A SELECTION OF CASES
ON
THE LAW OF TORTS

This edition was first published in four parts. Part I (pp. 1–167) appeared September 25, 1916; part II (pp. 168–368), December 1, 1916; part III (pp. 369–618), February 20, 1917, and part IV (pp. 619–1008), April 23, 1917.

The chief occasion for this edition is the change in the first-year curriculum in Harvard Law School, which assigned to other courses many things formerly appropriated to the course in the Law of Torts and hence treated in former editions. Thus causation is now treated in a course on the Principles of Legal Liability; certain excuses, such as consent and self-defence, are dealt with in that course, and trespass to land and conversion, which analytically might well be treated in the first chapter of this book, have been thought more appropriate to the course on the Law of Property. But the student should be warned that such matters of arrangement do not inhere in the law. They are mere matters of pedagogical expediency. He should bear in mind that the law is a unit and should be on his guard against thinking of it as made up of separate water-tight compartments. General principles which are of prime importance in connection with the subjects treated in this book are dealt with primarily in the courses on Property and on Criminal Law. Not the least important task for the student is to seek constantly for these relations between the subjects studied.

Again, the student should be warned that the arrangement proceeds upon pedagogical considerations and does not seek to set forth an analytical system. System is to be derived from study of the cases. The effort of the student to make one in connection with his summaries for review and his reading of the systematic discussions referred to in the notes will do more for him than learning in advance a system laid out by some one else. Similar reasons have led to omission of subheadings as far as consistent with convenience, leaving it to the student to systematize the main headings for himself. For other purposes an index is offered instead.

In arrangement of the cases advantage has been taken of the experience of the late Dean Thayer, who had given the matter anxious consideration for some years. Indeed the instinct of Dean Ames for teachable cases, the sagacity of Judge Smith in finding significant cases, and the judgment of Dean Thayer in matters of arrangement left little of moment for the present editor to do.

Note. The present volume is a reprint of the edition of 1916–17 which was not stereotyped and was soon exhausted. A few recent decisions have been added in the notes. Otherwise there is no change.

CHAPTER I
INTENTIONAL INTERFERENCE

Section I
Assault and Battery

I. De S. and Wife v. W. De S.
At the Assizes, coram Thorpe, C. J., 1348 or 1349.
Reported in Year Book, Liber Assisarum, folio 99, placitum 60.

I. De S. & M. uxor ejus querunt de W. De S. de eo quod idem W. anno, &c., vi et armis, &c., apud S., in ipsam M. insultum fecit, et ipsam verberavit, &c. And W. pleaded not guilty. And it was found by verdict of the inquest that the said W. came in the night to the house of the said I., and would have bought some wine, but the door of the tavern was closed; and he struck on the door with a hatchet, which he had in his hand, and the woman plaintiff put her head out at a window and ordered him to stop; and he perceived her and struck with the hatchet, but did not touch the woman. Whereupon the inquest said that it seemed to them that there was no trespass, since there was no harm done. Thorpe C. J. There is harm, and a trespass for which they shall recover damages, since he made an assault upon the woman, as it is found, although he did no other harm. Wherefore tax his damages, &c. And they taxed the damages at half a mark. Thorpe, C. J., awarded that they should recover their damages, &c., and that the other should be taken. Et sic nota, that for an assault one shall recover damages, &c.^[1]

Action of assault, battery, and wounding.^[2] The evidence to prove a provocation was, that the plaintiff put his hand upon his sword and said, “If it were not assize-time, I would not take such language from you.” The question was, if that were an assault? The court agreed that it was not; for the declaration of the plaintiff was that he would not assault him, the judges being in town; and the intention as well as the act makes an assault.^[3] Therefore, if one strike another upon the hand or arm or breast, in discourse, it is no assault, there being no intention to assault; but if one, intending to assault, strike at another and miss him, this is an assault: so if he hold up his hand against another in a threatening manner and say nothing, it is an assault. In the principal case the plaintiff had judgment.

STEPHENS v. MYERS
At Nisi Prius, coram Tindal, C. J., July 17, 1830.
Reported in 4 Carrington & Payne, 349.

Assault. The declaration stated that the defendant threatened and attempted to assault the plaintiff. Plea: Not guilty.

It appeared that the plaintiff was acting as chairman at a parish meeting, and sat at the head of a table, at which table the defendant also sat, there being about six or seven persons between him and the plaintiff. The defendant having, in the course of some angry discussion which took place, been very vociferous, and interrupted the proceedings of the meeting, a motion was made that he should be turned out, which was carried by a very large majority. Upon this the defendant said he would rather pull the chairman out of the chair than be turned out of the room, and immediately advanced with his fist clenched toward the chairman, but was stopped by the churchwarden, who sat next but one to the chairman, at a time when he was not near enough for any blow he might have meditated to have 3reached the chairman, but the witnesses said that it seemed to them that he was advancing with an intention to strike the chairman.

Spankie, Serjt., for the defendant, upon this evidence, contended that no assault had been committed, as there was no power in the defendant, from the situation of the parties, to execute his threat,—there was not a present ability,—he had not the means of executing his intention at the time he was stopped.

Tindal, C. J., in his summing up, said: It is not every threat, when there is no actual personal violence, that constitutes an assault; there must, in all cases, be the means of carrying the threat into effect. The question I shall leave to you will be, whether the defendant was advancing at the time, in a threatening attitude, to strike the chairman, so that his blow would almost immediately have reached the chairman if he had not been stopped; then, though he was not near enough at the time to have struck him, yet, if he was advancing with that intent, I think it amounts to an assault in law. If he was so advancing that, within a second or two of time, he would have reached the plaintiff, it seems to me it is an assault in law. If you think he was not advancing to strike the plaintiff, then only can you find your verdict for the defendant; otherwise you must find it for the plaintiff, and give him such damages as you think the nature of the case requires.

READ v. COKER
In the Common Pleas, June 1, 1853.
Reported in 13 Common Bench Reports, 850.

Assault and false imprisonment.^[5] The first count charged an assault committed by the defendant on the plaintiff on the 24th of March, 1853, by thrusting him out of a certain workshop.

Plea: Not guilty “by statute,” upon which issue was joined.

The cause was tried before Talfourd, J., at the first sitting in London in Easter term last. The facts which appeared in evidence were as follows: The plaintiff was a paper-stainer, carrying on business in the City Road, upon premises which he rented of one Molineux, at a rent 4of 8s. per week. In January, 1852, the rent being sixteen weeks in arrear, the landlord employed one Holliwell to distrain for it. Holliwell accordingly seized certain presses, lathes, and other trade fixtures, and, at the plaintiff’s request, advanced him £16 upon the security of the goods, for the purpose of paying off the rent. The plaintiff, being unable to redeem his goods, on the 23d of February applied to the defendant for assistance. The goods were thereupon sold to the defendant by Holliwell, on the part of Read, for £25 11s. 6d.; and it was agreed between the plaintiff and the defendant that the business should be carried on for their mutual benefit, the defendant paying the rent of the premises and other outgoings, and allowing the plaintiff a certain sum weekly.

The defendant, becoming dissatisfied with the speculation, dismissed the plaintiff on the 22d of March. On the 24th, the plaintiff came to the premises, and, refusing to leave when ordered by the defendant, the latter collected together some of his workmen, who mustered round the plaintiff, tucking up their sleeves and aprons, and threatened to break his neck if he did not go out; and, fearing that the men would strike him if he did not do so, the plaintiff went out. This was the assault complained of in the first count. Upon this evidence the learned judge left it to the jury to say whether there was an intention on the part of the defendant to assault the plaintiff, and whether the plaintiff was apprehensive of personal violence if he did not retire. The jury found for the plaintiff on this count. Damages, one farthing.

