A ninety-year-old patient walked away from a nursing home and wandered onto some nearby railroad tracks. Once on the tracks, the patient stumbled and sprained his ankle. A few minutes later a train approached. The engineer saw the man on the track and could have stopped, but the train's brakes were defective. As a result, the train hit and killed the man. His family is suing the railroad for negligence in a state that follows the contributory negligence doctrine. In this case,

Question

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The "last clear chance" doctrine allows for the plaintiff (or in this case, the plaintiff's estate) to recover damages even if the plaintiff was also negligent, provided the defendant had the final opportunity to avoid the accident but failed to do so. In this scenario, despite the patient's contributory negligence in wandering onto the tracks, the train engineer had the last clear chance to stop the train and avoid hitting the man but failed due to defective brakes. This allows for the estate's recovery under this doctrine.

A Ninety-Year-Old Patient Walked Away from a Nursing Home and Wandered