| Venue: | NY Ct. App. |
| Facts: | Martin and wife were riding in a buggy with no lights. Herzog was in a car, on the wrong side of the road. It was night. Smash-up! Martin is dead. |
| Posture: | Finding for the plaintiff at trial, reversed on appeal, new trial ordered. |
| Issue: | Was the jury instruction (that the jury "could consider" the absence of lights) misleading and inapproriate? (i.e., was Martin the cause of his own death?) |
| Holding: | Yes. The reversal is affirmed, directed judgment for the defendant (by some stipulation agreement). |
| Rule: | There's a safety statute saying you need to have lights. Juries can't decide that these requirements are optional. |
| Reasoning: | Failing to have lights is, per se a failure to take adequate care. |
| Dicta: | This is Cardozo. |