Byles, Serjt., on a former day in this term, moved for a rule nisi for a new trial, on the ground of misdirection, and that the verdict was not warranted by the evidence. That which was proved as to the first count clearly did not amount to an assault. [Jervis, C. J. It was as much an assault as a sheriff’s officer being in a room with a man against whom he has a writ, and saying to him, “You are my prisoner,” is an arrest.] To constitute an assault, there must be something more than a threat of violence. An assault is thus defined in Buller’s Nisi Prius, p. 15: “An assault is an attempt or offer, by force or violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by pointing a pitchfork at him, when standing within reach; presenting a gun at him [within shooting distance]; drawing a sword, and waving it in a menacing manner, &c. The Queen v. Ingram, 1 Salk. 384. But no words can amount to an assault, though perhaps they may in some cases serve to explain a doubtful action: 1 Hawk. P. C. 133; as if a man were to lay his hand upon his sword, and say, ‘If it were not assize-time, he would not take such language,’—the words would prevent the action from being construed to be an assault, because they show he had no intent to do him any corporal hurt at that time: Tuberville v. Savage.” So, in Selwyn’s Nisi Prius (11th ed.), 26, it is said: “An assault is an attempt, with force or violence, to do a corporal 5injury to another, as by holding up a fist in a menacing manner; striking at another with a cane or stick, though the party striking may miss his aim; drawing a sword or bayonet; throwing a bottle or glass with intent to wound or strike; presenting a gun at a person who is within the distance to which the gun will carry; pointing a pitchfork at a person who is within reach (Genner v. Sparks); or by any other similar act, accompanied with such circumstances as denote at the time an intention, coupled with a present ability (see Stephens v. Myers), of using actual violence against the person of another.” So, in 3 Bl. Comm. 120, an assault is said to be “an attempt or offer to beat another, without touching him; as if one lifts up his cane or his fist in a threatening manner at another, or strikes at him but misses him: this is an assault, insultus, which Finch (L. 202) describes to be ‘an unlawful setting upon one’s person.’” [Jervis, C. J. If a man comes into a room, and lays his cane on the table, and says to another, “If you don’t go out I will knock you on the head,” would not that be an assault?] Clearly not: it is a mere threat, unaccompanied by any gesture or action towards carrying it into effect. The direction of the learned judge as to this point was erroneous. He should have told the jury that to constitute an assault there must be an attempt, coupled with a present ability, to do personal violence to the party; instead of leaving it to them, as he did, to say what the plaintiff thought, and not what they (the jury) thought was the defendant’s intention. There must be some act done denoting a present ability and an intention to assault.

A rule nisi having been granted,

Allen, Serjt., and Charnock now showed cause. The first question is, whether the evidence was sufficient, as to the first count, to justify the learned judge in putting it to the jury whether or not the defendant had been guilty of an assault. The evidence was, that the plaintiff was surrounded by the defendant and his men, who, with their sleeves and aprons tucked up, threatened to break his neck if he did not quit the workshop. [Maule, J. If there can be such a thing as an assault without an actual beating, this is an assault.]

Jervis, C. J. I am of opinion that this rule cannot be made absolute to its full extent; but that, so far as regards the first count of the declaration, it must be discharged. If anything short of actual striking will in law constitute an assault, the facts here clearly showed that the defendant was guilty of an assault. There was a threat of violence exhibiting an intention to assault, and a present ability to carry the threat into execution.

Maule, J., Cresswell, J., and Talfourd, J., concurring.

Indictment for an assault upon one Susan Shelton.

The evidence was that the defendant came into the house where Mrs. Shelton was sitting at a window. He was armed with a musket and a club; and raising the club over her head, in an attitude for striking, and within striking distance, said to her that if she said a word (or if she opened her mouth) he would strike her; and this without any provocation on her part.

Mr. Bradley and Mr. Hoban, for the defendant, contended that this was not, in law, an assault; that there can be no assault without a present intent to strike; and his saying, “if she opened her mouth,” showed that he had not such a present intent; and they cited the old case, “if it were not the assizes, I would stab you.”

But the Court (Thurston, J., absent) said that he had no right to restrain her from speaking; and his language showed an intent to strike upon her violation of a condition which he had no right to impose. Suppose a stranger comes to my house armed, and raises his club over my head, within striking distance, and threatens to beat me unless I will go out of and abandon my house; surely that would be an assault. So, if a highwayman puts a pistol to my breast, and threatens to shoot me unless I give him my money; this would be evidence of an assault, and would be charged as such in the indictment.

OSBORN v. VEITCH
At Nisi Prius, coram Willes, J., Kent Summer Assizes, 1858.
Reported in 1 Foster & Finlason, 317.

Trespass and assault. Pleas: Not guilty, and son assault demesne. Issue.

The plaintiffs were owners of a field in which the defendants were walking with loaded guns at half-cock in their hands. The plaintiffs desired them to withdraw and give their names, and on their refusal advanced towards them, apparently as if to apprehend them. The defendants half raised their guns, which they pointed towards them, 7and threatened to shoot them. The plaintiffs (one of whom was a constable) then gave them in charge to a policeman for shooting with intent, and he, with their assistance, seized and handcuffed them.

E. James submitted that there was no assault; as the guns were only at half-cock, there was no “present ability” to execute the threat. Read v. Coker.

Sed per Willes, J. Pointing a loaded gun at a person is in law an assault. It is immaterial that it is at half-cock; cocking it is an instantaneous act, and there is a “present ability” of doing the act threatened, for it can be done in an instant.^[8]

E. James. The assault was in self-defence; the defendants were only trespassers, and there was an attempt to apprehend them, and excess is not even assigned. Broughton v. Jackson, 18 Q. B. 378.

Willes, J. It was not necessary that it should be. To shoot a man is not a lawful way of repelling an assault. No doubt the charge of shooting with intent was idle, and the assault was only a misdemeanor. The handcuffing was utterly unlawful.

BEACH v. HANCOCK
Superior Court of Judicature, New Hampshire, December Term, 1853.
Reported in 27 New Hampshire Reports, 223.

Trespass, for an assault.

Upon the general issue it appeared that, the plaintiff and defendant being engaged in an angry altercation, the defendant stepped into his office, which was at hand, and brought out a gun, which he aimed at the plaintiff in an excited and threatening manner, the plaintiff being three or four rods distant. The evidence tended to show that the defendant snapped the gun twice at the plaintiff, and that the plaintiff did not know whether the gun was loaded or not, and that, in fact, the gun was not loaded.

The court ruled that the pointing of a gun, in an angry and threatening manner, at a person three or four rods distant, who was ignorant whether the gun was loaded or not, was an assault, though it should appear that the gun was not loaded, and that it made no difference whether the gun was snapped or not.

The court, among other things, instructed the jury that, in assessing the damages, it was their right and duty to consider the effect which the finding of light or trivial damages in actions for breaches 8of the peace would have to encourage a disregard of the laws and disturbances of the public peace.

The defendant excepted to these rulings and instructions.

The jury having found a verdict for the plaintiff, the defendant moved for a new trial by reason of said exceptions.

Morrison and Fitch, for the defendant. The first question arising in this case is, Is it an assault to point an unloaded gun at a person in a threatening manner? An assault is defined to be an inchoate violence to the person of another, with the present means of carrying the intent into effect. 2 Greenl. Ev. 72. The attempt or offer with violence to do corporal hurt to another must be coupled with a present ability to constitute an assault. Roscoe’s Crim. Ev. 287; 1 Russell on Crimes, 750. It is no assault to point an unloaded gun or pistol at another, &c. Blake v. Barnard, 9 Car. & P. 626; Regina v. Baker, 1 Car. & K. 254; Regina v. James, 1 Car. & K. 530. The court erred in instructing the jury that the pointing of a gun in an angry and threatening manner was an assault. It is well settled that the intention to do harm is the essence of an assault, and this intent is to be collected by the jury from the circumstances of the case. 2 Greenl. Ev. 73.^[9]

Gilchrist, C. J. Several cases have been cited by the counsel of the defendant to show that the ruling of the court was incorrect. Among them is the case of Regina v. Baker, 1 Car. & K. 254. In that case, the prisoner was indicted under the statute of 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 85, for attempting to discharge a loaded pistol. Rolfe, B., told the jury that they must consider whether the pistol was in such a state of loading that, under ordinary circumstances, it would have gone off, and that the statute under which the prisoner was indicted would then apply. He says, also, “If presenting a pistol at a person, and pulling the trigger of it, be an assault at all, certainly, in the case where the pistol was loaded, it must be taken to be an attempt to discharge the pistol with intent to do some bodily injury.”

From the manner in which this statement is made, the opinion of the court must be inferred to be, that presenting a loaded pistol is an assault. There is nothing in the case favorable to the defendant. The statute referred to relates to loaded arms.

The case of Regina v. James, 1 Car. & K. 530, was an indictment for attempting to discharge a loaded rifle. It was shown that the priming was so damp that it would not go off. Tindal, C. J., said: “I am of opinion that this was not a loaded arm within the statute of 1 Vict. c. 85, and that the prisoner can neither be convicted of the felony nor of the assault. It is only an assault to point a loaded pistol at any one, and this rifle is proved not to be so loaded as to be able to be discharged.” The reason why the prisoner could not be convicted of the assault is given in the case of Regina v. St. George, 9 Car. & P. 9483, where it was held that on an indictment for a felony, which includes an assault, the prisoner ought not to be convicted of an assault, which is quite distinct from the felony charged, and on such an indictment the prisoner ought only to be convicted of an assault, which is involved in the felony itself. In this case, Parke, B., said: “If a person presents a pistol which has the appearance of being loaded, and puts the party into fear and alarm, that is what it is the object of the law to prevent.” So if a person present a pistol purporting to be a loaded pistol at another, and so near as to have been dangerous to life if the pistol had gone off; semble, that this is an assault, even though the pistol were, in fact, not loaded. Ibid.

