Wetzel v. Birmingham Southern R. Co.

87 So. 96, 204 Ala. 619, 1920 Ala. LEXIS 298
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedOctober 28, 1920
Docket6 Div. 981.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 87 So. 96 (Wetzel v. Birmingham Southern R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wetzel v. Birmingham Southern R. Co., 87 So. 96, 204 Ala. 619, 1920 Ala. LEXIS 298 (Ala. 1920).

Opinion

SAYRE, J.

[1, 2] Plaintiff (appellant) was injured in a collision between the automobile he was driving and a locomotive engine drawing a train on defendant’s railroad. The place of the accident was a public road cross-, ing on a curve where the engineer could not see one-fourth of a mile ahead. In these circumstances the trial court erred in giving charge N at defendant’s request. This charge misplaced the burden of proof. Code, §§ 5473, 5476; Billingsley v. N. C. & St. L. Ry., 177 Ala. 346, 58 South. 433. And had the charge not been faulty in the respect pointed out, it should have been refused for the reason that, under our decisions, it would have exacted too high a degree of proof. Torrey v. Burney, 113 Ala. 496, 21 South 348; Lawrence v. Ala. State Land Co., 144 Ala. 524, 41 South. 612; Miller v. Whittington, 202 Ala. 406, 80 South. 499, where a number of cases are cited.

[3] Charges 41 and O should have been refused. It was legally possible under the evidence that the jury should find that defendant’s engineer had been guilty of wantonness, even though he did sound signals of approach. Charge N2 is open to the same criticism.

[4] Charge 25, given for defendant, does- *621 not define the degree of care required of an engineer after he discovers a person in peril as it has been defined in the decisions of this court. Brown v. Central of Georgia, 197 Ala. 71, 72 South. 366.

Reversed and remanded.

ANDERSON, C. J., and GARDNER and BROWN, JJ., concur.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Southern Ry. Co. v. Montgomery
157 So. 854 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1934)
Merritt v. Blackwell
93 So. 693 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1921)
Hill v. State
88 So. 295 (Alabama Court of Appeals, 1920)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 So. 96, 204 Ala. 619, 1920 Ala. LEXIS 298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wetzel-v-birmingham-southern-r-co-ala-1920.