Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. Johnson

Brought by the parents and the brothers and sisters of Roger Johnson, age 12, and J. B. Johnson, Jr., age 10, who had been run over and killed while at and on a public crossing, the suit was for the damages recoverable under the Mississippi Statute. The claim was that their deaths were due to the negligence of the defendants, railroad company and Roden, its engineer, in not sounding the statutory signals and in not keeping a reasonable lookout in approaching the crossing. The defenses were (1) a denial of the negligence charged; (2) a claim that decedents, when struck, were not passing over, but were loitering on the tracks, and, therefore, were trespassers to whom there was no duty to give the statutory signals, and (3) that if there was negligence in respect of them, they were themselves guilty of contributory negligence.