In the case of Blake v. Barnard, 9 Car. & P. 626, which was trespass for an assault and false imprisonment, the declaration alleged that the pistol was loaded with gunpowder, ball, and shot, and it was held that it was incumbent on the plaintiff to make that out. Lord Abinger then says, “If the pistol was not loaded, it would be no assault,” and the prisoner would be entitled to an acquittal, which was undoubtedly correct, under that declaration, for the variance. Regina v. Oxford, 9 Car. & P. 525.

One of the most important objects to be attained by the enactment of laws and the institutions of civilized society is, each of us shall feel secure against unlawful assaults. Without such security society loses most of its value. Peace and order and domestic happiness, inexpressibly more precious than mere forms of government, cannot be enjoyed without the sense of perfect security. We have a right to live in society without being put in fear of personal harm. But it must be a reasonable fear of which we complain. And it surely is not unreasonable for a person to entertain a fear of personal injury, when a pistol is pointed at him in a threatening manner, when, for aught he knows, it may be loaded, and may occasion his immediate death. The business of the world could not be carried on with comfort, if such things could be done with impunity.

We think the defendant guilty of an assault, and we perceive no reason for taking any exception to the remarks of the court. Finding trivial damages for breaches of the peace—damages incommensurate with the injury sustained—would certainly lead the ill-disposed to consider an assault as a thing that might be committed with impunity. But at all events, it was proper for the jury to consider whether such a result would or would not be produced. Flanders v. Colby, 28 N. H. 34.

On exceptions, and motion to set aside the verdict as being against law.

Trespass. The writ contained three counts: one for breaking and entering the plaintiffs’ close and carrying away the household furniture; the second, for taking and carrying away the household furniture of the wife; and the third,^[11] for assault on the wife.

There was evidence tending to show that after entry and notice to leave, and refusal by the wife and her mother, with an expressed determination on their part to hold possession against the defendant, the latter called in assistants and ordered them to remove the furniture, and they did remove it from some of the rooms; that upon going to one of the rooms, the door was fastened, and the assistants opened it; that the furniture, except bed, was removed from Mrs. Stearns’ sleeping-room.

That the assistants remained there several days and nights.

That the defendant caused the windows to be removed; prevented food from being carried to the house; that a tenant was let into the L of the house, and had charge of the defendant’s bloodhound, five months old, and permitted him to go into the house; that the furniture was removed into a house near by, and Mrs. Stearns notified of its whereabouts; that the doors fastened by Mrs. Stearns were removed; that Mrs. Stearns finally left by compulsion with an officer, and was sick several weeks.

The rulings sufficiently appear in the opinion.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs, and the defendant alleged exceptions, and also filed motions to set aside the verdict as being against law and the weight of evidence.

Appleton, C. J. There is in the declaration a count for an assault and battery upon the female plaintiff. In reference to this branch of the case, the following instructions were given: “Was there a trespass committed upon the female plaintiff? She is the only one who seeks for damages. Whatever may have been the injury inflicted upon the other inmates of that house, she can recover on this suit only for that which was inflicted upon her. In order to constitute an assault, it is not necessary that the person should be touched, but 11there should be certain indignities. In the language of one of the decisions, if the plaintiff was embarrassed and distressed by the acts of the defendant, it would amount in law to an assault.” The acts and indignities which from the charge might constitute an assault were the bursting open a door, which the defendants had no right to fasten, and the inconveniences resulting from taking off the doors and taking out the windows, which made it uncomfortable for the female plaintiff to remain, where remaining, she was a trespasser. So the bringing a bloodhound by the defendant into his house, which is proved to have barked, but not to have bitten, and the making a noise therein, with other similar acts, it was contended, would amount to an assault and trespass, and of that the jury were to judge. Now, such is not the law. An assault and battery is clearly defined by R. S., c. 118, § 28, thus: “Whoever unlawfully attempts to strike, hit, touch, or do any violence to another, however small, in a wanton, wilful, angry, or insulting manner, having an intention and existing ability to do some violence to such person, shall be deemed guilty of an assault; and if such attempt is carried into effect, he shall be deemed guilty of an assault and battery.” Now, the removal of a door or windows, of the owner in possession, would constitute no assault. Indeed, as has been seen, 6 Allen, 76, the owner would, in attempting it, have the right to use as much force as was necessary to overcome the resistance of the unlawfully resisting and trespassing tenant. Acts which may embarrass and distress do not necessarily amount to an assault. Indignities may not constitute an assault. Acts aggravating an assault differ materially from the assault thereby aggravated. Insulting language or conduct may aggravate an assault, but it, not an assault.^[12] So the acts of the defendant in taking out the windows of 12his own house, in a bleak and cold day, might distress one unlawfully occupying and illegally refusing to quit his premises, but they could in no sense be regarded as an assault upon her. One may be embarrassed and distressed by acts done “in a wanton, wilful, angry, or insulting manner,” where there is no “intention nor existing ability to do some violence” to the person, and yet there be no assault. The instruction on this point is equally at variance with the common law and the statute of the State.^[13]

COLE v. TURNER
At Nisi Prius, coram Holt, C. J., Easter Term, 1704.
Reported in 6 Modern Reports, 149.

Holt, C. J., upon evidence in trespass for assault and battery declared,—

First, That the least touching of another in anger^[14] is a battery.

Secondly, If two or more meet in a narrow passage, and, without any violence or design of harm, the one touches the other gently, it will be no battery.^[15]

Thirdly, If any of them use violence against the other, to force his way in a rude, inordinate manner, it will be a battery; or any struggle about the passage to that degree as may do hurt will be a battery.

Assault. Plea:^[16] Not guilty.

It further appeared that the plaintiff, on the 30th of November, 1843, went to a dinner of the society at Radley’s Hotel, and was prevented by a policeman named Douglas from entering the room; and it was proved by the policeman that he acted by order of the defendants.

With respect to the alleged assault, the policeman said, “The plaintiff tried to push by me into the room, and I prevented him;” but some of the other witnesses stated that the plaintiff tried to enter the room, and was pushed back.

Erle addressed the jury for the defendant. There is no assault here. The policeman, who must best know what was done, says that the plaintiff tried to push into the room, and he prevented him; and preventing a person from pushing into a room is no assault, the assault, if any, being rather on the other side.

Lord Denman, C. J. (in summing up). You will say, whether, on the evidence, you think that the policeman committed an assault on the plaintiff, or was merely passive. If the policeman was entirely passive, like a door or a wall put to prevent the plaintiff from entering the room, and simply obstructing the entrance of the plaintiff, no assault has been committed on the plaintiff, and your verdict will be for the defendant. The question is, Did the policeman take any active measures to prevent the plaintiff from entering the room, or did he stand in the doorway passive, and not move at all?

COWARD v. BADDELEY
In the Exchequer, April 19, 1859.
Reported in 4 Hurlstone & Norman, 478.

Declaration: That the defendant assaulted and beat the plaintiff, gave him in custody to a policeman, and caused him to be imprisoned in a police-station for twenty-four hours, and afterwards to be taken in custody along public streets before metropolitan police magistrates.

Pleas: First, Not guilty; third, That the plaintiff, within the Metropolitan Police District, assaulted the defendant, and therefore the defendant gave the plaintiff into custody to a police officer, who had view of the assault, in order that he might be taken before magistrates and dealt with according to law, &c.

14Whereupon issue was joined.

At the trial before Bramwell, B., at the London sittings in last Hilary term, the plaintiff proved that, on the night of the 31st of October, he was passing through High Street, Islington, and stopped to look at a house which was on fire. The defendant was directing a stream of water from the hose of an engine on the fire. The plaintiff said, “Don’t you see you are spreading the flames? Why don’t you pump on the next house?” He went away, and then came back and repeated these words several times, but did not touch the defendant. The defendant charged the plaintiff with assaulting him, and gave him into the custody of a policeman who was standing near.

The defendant swore that, on being interrupted by the plaintiff, he told him to get out of the way and mind his own business; that the plaintiff came up to him again, seized him by the shoulder, violently turned him round, exposed him to danger, and turned the water off the fire.

The learned judge told the jury that the question was whether an assault and battery had been committed; and he asked them, first, whether the plaintiff laid hands on the defendant; and, secondly, whether he did so hostilely. The jury found that the plaintiff did lay hands on the defendant, intending to attract his attention. Whereupon the learned judge ordered the verdict to be entered for the plaintiff, reserving leave to the defendant to move to enter a verdict for him if the court should be of opinion that he had wrongly directed the jury in telling them that, to find the issue on the third plea for the defendant, they must find that the plaintiff laid his hands upon him with a hostile intention.

Shee, Serjt., in the same term, having obtained a rule nisi accordingly.

