In the Tullis v. Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company case of 1899, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company. The plaintiff, Tullis had sued for damages after a train collision resulted in injuries to his person and property. He alleged that the railroad company was negligent because they failed to provide sufficient warning about an approaching train at a crossing where he was driving his horse-drawn wagon. However, evidence showed that there were visible signals indicating an oncoming train which Tullis ignored or did not notice due to foggy weather conditions. The court held that while it is indeed incumbent upon railway companies to exercise reasonable care in preventing accidents at crossings by giving adequate warnings of approaching trains; individuals also have a duty to look out for their own safety when using such crossings especially under unfavorable conditions like foggy weather. Therefore, since both parties shared responsibility for what happened but only one (Tullis) suffered damage as a result; no liability could be imposed on the railroad company based on negligence alone without proof of willful misconduct or gross negligence which wasn't established in this case.

In the dissenting opinion for Tullis v. Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, Justice Harlan argued that the majority's decision was inconsistent with previous rulings of the court. He contended that a railroad company should be held liable for damages caused by its negligence, even if it had not been directly involved in causing an accident. In this case, he believed that the defendant railroad company was negligent because it failed to maintain safe conditions on its property which led to a fire spreading onto neighboring properties owned by Tullis. The majority ruled against holding the railroad responsible as they did not start or spread the fire intentionally but Justice Harlan disagreed stating their failure to prevent such incidents from occurring due to lack of maintenance is indeed negligence and thus they should bear responsibility for any damage caused.