Hanlon Drydock & Shipbuilding Co. v. Southern Pacific Co.

Plaintiffs sued for damages alleged to have been caused by defendant’s negligence in permitting one of its freight trains to remain standing an unreasonable length of time across the public streets leading into the plant of the Hanlon Drydock and Shipbuilding Company located on the waterfront in East Oakland. The damage to plaintiffs is alleged to have resulted from a fire which broke out in this plant and which could not be reached by the fire department because the only means of ingress were obstructed by defendant’s train. The cause was tried before a jury, which returned a verdict for the defendant. The trial judge granted plaintiff’s motion for a new trial upon the grounds of insufficiency of the evidence and that the verdict was against law. Defendant has appealed from this order upon a typewritten transcript. As the Hanlon Drydock and Shipbuilding Company is the real party in interest, we will hereafter refer to it as the plaintiff and respondent.

In appeals of this nature, where a new trial has been granted on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence, the action of the trial judge “is conclusive upon the appellate court, unless there has been an abuse of discretion”…