Beasley now showed cause. The question is, whether the intention of the plaintiff is material to be considered in order to determine whether there was an assault and battery. In Rawlings v. Till, 3 M. & W. 28, Parke, B., referring to Wiffin v. Kincard, 2 B. & P. N. R. 471, where it was held that a touch given by a constable’s staff does not constitute a battery, pointed out, as the ground of that decision, that there the touch was merely to engage the plaintiff’s attention. [Martin, B. Suppose two persons were walking near each other, and one turned round, and in so doing struck the other: surely that would not be a battery. Pollock, C. B. There may be a distinction for civil and criminal purposes. Channell, B. It was necessary to prove an indictable assault and battery in order to sustain the plea.] The maxim, Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea applies. He referred also to Pursell v. Horn, 8 A. & E. 602; Archbold’s Criminal Law, p. 524 (12th ed.); Scott v. Shepherd, 2 W. Bl. 892.

Petersdorff, Serjt., and Francis, in support of the rule. The learned judge’s direction was defective in introducing the word “hostile.” 15In order to constitute an assault, it is enough if the act be done against the will of the party. There are several cases where it has been held that an assault has been committed where there was no intention to do the act complained of in a hostile way, as in the case of a prizefight. Rex v. Perkins, 4 Car. & P. 537. So a surgeon assisting a female patient to remove a portion of her dress. Rex v. Rosinski 1 Moody C. C. 19. Here the plaintiff interfered with the defendant in the execution of his duty. In Hawkins’ Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. p. 263, it is said, “Any injury whatever, be it never so small, being actually done to the person of a man in an angry, or revengeful, or rude, or insolent manner, as by spitting in his face, or any way touching him in anger, or violently jostling him out of the way, are batteries in the eye of the law.” [Bramwell, B. I think that the jostling spoken of must mean a voluntary jostling.]

Pollock, C. B. I am of opinion that the rule must be discharged. The jury found that what the plaintiff did was done with the intent to attract the attention of the defendant, not with violence to justify giving the plaintiff into custody for an assault. The defendant treated it as a criminal act, and gave the plaintiff into custody. We are called on to set aside a verdict for the plaintiff, on the ground that he touched the defendant.^[17] There is no foundation for the application.

Martin, B. I am of the same opinion. The assault and battery which the defendant was bound to establish means such an assault as would justify the putting in force the criminal law for the purpose of bringing the plaintiff to justice. It is necessary to show some act which justified the interference of the police officer. Touching a person so as merely to call his attention, whether the subject of a civil action or not, is not the ground of criminal proceeding. It is clear that it is no battery within the definition given by Hawkins.

Channell, B. I am of the same opinion. Looking at the plea, it is obvious that it was not proved.

Bramwell, B., concurred.

DE MARENTILLE v. OLIVER
Supreme Court, New Jersey, February Term, 1808.
Reported in 1 Pennington, 379.

This was action of trespass, brought by the defendant in this court, against the plaintiff in certiorari. The state of demand charged the defendant below, that he unlawfully, forcibly, and with great violence, with a large stick, struck the horse of the plaintiff, on the public highway, which said horse was then before a carriage, in which the plaintiff was riding, on the said public highway, to the damage of the 16plaintiff fifty dollars. This cause was tried by a jury, and verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, $15 damages. It was assigned for error that the suit was brought before the justice to recover damages for an assault and battery, when, by law, such an action cannot be supported before a justice of the peace.

Pennington, J.^[18] To attack and strike with a club, with violence, the horse before a carriage, in which a person is riding, strikes me as an assault on the person;^[19] and if so, the justice had no jurisdiction of the action.

But if this is to be considered as a trespass on the property, unconnected with an assault on the person, I think that it was incumbent on the plaintiff below to state an injury done to the horse, whereby the plaintiff suffered damage; that he was in consequence of the blow bruised or wounded, and unable to perform service; or that the plaintiff had been put to expense in curing of him, or the like. All the precedents of declarations for injuries done to domestic animals, as far as my recollection goes, are in that way; and I think, with good reason. Suppose a man, seeing a stranger’s horse in the street, was to strike him with a whip, or a large stick, if you please, and no injury was to ensue, could the owner of the horse maintain an action for this act? I apprehend not. For these reasons, I incline to think, that this judgment ought to be reversed.

Kirkpatrick, C. J. Concurred in the reversal.

OBERLIN v. UPSON
Supreme Court, Ohio, January Term, 1911.
Reported in 84 Ohio State Reports, 111.

Davis, J.^[20] Under the common law of England as it has been recognized and administered in this country, a woman cannot maintain against her seducer an action for damages arising from her own seduction. This is frankly admitted by the counsel for the plaintiff in error; but they ask a reversal of the judgment below upon the ground that the plaintiff was induced to consent to the solicitations of the defendant by a betrayal of the love and confidence which had been 17engendered in her by a period of courtship and by a promise of marriage made by him. Confessedly this is not an action ex contractu upon a promise of marriage, in which the seduction might be pleaded and proved as an aggravation of damages;^[21] but it is clearly an attempt to recover ex delicto. There is no averment of mutual promises or of an agreement to marry; and an analysis of the amended petition discloses no more than that the defendant’s promise was one of the blandishments by which he accomplished his purpose. The case, therefore, presents no exception to the common law rule; for there is no claim of fraud, violence or artifice other than mere solicitation.

The theory of the common law is that, since adultery and fornication are crimes,^[22] the woman is particeps criminis and hence that she cannot be heard to complain of a wrong which she helped to produce. It may be conceded that some of the arguments adduced here might be fairly persuasive if addressed to the legislature. Indeed in several of the states statutes have been enacted authorizing such an action; but a careful study of the decisions in those states, limiting and construing those statutes, raises a doubt whether the legislation is a real advance upon the common law. 8 Ann. Cas. 1115, note. There is, however, no such statute in this state and the common law rule applies.

The judgment of the circuit court is       Affirmed.^[23]

Spear, C. J., Shauck, Price, and Johnson, JJ., concur.

Donahue, J., not participating.

This was an action of trespass, assault, and battery, tried before Ellis, Judge, at the fall term, 1855, of New Hanover Superior Court.

The plaintiff proved the assault and battery; and there was evidence tending to show a mutual affray and fighting by consent.

But his Honor was of opinion, and so advised the jury, that notwithstanding the fact that the parties had mutually assented to an affray, the plaintiff was, nevertheless, entitled to recover; but that the fact relied on as a defence was proper to be considered by the jury in mitigation of damages. The defendant excepted to these instructions.

Nash, C. J. This case presents the question whether, when two men fight together, thereby committing an affray, either is guilty of an assault and battery upon the other. Justice Buller, in his Nisi Prius, at page 16, says, each does commit an assault and battery upon the other, and that each can maintain an action for it. He refers to a case at Abingdon, Boulter v. Clark, when Serjeant Hayward appeared for the defendant, and offered to prove that the parties fought by consent and insisted that this, under the maxim volenti non fit injuria, applied. Parker, Chief Baron, denied it, and said, “the fighting being unlawful, the consent of the plaintiff to fight would be no bar to his action, and that he was entitled to a verdict.” Mr. Stephens, in his Nisi Prius, 211, lays down the same doctrine: “If two men engage in a boxing match, an action can be sustained by either of them against the other, if an assault be made; because the act of boxing is unlawful, and the consent of the parties to fight cannot excuse the injury.”

There is said to be an imprisonment in any case where one is arrested by force and against his will, although it be on the high street or elsewhere, and not in a house, &c.^[25]

GENNER v. SPARKES
In the King’s Bench, Trinity Term, 1704.
Reported in 1 Salkeld, 79.

Genner, a bailiff, having a warrant against Sparkes, went to him in his yard, and, being at some distance, told him he had a warrant, and said he arrested him. Sparkes, having a fork in his hand, keeps off the bailiff from touching him, and retreats into his house. And this was moved as a contempt. Et per Curiam. The bailiff cannot have an attachment, for here was no arrest nor rescous. Bare words will not make an arrest; but if the bailiff had touched him, that had been an arrest,^[26] and the retreat a rescous, and the bailiff might have pursued and broke open the house, or might have had an attachment or a rescous against him; but as this case is, the bailiff has no remedy, but an action for the assault; for the holding up of the fork at him when he was within reach, is good evidence of that.^[27]

Trespass and false imprisonment. Pleas: Not guilty; and leave and license.

It was proved by a member of the plaintiff’s family that he was a flannel draper in Castle Street, Holborn, and that on the 3d of April he came home accompanied by the defendants, Cleaton and Lane; and that the plaintiff said Cleaton had arrested him at Mr. Sanders’s, in Holborn; that the plaintiff’s wife asked the defendant Lane, who was, in fact, clerk to Cleaton’s attorney, if he had any authority, and he said he had; and being asked his name, said, “My name is Selby of Chancery Lane.” Lane made several inquiries about the plaintiff’s property, and said he would give him time till eight o’clock in the evening; upon which the other defendant, Cleaton, said, “How can you do that? I will not allow you to give him any time at all.” It was proved that, in fact, Mr. Selby had no bailable process against the plaintiff. A witness was also called, who proved that, in conversation with the defendant Lane on the subject, he said it was a foolish piece of business; that Mr. Cleaton had caused him to do it; that he was very sorry for it, but he thought Mr. Cleaton would indemnify him. There was some uncertainty in the evidence of the conversation whether the defendant Lane admitted or not that he had taken the plaintiff by the arm.

