Fisher

Appeal from judgment and order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

Action for damages through alleged negligence of defendant, a common carrier of passengers for hire.

On the 29th of August, 1889, defendant was operating a railroad between Oakdale, in the county of Stanislaus, and Stockton. On that day plaintiff purchased a ticket at the office in Oakdale, and immediately boarded the train for Stockton. The train was composed of one empty box-car, eight empty gravel-cars, two loaded boxcars, and a passenger-car. It was a regular train, principally for freight, but habitually carried passengers, and tickets were always sold at the ticket-office for this train. It is shown to have been so run for a period of four years before the injuries complained of. At this time there were some fourteen passengers on the train.

At a place called Burnett’s Station, where there was a gravel pit, the train made a stop to exchange its eight empty gravel-cars for nine loaded gravel-cars. To accomplish this, the engine, the empty box-car, and the gravel-cars separated from the other cars, ran up the main track past the switch, leaving the two loaded box *404 cars and the passenger-car with…

— I concur in the judgment. The court erred in permitting the attorney for the plaintiff, upon the cross-examination of the witness Dr. Woolsey, to read extracts from certain medical books, and then ask the witness whether he agreed with the same or not. (Marshall v. Brown, 50 Mich. 148 ; City of Bloomington v. Shrock, 110 Ill. 22 ; 51 Am. Rep. 678 ; Rogers on Expert Testimony, secs. 181, 182.) It is not *410 permissible, on cross-examination, to call the attention of such a witness to what is said on the subject to which he is testifying, hy standard works, for the purpose of testing his general knowledge or competency as an expert. It has been held, however, that when an expert asserts that his opinion agrees with a particular author, it is not improper to call his attention to what that particular author says, for the purpose of contradicting him. But there was nothing in the evidence of Dr. Woolsey to justify reading to him, and in the presence of the jury, the extracts referred to, for any such purpose. I think, also, that as the evidence does not establish a case for punitive damages, the sum awarded by the verdict is excessive.