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265 N.C. 339

143 S.E.2d 809

Weeks Ex Rel. Weeks v. Barnard

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided September 22, 1965

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1965-09-22

Relies on Hughes v. . Thayer · Walston v. Greene · Ennis v. Dupree

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1965-09-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently July 2005

13 state decisions

7019651970198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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PER CüRiam.

¶1 Between the ages of 7 and 14, a minor is presumed to be incapable of contributory negligence. Ennis v. Dupree, 258 N.C. 141, 128 S.E. 2d 231; Phillips v. R. R., 257 N.C. 239, 125 S.E. 2d 603. This presumption, however, may be overcome by evidence that the child did not use the care which a child of its age, capacity, discretion, knowledge, and experience would ordinarily have exercised under the same or similar circumstances. Walston v. Greene, 247 N.C. 693, 102 S.E. 2d 124; Caudle v. R. R., 202 N.C. 404, 163 S.E. 122. A child “must exercise care and prudence equal to his capacity.” Tart v. R. R., 202 N.C. 52, 55, 161 S.E. 720, 721; see also Hughes v. Thayer, 229 N.C. 773, 51 S.E. 2d 488; Annot., 107 A.L.R. 4, 40, 94. If it fails to exercise such care and the failure is one of the proximate causes of the injuries in suit, the child cannot recover. Morris v. Sprott, 207 N.C. 358, 177 S.E. 13; Tart v. R. R., supra; Foard v. Power Co., 170 N.C. 48, 86 S.E. 804, and cases therein cited.

¶2 The trial judge fully explained these and all other applicable principles of law to the jury. After carefully considering his charge as a whole we find no reasonable cause to believe that the jury was misinformed or misled by it. A new trial is not warranted.

¶3 No error.

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