According to the evidence of Mr. Sanders, at whose house the transaction commenced, the plaintiff was bargaining with him for the sale of some goods, and had just made out the invoice, which was lying before him, when the defendant Cleaton came in alone, and asked the plaintiff several times to pay the amount he owed him, or some money on account. The plaintiff said he would not; upon which Cleaton went just outside the door, and returned immediately, followed by the defendant Lane, and pointing to the plaintiff, said, “This is the gentleman.” The plaintiff tore up the invoice he had written, and threw it on the fire, and said, “I suppose I am to go with you.” The answer given was, “Yes.” The plaintiff and the two defendants went away together.

Talfourd, Serjt., for the defendant. No arrest has been proved. Sanders, who was present, says nothing of the laying hold of the plaintiff.

Tindal, C. J. The question is, whether the plaintiff went voluntarily from Mr. Sanders’s to his own house, or whether he went in consequence of the acts of the defendants. If you put your hand upon a man, or tell him he must go with you, and he goes, supposing you to 21have the power to enforce him, is not that an arrest? May you not arrest without touching a man?

White referred to the case of Arrowsmith v. Le Mesurier, 2 B. & P. N. R. 211.

Tindal, C. J. That is a case which has often been spoken of as going to the very extreme point; but in that case the jury found that the plaintiff went voluntarily with the officer. And in this case, if you can persuade the jury that the plaintiff went voluntarily, you may succeed.

Talfourd, Serjt., then addressed the jury for the defendants. There was no real compulsion. No writ was produced. It was only an endeavor by a manœuvre to make the plaintiff do what he ought, but would not, viz., pay the money which he owed.

Tindal, C. J., in summing up, told the jury, that, if the plaintiff was acting as an unwilling agent, at the time and against his own will when he went to his own house from that of Sanders, it was just as much an arrest as if the defendants had forced him along.

PIKE v. HANSON
Superior Court of Judicature, New Hampshire, December Term, 1838.
Reported in 9 New Hampshire Reports, 491.

Trespass, for an assault and false imprisonment on the 1st day of July, A.D. 1837. The action was commenced before a justice of the peace. The defendants pleaded severally the general issue. It appeared in evidence that the defendants were selectmen of the town of Madbury for the year 1836; that they assessed a list of taxes upon the inhabitants of said town, among whom was the plaintiff, and committed it to Nathan Brown, collector of said town, for collection. Brown, after having given due notice to the plaintiff, being in a room with her, called upon her to pay the tax, which she declined doing until arrested. He then told her that he arrested her, but did not lay his hand upon her; and thereupon she paid the tax.

Upon this evidence the defendants objected that the action could not be maintained, because there was no assault.

It did not appear that the defendants had been sworn, as directed by the statute of January 4, 1833. A verdict was taken for the plaintiff, subject to the opinion of the court.

22Wilcox, J.^[29] ... But it is contended that in the present case there has been no assault committed, and no false imprisonment. Bare words will not make an arrest: there must be an actual touching of the body; or, what is tantamount, a power of taking immediate possession of the body, and the party’s submission thereto. Genner v. Sparkes, 1 Salk. 79. Where a bailiff, having a writ against a person, met him on horseback, and said to him, “You are my prisoner,” upon which he turned back and submitted, this was held to be a good arrest, though the bailiff never laid hand on him. But if, on the bailiff’s saying those words, he had fled, it had been no arrest, unless the bailiff had laid hold of him. Homer v. Battyn, Buffer’s N. P. 62. The same doctrine is held in other cases. Russen v. Lucas & al., 1 Car. & P. 153; Chinn v. Morris, 2 Car. & P. 361; Pocock v. Moore, Ry. & M. 321; Strout v. Gooch, 8 Greenl. 126; Gold v. Bissell, 1 Wend. 210.

Where, upon a magistrate’s warrant being shown to the plaintiff, the latter voluntarily and without compulsion attended the constable who had the warrant to the magistrate, it was held there was no sufficient imprisonment to support an action. Arrowsmith v. Le Mesurier, 2 B. & P. N. R. 211. But in this case there was no declaration of any arrest, and the warrant was in fact used only as a summons. And if the decision cannot be sustained upon this distinction, it must be regarded as of doubtful authority.

Starkie says that in ordinary practice words are sufficient to constitute an imprisonment, if they impose a restraint upon the person, and the plaintiff is accordingly restrained; for he is not obliged to incur the risk of personal violence and insult by resisting, until actual violence be used. 3 Stark. Ev. 1113. This principle is reasonable in itself, and is fully sustained by the authorities above cited. Nor does it seem necessary that there should be any very formal declaration of an arrest. If the officer goes for the purpose of executing his warrant; has the party in his presence and power; if the party so understands it, and in consequence thereof submits, and the officer, in execution of the warrant, takes the party before a magistrate, or receives money or property in discharge of his person, we think it is in law an arrest, although he did not touch any part of the body.

In the case at bar, it clearly appears that the plaintiff did not intend to pay the tax, unless compelled by an arrest of her person. The collector was so informed. He then proceeded to enforce the collection of the tax,—declared that he arrested her,—and she, under that restraint, paid the money. This is a sufficient arrest and imprisonment to sustain the action, and there must, therefore, be

Thayer, J.^[31] With reference to the motion for a new trial which has been filed in this case and duly considered, it will suffice to say, that I entertain no doubt that the jury were warranted in finding that plaintiff was unlawfully restrained of his liberty from about the 27th or 28th of October until the 10th of November following; that is to say, for a period of about two weeks. The testimony in the case clearly showed that during that period he was constantly guarded by detectives employed by defendant for that purpose; that he was at no time free to come and go as he pleased; that his movements were at all times subject to the control and direction of those who had him in charge; that he was urged by them on several occasions to confess his guilt, and make known his confederates; and that he was subjected to repeated examinations and cross-examinations touching the robbery, of such character as clearly to imply that he was regarded as a criminal, and that force would be used to detain him if he attempted to assert his liberty. The jury in all probability found (as they were warranted in doing) that during the time plaintiff remained in company with the detectives, he was in fact deprived of all real freedom of action, and that whatever consent he gave to such restraint was an enforced consent, and did not justify the detention without a warrant. It is manifest that the court ought not to disturb the finding on that issue.^[32]

This action was tried before Lord Denman, C. J., at the Middlesex sittings after Michaelmas term, 1843, when a verdict was found for the plaintiff.

In Hilary term, 1844, Thesiger obtained a rule nisi for a new trial, on the ground of misdirection.

In Trinity term, in the same year (June 5), Platt, Humfrey, and Hance showed cause, and Sir F. Thesiger, Solicitor-General, supported the rule.

The judgments sufficiently explain the nature of the case.

In this vacation (9th July), there being a difference of opinion on the bench, the learned judges who heard the argument delivered judgment seriatim.

Coleridge, J. In this case, in which we have unfortunately been unable to agree in our judgment, I am now to pronounce the opinion which I have formed; and I shall be able to do so very briefly, because, having had the opportunity of reading a judgment prepared by my Brother Patteson, and entirely agreeing with it, I may content myself with referring to the statement he has made in detail of those preliminary points in which we all, I believe, agree, and which bring the case up to that point upon which its decision must certainly turn, and with regard to which our difference exists.

This point is, whether certain facts, which may be taken as clear upon the evidence, amount to an imprisonment. These facts, stated shortly, and as I understand them, are in effect as follows:—

A part of a public highway was inclosed, and appropriated for spectators of a boat-race, paying a price for their seats. The plaintiff was desirous of entering this part, and was opposed by the defendant; but, after a struggle, during which no momentary detention of his person took place, he succeeded in climbing over the inclosure. Two policemen were then stationed by the defendant to prevent, and they did prevent, him from passing onwards in the direction in which he declared his wish to go; but he was allowed to remain unmolested where he was, and was at liberty to go, and was told that he was so, in the only other direction by which he could pass. This he refused for some time, and during that time remained where he had thus placed himself.

These are the facts; and, setting aside those which do not properly bear on the question now at issue, there will remain these: that the plaintiff, being in a public highway and desirous of passing along it in a particular direction, is prevented from doing so by the orders of 25the defendant, and that the defendant’s agents for the purpose are policemen, from whom, indeed, no unnecessary violence was to be anticipated, or such as they believed unlawful, yet who might be expected to execute such commands as they deemed lawful with all necessary force, however resisted. But although thus obstructed, the plaintiff was at liberty to move his person and go in any other direction, at his free will and pleasure; and no actual force or restraint on his person was used, unless the obstruction before mentioned amounts to so much.

