Nelson v. Southern Pacific Co.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment for the defendants in an action for damages for injuries sustained in a collision with a Southern Pacific Company passenger train at a crossing on Stockton Street in the city of San Jose. It is argued that the court committed error in the giving and refusing of instructions on negligence and contributory negligence, in the submission to the jury of a special interrogatory on the subject of contributory negligence which omitted the element of proximate' cause, in rulings on evidence and in communicating with the jury through the bailiff without the presence of counsel.

The accident occurred on a bright sunny afternoon, the street upon which the plaintiff approached the crossing ran at an oblique angle to the right of way on which there were five sets of tracks running approximately east and west. According to the plaintiff’s testimony, she stopped with the front of the car about eight feet from the first track and looked both ways. She saw nothing to the right, in which direction she had a clear view about a quarter of a mile. She did not look in that direction again. To the left she observed a freight train on the crossing on…