. It is impossible to tell from the evidence how the intestate fell from the cars, what he was doing at the time, whether his death was instantaneous, or whether he endured any conscious suffering before his death. These questions are left to conjecture. The evidence would not justify the jury in finding that the plaintiff had sustained the burden of proof…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Moran v. HollingsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1878
3Cited by29 opinions
- Brown v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.Wisconsin Supreme Court · 1899
- Perham v. Portland Electric Co.Oregon Supreme Court · 1898
- Dillon v. Great Northern Railway Co.Montana Supreme Court · 1909
- Texas & N. O. R'y Co. v. CrowderTexas Supreme Court · 1885
- Bromley v. Birmingham Mineral RailroadSupreme Court of Alabama · 1891
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