I lay out of consideration the question of right or wrong between these parties. The acts will amount to imprisonment, neither more nor less, from their being wrongful or capable of justification.

And I am of opinion that there was no imprisonment. To call it so appears to me to confound partial obstruction and disturbance with total obstruction and detention. A prison may have its boundary large or narrow, visible and tangible, or, though real, still in the conception only; it may itself be movable or fixed; but a boundary it must have, and that boundary the party imprisoned must be prevented from passing; he must be prevented from leaving that place, within the ambit of which the party imprisoning would confine him, except by prison breach. Some confusion seems to me to arise from confounding imprisonment of the body with mere loss of freedom: it is one part of the definition of freedom to be able to go whithersoever one pleases; but imprisonment is something more than the mere loss of this power: it includes the notion of restraint within some limits defined by a will or power exterior to our own.

In Com. Dig. Imprisonment (G), it is said: “Every restraint of the liberty of a free man will be an imprisonment.” For this the authorities cited are 2 Inst. 482; Cro. Car. 209. But when these are referred to, it will be seen that nothing was intended at all inconsistent with what I have ventured to lay down above. In both books the object was to point out that a prison was not necessarily what is commonly so called, a place locally defined and appointed for the reception of prisoners. Lord Coke is commenting on the statute of Westminster 2d,^[33] in prisona, and says: “Every restraint of the liberty of a freeman is an imprisonment, although he be not within the walls of any common prison.” The passage in Cro. Car. 209, is from a curious case of an information against Sir Miles Hobert and Mr. Stroud for escaping out of the Gate-house Prison, to which they had been committed by the king. The question was whether, under the circumstances, they had ever been there imprisoned. Owing to the sickness in London, and through the favor of the keeper, these gentlemen had not, except on one occasion, ever been within the walls of the Gate-house. The occasion is somewhat singularly expressed in the decision of the court, 26which was “that their voluntary retirement to the close stool” in the Gate-house “made them to be prisoners.” The resolution, however, in question is this: “that the prison of the King’s Bench is not any local prison confined only to one place, and that every place where any person is restrained of his liberty is a prison; as if one take sanctuary and depart thence, he shall be said to break prison.”

On a case of this sort, which, if there be difficulty in it, is at least purely elementary, it is not easy nor necessary to enlarge, and I am unwilling to put any extreme case hypothetically; but I wish to meet one suggestion, which has been put as avoiding one of the difficulties which cases of this sort might seem to suggest. If it be said that to hold the present case to amount to an imprisonment would turn every obstruction of the exercise of a right of way into an imprisonment, the answer is that there must be something like personal menace or force accompanying the act of obstruction, and that, with this, it will amount to imprisonment. I apprehend that is not so. If, in the course of a night, both ends of a street were walled up, and there was no egress from the house but into the street, I should have no difficulty in saying that the inhabitants were thereby imprisoned; but if only one end were walled up, and an armed force stationed outside to prevent any scaling of the wall or passage that way, I should feel equally clear that there was no imprisonment. If there were, the street would obviously be the prison, and yet, as obviously, none would be confined to it.

Knowing that my lord has entertained strongly an opinion directly contrary to this, I am under serious apprehension that I overlook some difficulty in forming my own; but, if it exists, I have not been able to discover it, and am therefore bound to state that, according to my view of the case, the rule should be absolute for a new trial.^[34]

Lord Denman, C. J. I have not drawn up a formal judgment in this case, because I hoped to the last that the arguments which my learned brothers would produce in support of their opinion might alter mine. We have freely discussed the matter both orally and in written communications; but, after hearing what they have advanced, I am compelled to say that my first impression remains. If, as I must believe, it is a wrong one, it may be in some measure accounted for by the circumstances attending the case. A company unlawfully obstructed a public way for their own profit, extorting money from passengers, and hiring policemen to effect this purpose. The plaintiff, wishing to exercise his right of way, is stopped by force, and ordered to move in a direction which he wished not to take. He is told at the same time that a force is at hand ready to compel his submission. That proceeding appears to me equivalent to being pulled by the collar out of the one line and into the other.

27There is some difficulty, perhaps, in defining imprisonment in the abstract without reference to its illegality; nor is it necessary for me to do so, because I consider these acts as amounting to imprisonment. That word I understand to mean any restraint of the person by force. In Buller’s Nisi Prius, p. 22, it is said: “Every restraint of a man’s liberty under the custody of another, either in a gaol, house, stocks, or in the street, is in law an imprisonment; and whenever it is done without a proper authority, is false imprisonment, for which the law gives an action; and this is commonly joined to assault and battery; for every imprisonment includes a battery, and every battery an assault.” It appears, therefore, that the technical language has received a very large construction, and that there need not be any touching of the person: a locking up would constitute an imprisonment, without touching. From the language of Thorpe, C. J., which Mr. Selwyn cites from the Book of Assizes, it appears that, even in very early times, restraint of liberty by force was understood to be the reasonable definition of imprisonment.

I had no idea that any person in these times supposed any particular boundary to be necessary to constitute imprisonment, or that the restraint of a man’s person from doing what he desires ceases to be an imprisonment because he may find some means of escape.

It is said that the party here was at liberty to go in another direction. I am not sure that in fact he was, because the same unlawful power which prevented him from taking one course might, in case of acquiescence, have refused him any other. But this liberty to do something else does not appear to me to affect the question of imprisonment. As long as I am prevented from doing what I have a right to do, of what importance is it that I am permitted to do something else? How does the imposition of an unlawful condition show that I am not restrained? If I am locked in a room, am I not imprisoned, because I might effect my escape through a window, or because I might find an exit dangerous or inconvenient to myself, as by wading through water, or by taking a route so circuitous that my necessary affairs should suffer by delay?

It appears to me that this is a total deprivation of liberty with reference to the purpose for which he lawfully wished to employ his liberty; and, being effected by force, it is not the mere obstruction of a way, but a restraint of the person. The case cited as occurring before Lord Chief Justice Tindal, as I understand it, is much in point. He held it an imprisonment where the defendant stopped the plaintiff on his road till he had read a libel to him. Yet he did not prevent his escaping in another direction.

It is said that if any damage arises from such obstruction, a special action on the case may be brought. Must I then sue out a new writ stating that the defendant employed direct force to prevent my going where my business called me, whereby I sustained loss? And if I do, 28is it certain that I shall not be told that I have misconceived my remedy, for all flows from the false imprisonment, and that should have been the subject of an action of trespass and assault? For the jury properly found that the whole of the defendant’s conduct was continuous: it commenced in illegality; and the plaintiff did right to resist it as an outrageous violation of the liberty of the subject from the very first.

Section I
Negligence as a Ground of Liability

WEAVER v. WARD
In the King’s Bench, Easter Term, 1616.
Reported in Hobart, 134.

Weaver brought an action of trespass of assault and battery against Ward. The defendant pleaded that he was, amongst others, by the commandment of the lords of the council, a trained soldier in London, of the band of one Andrews, captain, and so was the plaintiff: and that they were skirmishing with their muskets charged with powder for their exercise in re militari against another captain and his band; and as they were so skirmishing, the defendant, casualiter et per infortunium et contra voluntatem suam, in discharging his piece, did hurt and wound the plaintiff; which is the same, &c., absque hoc, that he was guilty aliter sive alio modo. And, upon demurrer by the plaintiff, judgment was given for him; for, though it were agreed that if men tilt or tourney in the presence of the king, or if two masters of defence playing their prizes kill one another, that this shall be no felony, or if a lunatic kill a man, or the like; because felony must be done animo felonico; yet, in trespass, which tends only to give damages according to hurt or loss, it is not so; and therefore, if a lunatic hurt a man, he shall be answerable in trespass,^[36] and, therefore, no man 30shall be excused of a trespass (for this is the nature of an excuse, and not of a justification, prout ei bene licuit), except it may be judged utterly without his fault; as if a man by force take my hand and strike you, or if here the defendant had said that the plaintiff ran across his piece when it was discharging, or had set forth the case with the circumstances so as it had appeared to the court that it had been inevitable, and that the defendant had committed no negligence to give occasion to the hurt.^[37]

BROWN v. KENDALL
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, October Term, 1850.
Reported in 6 Cushing, 292.

This was an action of trespass for assault and battery, originally commenced against George K. Kendall, the defendant, who died pending the suit, and his executrix was summoned in.

