Hughes

Plaintiffs sued for damages for the death of Taza M. Hughes. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiffs in the sum of $24,500, and from the judgment on, the verdict the defendants appeal upon typewritten transcripts.

The defendant railway company operates a main line railway through Contra Costa County which is crossed at a flag station known as Nichols by a private road running to the plant of the General Chemical Company. On March 12, 1926, at about 3:30 P. M. Mrs. Hughes drove in a Chevrolet sedan over this crossing to the office of the chemical company where she met a deputy registrar of voters and was duly registered. She returned soon after along the same road, and while crossing the tracks of the railway company was struck by a through train and killed. Mrs. Hughes was a school-teacher employed in a public school at Nichols and was thoroughly familiar with this crossing. Leaving the plant of the chemical company the road went over a bridge covering the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Along the top of this bridge a railing was maintained about the height of the middle of the glass on the door of the Chevrolet. Following the bridge in the direction of the…