TITLE VII. 

 INJURIES TO ANIMALS BY RAILWAYS. 



CHAPTER II. 



LIABILITY UNDER THE STATUTES REGULATING FENCES. 



138. General liability for failure to 141. Cattle-guards. 



fence. 142. Where fences are necessary; 



139. To what owners the company station grounds. 



is liable. 143. Action; parties; pleading. 



140. Crossings; gates. 144. Evidence; damages. 



138. General Liability for Failure to Fence. — At the common 

 law it is not necessary that railway companies should erect 

 and maintain fences in order to keep animals off their tracks, 

 though they are bound to use every reasonable care to pre- 

 vent such straying.^ In many of the States this rule still pre- 

 vails and the company, in the absence of negligence, is not 

 liable for injuring or killing an animal on an unfenced track." 

 In other States, though the company is not obliged by law 

 to fence, the absence of a fence where one might have been 



^ Buxton I'. North Eastern R. Co., L. R. 3 Q. B. 549; Vandegrift v. 

 Delaware R. Co., 2 Houst. (Del.) 287; Campbell v. N. Y. & N. E. R. 

 Co., so Conn. 128. 



' See Locke v. St. Paul & Pac. R. Co., 15 Minn. 350; Day v. New 

 Orleans Pac. R. Co., 36 La. Ann. 244; Jones -v. Western N. C. R. Co., 

 9S N. C. 328; New York & Erie R. Co. v. Skinner, 19 Pa. St. 298; Pa. R. 

 Co. z>. Riblet, 66 id. 164; Layne v. Ohio River R. Co., 35 W. Va. 438; Gulf, 

 C. &. S. F. R. Co. V. EUidge, 49 Fed. Rep. 356; Chic, R. L & P. R. Co. 

 V. Woodworth (Ind. Ty.), 35 S. W. Rep. 238. 

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