It appeared in evidence, on the trial, which was before Wells, C. J., in the Court of Common Pleas, that two dogs, belonging to the plaintiff 31and the defendant, respectively, were fighting in the presence of their masters; that the defendant took a stick about four feet long, and commenced beating the dogs in order to separate them; that the plaintiff was looking on, at the distance of about a rod, and that he advanced a step or two towards the dogs. In their struggle, the dogs approached the place where the plaintiff was standing. The defendant retreated backwards from before the dogs, striking them as he retreated; and as he approached the plaintiff, with his back towards him, in raising his stick over his shoulder, in order to strike the dogs, he accidentally hit the plaintiff in the eye, inflicting upon him a severe injury.

Whether it was necessary or proper for the defendant to interfere in the fight between the dogs; whether the interference, if called for was in a proper manner, and what degree of care was exercised by each party on the occasion; were the subject of controversy between the parties, upon all the evidence in the case, of which the foregoing is an outline.

The defendant requested the judge to instruct the jury, that “if both the plaintiff and defendant at the time of the blow were using ordinary care, or if at that time the defendant was using ordinary care and the plaintiff was not, or if at that time both plaintiff and defendant were not using ordinary care, then the plaintiff could not recover.”

The defendant further requested the judge to instruct the jury, that, “under the circumstances, if the plaintiff was using ordinary care and the defendant was not, the plaintiff could not recover, and that the burden of proof on all these propositions was on the plaintiff.”

The judge declined to give the instructions, as above requested, but left the case to the jury under the following instructions: “If the defendant, in beating the dogs, was doing a necessary act, or one which it was his duty under the circumstances of the case to do, and was doing it in a proper way; then he was not responsible in this action, provided he was using ordinary care at the time of the blow. If it was not a necessary act; if he was not in duty bound to attempt to part the dogs, but might with propriety interfere or not as he chose; the defendant was responsible for the consequences of the blow, unless it appeared that he was in the exercise of extraordinary care, so that the accident was inevitable, using the word inevitable not in a strict but a popular sense.”

“If, however, the plaintiff, when he met with the injury, was not in the exercise of ordinary care, he cannot recover, and this rule applies, whether the interference of the defendant in the fight of the dogs was necessary or not. If the jury believe, that it was the duty of the defendant to interfere, then the burden of proving negligence on the part of the defendant, and ordinary care on the part of the plaintiff, is on the plaintiff. If the jury believe, that the act of interference in the fight was unnecessary, then the burden of proving extraordinary 32care on the part of the defendant, or want of ordinary care on the part of the plaintiff, is on defendant.”

The jury under these instructions returned a verdict for the plaintiff; whereupon the defendant alleged exceptions.

Shaw, C. J. This is an action of trespass, vi et armis, brought by George Brown against George K. Kendall, for an assault and battery; and the original defendant having died pending the action, his executrix has been summoned in. The rule of the common law, by which this action would abate by the death of either party, is reversed in this Commonwealth by statute, which provides that actions of trespass for assault and battery shall survive. Rev. Sts. c. 93, § 7.

The facts set forth in the bill of exceptions preclude the supposition, that the blow, inflicted by the hand of the defendant upon the person of the plaintiff, was intentional. The whole case proceeds on the assumption, that the damage sustained by the plaintiff, from the stick held by the defendant, was inadvertent and unintentional; and the case involves the question how far, and under what qualifications, the party by whose unconscious act the damage was done is responsible for it. We use the term “unintentional” rather than involuntary, because in some of the cases, it is stated, that the act of holding and using a weapon or instrument, the movement of which is the immediate cause of hurt to another, is a voluntary act, although its particular effect in hitting and hurting another is not within the purpose or intention of the party doing the act.

It appears to us, that some of the confusion in the cases on this subject has grown out of the long-vexed question, under the rule of the common law, whether a party’s remedy, where he has one, should be sought in an action of the case, or of trespass. This is very distinguishable from the question, whether in a given case, any action will lie. The result of these cases is, that if the damage complained of is the immediate effect of the act of the defendant, trespass vi et armis lies; if consequential only, and not immediate, case is the proper remedy. Leame v. Bray, 3 East, 593; Huggett v. Montgomery, 2 B. & P. N. R. 446, Day’s Ed., and notes.

In these discussions, it is frequently stated by judges, that when one receives injury from the direct act of another, trespass will lie. But we think this is said in reference to the question, whether trespass and not case will lie, assuming that the facts are such, that some action will lie. These dicta are no authority, we think, for holding, that damage received by a direct act of force from another will be sufficient to maintain an action of trespass, whether the act was lawful or unlawful, and neither wilful, intentional, or careless. In the principal case cited, Leame v. Bray, the damage arose from the act of the defendant, in driving on the wrong side of the road, in a dark night, which was clearly negligent, if not unlawful. In the course of the argument of that case (p. 595), Lawrence, J., said: “There certainly are cases in 33the books, where, the injury being direct and immediate, trespass has been holden to lie, though the injury was not intentional.” The term “injury” implies something more than damage; but, independently of that consideration, the proposition may be true, because though the injury was unintentional, the act may have been unlawful or negligent, and the cases cited by him are perfectly consistent with that supposition. So the same learned judge in the same case says (p. 597), “No doubt trespass lies against one who drives a carriage against another, whether done wilfully or not.” But he immediately adds, “Suppose one who is driving a carriage is negligently and heedlessly looking about him, without attending to the road when persons are passing, and thereby runs over a child and kills him, is it not manslaughter? and if so, it must be trespass; for every manslaughter includes trespass;” showing what he understood by a case not wilful.

We think, as the result of all the authorities, the rule is correctly stated by Mr. Greenleaf, that the plaintiff must come prepared with evidence to show either that the intention was unlawful, or that the defendant was in fault; for if the injury was unavoidable, and the conduct of the defendant was free from blame, he will not be liable. 2 Greenl. Ev. §§ 85–92. Wakeman v. Robinson, 1 Bing. 213. If, in the prosecution of a lawful act, a casualty purely accidental arises, no action can be supported for an injury arising therefrom. Davis v. Saunders, 2 Chit. R. 639; Com. Dig. Battery, A. (Day’s Ed.) and notes; Vincent v. Stinehour, 7 Vt. 62. In applying these rules to the present case, we can perceive no reason why the instructions asked for by the defendant ought not to have been given; to this effect, that if both plaintiff and defendant at the time of the blow were using ordinary care, or if at that time the defendant was using ordinary care, and the plaintiff was not, or if at that time, both the plaintiff and defendant were not using ordinary care, then the plaintiff could not recover.

In using this term, ordinary care, it may be proper to state, that what constitutes ordinary care will vary with the circumstances of cases. In general, it means that kind and degree of care, which prudent and cautious men would use, such as is required by the exigency of the case, and such as is necessary to guard against probable danger. A man, who should have occasion to discharge a gun, on an open and extensive marsh, or in a forest, would be required to use less circumspection and care, than if he were to do the same thing in an inhabited town, village, or city. To make an accident, or casualty, or, as the law sometimes states it, inevitable accident, it must be such an accident as the defendant could not have avoided by the use of the kind and degree of care necessary to the exigency, and in the circumstances in which he was placed.

We are not aware of any circumstances in this case, requiring a distinction between acts which it was lawful and proper to do, and acts of legal duty. There are cases, undoubtedly, in which officers are 34bound to act under process, for the legality of which they are not responsible, and perhaps some others in which this distinction would be important. We can have no doubt that the act of the defendant in attempting to part the fighting dogs, one of which was his own, and for the injurious acts of which he might be responsible, was a lawful and proper act, which he might do by proper and safe means. If, then, in doing this act, using due care and all proper precautions necessary to the exigency of the case, to avoid hurt to others, in raising his stick for that purpose, he accidentally hit the plaintiff in his eye, and wounded him, this was the result of pure accident, or was involuntary and unavoidable, and therefore the action would not lie. Of if the defendant was chargeable with some negligence, and if the plaintiff was also chargeable with negligence, we think the plaintiff cannot recover without showing that the damage was caused wholly by the act of the defendant, and that the plaintiff’s own negligence did not contribute as an efficient cause to produce it.

The court instructed the jury, that if it was not a necessary act, and the defendant was not in duty bound to part the dogs, but might with propriety interfere or not as he chose, the defendant was responsible for the consequences of the blow, unless it appeared that he was in the exercise of extraordinary care, so that the accident was inevitable, using the word not in a strict but a popular sense. This is to be taken in connection with the charge afterwards given, that if the jury believed, that the act of interference in the fight was unnecessary (that is, as before explained, not a duty incumbent on the defendant), then the burden of proving extraordinary care on the part of the defendant, or want of ordinary care on the part of plaintiff, was on the defendant.

The court are of opinion that these directions were not conformable to law. If the act of hitting the plaintiff was unintentional, on the part of the defendant, and done in the doing of a lawful act, then the defendant was not liable, unless it was done in the want of exercise of due care, adapted to the exigency of the case, and therefore such want of due care became part of the plaintiff’s case, and the burden of proof was on the plaintiff to establish it. 2 Greenl. Ev. § 85; Powers v. Russell, 13 Pick. 69, 76; Tourtellot v. Rosebrook, 11 Met. 460.

