US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

TEXAS & PACIFIC RAILWAY CO. V. CODY, 166 U. S. 606 (1897)

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U.S. Supreme Court

Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Cody, 166 U.S. 606 (1897)

Texas & Pacific Railway Company v. Cody

Argued and submitted March 29, 1897

Decided April 19, 1897

166 U.S. 606

Syllabus

The plaintiff in his declaration described himself as a resident in Texas, and the defendant as a railway company created and existing under the laws of Texas. The railway company was in fact a corporation organized under and by virtue of acts of Congress, and in a petition for the removal of the action from a state court of Texas to the federal court, set that forth as a ground for removal, and the petition was granted, and the case was removed to the circuit court of the United States and tried and decided there. Held, that the circuit court properly entertained jurisdiction.

In an action against a railroad company to recover damages for injuries received by a person traveling on a highway by a collision at a crossing of the railroad by the highway at grade, an instruction to the jury that the obligations, rights and duties of railroads and travelers upon highways crossing them are mutual and reciprocal, and that no greater care is required chanrobles.com-red

Page 166 U. S. 607

of the one than of the other is substantially correct. Continental Improvement Co. v. Stead, 95 U. S. 161, followed.

The instructions as to damages were not incorrect. If the company desired particular instructions, it should have asked for them.

This was an action commenced by Henry D. Cody against the Texas & Pacific Railway Company in the District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, and removed by defendant to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Texas.

Plaintiff alleged in his petition that on March 4, 1892, he was injured at the crossing of the track of the defendant company over Jennings Avenue, in the City of Fort Worth, Texas, by the carelessness and negligence of the defendant and its agents and servants. Defendant demurred generally and pleaded the general issue, and, in special pleas, alleged the contributory negligence of plaintiff and his failure to exercise due care under the circumstances. The issues were submitted to a jury, which found a verdict in favor of plaintiff for the sum of $7,500, on which judgment was rendered. The case was taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the judgment affirmed, 67 F. 71, whereupon it was brought to this Court by writ of error.



























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