## Facts

- Delaware Coach Company owned and operated a trolley involved in a collision with a truck owned by Savage.
- The collision occurred in an intersection controlled by traffic lights.
- The trolley driver was killed in the accident.
- Delaware Coach paid compensation benefits to the driver’s widow under workers’ compensation law.
- Delaware Coach sued Savage for negligence, seeking to recover the amounts it had paid as compensation.
- Delaware Coach presented witnesses who testified that the traffic signal favored the trolley and not the truck at the time of the collision.
- Savage presented witnesses who testified that the traffic signal favored the truck and not the trolley at the time of the collision.
- The trial judge found the competing testimony credible but conflicting on the key question of which vehicle had the green light.

## Issues

1. Whether Delaware Coach proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Savage’s negligence caused the collision when the evidence on the traffic signal was evenly balanced.

## Decision

- Judgment for Savage.
- The court held that Delaware Coach did not meet its burden of proof because the evidence did not tip in its favor on the decisive fact of which driver had the green light, so negligence by Savage was not established by a preponderance of the evidence.

## Legal Principles

- A plaintiff in a negligence action bears the burden to prove the defendant’s negligence by a preponderance of the evidence.
- When the factfinder concludes that the credible evidence on a controlling issue is in equal balance, the party with the burden of proof fails on that issue.
- A court may believe that an accident resulted from someone’s negligence yet still deny recovery if the plaintiff cannot prove that the defendant was the negligent actor.

## Conclusion

Because the testimony about which vehicle had the green light was credible on both sides and left the evidence in equipoise, Delaware Coach did not prove Savage’s negligence by a preponderance of the evidence and could not recover the compensation amounts it paid to the driver’s widow.


Delaware Coach Co. v. Savage, 81 F. Supp. 293 (1948)