Chicago, M. & St.P. Ry. Co. v. Coogan, 271 U.S. 472 (1926)

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Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company v. Coogan

No. 268

Argued April 26, 1926
Decided June 1, 1926
271 U.S. 472

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

Syllabus

1. Upon review of a judgment of a state court in a case under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, this Court will examine the record, and if it is found that, as a matter of law, the evidence is not sufficient to sustain a finding that the carrier’s negligence was a cause of the death, judgment against the carrier will be reversed. P. 474.

2. Evidence considered and found to lend no substantial support to the contention that the death of plaintiff’s intestate, a brakeman who was run over by a car in a train which was in process of being made up and coupled, was caused or contributed to by a pipe near the rail which the railroad company had negligently permitted to remain in a bent condition. P. 474.

3. When circumstantial evidence is relied on to prove a fact, the circumstances must be proved, and not themselves presumed. P. 477.

4. It is the duty of the trial judge to direct a verdict for one of the parties when the testimony and all the inferences which the jury reasonably may draw therefrom would be insufficient to support a different finding. P. 478.

160 Minn. 411 reversed.

Certiorari to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota which sustained a recovery of damages in an action brought under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act by the administratrix of a brakeman who was killed by an accident.