Pennsylvania Railroad v. Hope
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Chester county: Of January Term 1876, No. 9. This was an action on the case issued May 15th 1874, by Thomas Hope, against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The cause of action was injury sustained by defendant from the burning of his fences, grass and wood by fire thrown from an engine of the defendants through negligence. The plaintiff was the owner of a tract of land in Chester county, through which the Pennsylvania Railroad passes.
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Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Chester county: Of January Term 1876, No. 9. This was an action on the case issued May 15th 1874, by Thomas Hope, against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The cause of action was injury sustained by defendant from the burning of his fences, grass and wood by fire thrown from an engine of the defendants through negligence. The plaintiff was the owner of a tract of land in Chester county, through which the Pennsylvania Railroad passes. On the 18th of March 1873, about 10 a. m., after the mail train westward had passed the plaintiff’s farm, it was…
1Opinion of the CourtChief Justice Asnew
Two principal questions arise in this case. The first has relation to the fact of negligence as causing the fire, and the second to the nearness or remoteness of the injury to the negligence causing it. The first three assignments of error belong to the former, and the fourth to the latter.
*377The court submitted to the jury the question of actual negligence. This was proper. The complaint is not that negligence is not a fact to be determined by them, but that the evidence of it was too weak, while the testimony of the defendant was strong and pointed, that their engine was in good order, well…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Fent v. Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway Co.Illinois Supreme Court · 1871
3Cited by25 opinions
- Thomas v. Central RailroadSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1900
- Nirdlinger v. American District Telegraph Co.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1914
- Haverly v. State Line R.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1890
- Gudfelder v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1904
- Propert v. FlanaganSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1923
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