Francis T. Ratigan v. New York Central Railroad Co. v. Interstate Commodities, Inc., and the Troy Union Railroad Company, Appellee-Appellant

I join in affirming Ratigan’s judgment against the New York Central and the dismissal of the Central’s second and third cross-claims, for the reasons stated by Judge MEDINA; as to the Central’s first cross-claim I would grant a new trial.

We must assume the jury, which deliberated more than four hours, intended its answers to be consistent. It had been instructed as to the difference between active and passive negligence — perhaps not, as my brother MEDINA observes, with pristine clarity, but in a way to which no one had objected and which sufficiently conveyed a distinction so inherently…