Question

At 7:50 pm the lights flashed red indicating that a train was approaching. David Harris walked past the yellow line telling people to stand back and walked onto the tracks. Two men told him to get off and the train's engineer also saw him, however it was too late. The train killed him going at 55 mph. His wife sued the railroad company saying that their negligence caused her husband's death. Evaluate the widow's argument.

Answer 1

Answer with Explanation:

The negligence act would be used here and for a plaintiff to prove to win the suit following four factors must have to be proved which are:

1. Duty of care
2. Breach
3. Cause
4. Harm

Part 1. Duty of Care

The railroad company owed a duty of care to every person rail station and the way they had exercised this duty of care was in the form of red light that David Harris saw, which means they exercised reasonable duty of care to avoid the misshapen. This means the duty of care that David Harris owes to himself was not crossing the yellow line.

Part 2. Breach

In fact David Harris was the one to avoid the red light signal and was out of the yellow line. So the breach of duty of care was of David Harris not of the railroad company.

Part 3. Cause

The cause of the breach of duty of care by David Harris was negligence because neither was the railroad signals were allowing him nor he was saving somebody else's life.

Part 4. Harm

Yes, the negligence of David Harris resulted in his death which is the most harm a person can suffer.

Conclusion:

As only harm was satisfactory not the other 3 factors were in the favor of plaintiff, so the widow's argument is incorrect and David Harris was negligent not the railroad company. Hence railroad company owes nothing in compensation to the David Harris's widow.