Perhaps the learned judge, by the use of the term extraordinary care, in the above charge, explained as it is by the context, may have intended nothing more than that increased degree of care and diligence, which the exigency of particular circumstances might require, and which men of ordinary care and prudence would use under like circumstances, to guard against danger. If such was the meaning of this part of the charge, then it does not differ from our views, as above explained. But we are of opinion, that the other part of the charge, that the burden of proof was on the defendant, was incorrect. Those facts which are essential to enable the plaintiff to recover, he takes the burden of proving. The evidence may be offered by the plaintiff or by 35the defendant; the question of due care, or want of care, may be essentially connected with the main facts, and arise from the same proof; but the effect of the rule, as to the burden of proof, is this, that when the proof is all in, and before the jury, from whatever side it comes, and whether directly proved, or inferred from circumstances, if it appears that the defendant was doing a lawful act, and unintentionally hit and hurt the plaintiff, then unless it also appears to the satisfaction of the jury, that the defendant is chargeable with some fault, negligence, carelessness, or want of prudence, the plaintiff fails to sustain the burden of proof, and is not entitled to recover.

STANLEY v. POWELL
In the Queen’s Bench Division, November 3, 1890.
Reported in [1891] 1 Queen’s Bench, 86.

Denman, J. This case was tried before me and a special jury at the last Maidstone Summer Assizes.^[39]

In the statement of claim the plaintiff alleged that the defendant had negligently and wrongfully and unskilfully fired his gun and wounded the plaintiff in his eye, and that the plaintiff, in consequence, had lost his sight and suffered other damage. The defendant denied the negligence alleged. After the evidence on both sides, which was conflicting, had been heard, I left the three following questions to the jury: 1. Was the plaintiff injured by a shot from defendant’s gun? 2. Was the defendant guilty of negligence in firing the charge to which that shot belonged as he did? 3. Damages.

The undisputed facts were, that on Nov. 29, 1888, the defendant and several others were pheasant shooting in a party, some being inside and some outside of a wood which the beaters were beating. The right of shooting was in one Greenwood, who was of the party. The plaintiff was employed by Greenwood to carry cartridges and the game which might be shot. Several beaters were driving the game along a plantation of saplings towards an open drive. The plaintiff stood just outside a gate which led into a field outside the plantation, at the end of the drive. The defendant was walking along in that field a few yards from the hedge which bounded the plantation. As he was walking along a pheasant rose inside the plantation; the defendant fired one barrel at this bird, and, according to the evidence for the defendant, struck it with his first shot. There was a considerable conflict of evidence as to details; but the jury must, I think, be taken to 36have adopted the version of the facts sworn to by the defendant’s witnesses. They swore that the bird, when struck by the first shot, began to lower and turn back towards the beaters, whereupon the defendant fired his second barrel and killed the bird, but that a shot, glancing from the bough of an oak which was in or close to the hedge, and, striking the plaintiff, must have caused the injury complained of. The oak in question, according to the defendant’s evidence, was partly between the defendant and the bird when the second barrel was fired, but it was not in a line with the plaintiff, but, on the contrary, so much out of that line, that the shot must have been diverted to a considerable extent from the direction in which the gun must have been pointed in order to hit the plaintiff. The distance between the plaintiff and the defendant, in a direct line, when the second barrel was fired, was about thirty yards. The case for the plaintiff was entirely different; but I think it must be held that the jury took the defendant’s account of the matter, for they found the second question left to them in the negative. Before summing up the case to the jury, I called the attention of the parties to the doctrine which seemed to have been laid down in some old cases—that, even in the absence of negligence, an action of trespass might lie; and it was agreed that I should leave the question of negligence to the jury, but that, if necessary, the pleadings were deemed to have been amended so as to raise any case or defence open upon the facts with liberty to the court to draw inferences of fact, and that the damages should be assessed contingently. The jury assessed them at £100. I left either party to move the court for judgment; but it was afterwards agreed that the case should be argued before myself on further consideration, and that I should give judgment, notwithstanding that I had left the parties to move the court, as though I had originally reserved it for further consideration before myself.

Having heard the arguments, I am of opinion that, by no amendment that could be made consistently with the finding of the jury could I properly give judgment for the plaintiff. It was contended on his behalf that this was a case in which an action of trespass would have lain before the Judicature Acts; and this contention was mainly founded on certain dicta which, until considered with reference to those cases in which they are uttered, seem to support that contention; but no decision was quoted, nor do I think that any can be found which goes so far as to hold, that if A. is injured by a shot from a gun fired at a bird by B., an action of trespass will necessarily lie, even though B. is proved to have fired the gun without negligence and without intending to injure the plaintiff or to shoot in his direction.

The jury having found that there was no negligence on the part of the defendant, the most favorable way in which it is now possible to put the case for the plaintiff is to consider the action as brought for a trespass, and to consider that the defendant has put upon the record 37a defence denying negligence, and specifically alleging the facts, sworn to by his witnesses, which the jury must be considered to have found proved, and then to consider whether those facts, coupled with the absence of negligence established by the jury, amount to an excuse in law.

The earliest case relied upon by the plaintiff was one in the year-book 21 Hen. 7, 28 A., which is referred to by Grose, J., in the course of the argument in Leame v. Bray, 3 East, 593, to be mentioned presently, in these words: “There is a case put in the year-book, 21 Hen. 7, 28 A., that where one shot an arrow at a mark which glanced from it and struck another, it was holden to be trespass.” Returning to the case in the year-book, it appears that the passage in question was a mere dictum of Rede, who (see 5 Foss’ Lives of the Judges, p. 230) was at the time (1506) either a judge of the King’s Bench or C. J. of the Common Pleas, which he became in October in that year, in a case of a very different kind from that in question, and it only amounts to a statement that an action of trespass may lie even where the act done by the defendant is unintentional. The words relied on are, “Mes ou on tire a les buts et blesse un home, coment que est incontre sa volonte, il sera dit un trespassor incontre son entent.” But in that very passage Rede makes observations which show that he has in his mind cases in which that which would be prima facie a trespass may be excused. The next case in order of date relied upon for the plaintiff was Weaver v. Ward, decided in 1607. There is no doubt that that case contains dicta which per se would be in favor of the plaintiff, but it also contains the following summing up of the law applicable to cases of unintentional injury by acts which are prima facie trespasses: “Therefore, no man shall be excused of a trespass ... except it may be judged utterly without his fault,” showing clearly that there may be such cases. That case, after all, only decided that where the plaintiff and defendant were skirmishing as soldiers of the train-band, and the one, “casualiter, et per infortunium, et contra voluntatem suam” (which must be translated “accidentally and involuntarily”) shot the other, an action of trespass would lie, unless he could show that such involuntary and accidental shooting was done under such circumstances as utterly to negative negligence. Such cases may easily be supposed, in which there could be no two opinions about the matter; but other cases may, as the present case did, involve considerable conflicts of evidence and opinion which until recently a jury only could dispose of. The case of Gibbons v. Pepper, 4 Mod. 405, decided in 1695, merely decided that a plea merely showing that an accident caused by a runaway horse was inevitable, was a bad plea in an action of trespass, because, if inevitable, that was a defence under the general issue. It was a mere decision on the pleading, and laid down nothing as regards the point raised in the present case. The concluding words of the judgment, which show clearly the ratio decidendi of that case, 38are these: “He should have pleaded the general issue, for if the horse ran away against his will he would have been found not guilty, because in such a case it cannot be said with any color of reason to be a battery in the rider.” The more modern cases of Wakeman v. Robinson and Hall v. Fearnley, lay down the same rule as regards the pleading point, though the former case may also be relied upon as an authority by way of dictum in favor of the plaintiff, and the latter may be fairly relied upon by the defendant; for Wightman, J., in his judgment explains Wakeman v. Robinson thus: “The act of the defendant” (viz., driving the cart at the very edge of a narrow pavement on which the plaintiff was walking, so as to knock the plaintiff down) “was prima facie unjustifiable, and required an excuse to be shown. When the motion in this case was first made, I had in my recollection the case of Wakeman v. Robinson. It was there agreed that an involuntary act might be a defence on the general issue. The decision indeed turned on a different point; but the general proposition is laid down. I think the omission to plead the defence here deprived the defendant of the benefit of it, and entitled the plaintiff to recover.”

But in truth neither case decides whether, where an act such as discharging a gun is voluntary, but the result injurious without negligence, an action of trespass can nevertheless be supported as against a plea pleaded and proved, and which the jury find established, to the effect that there was no negligence on the part of the defendant.

The case of Underwood v. Hewson, 1 Str. 596, decided in 1724, was relied on for the plaintiff. The report is very short. “The defendant was uncocking a gun, and the plaintiff standing to see it, it went off and wounded him; and at the trial it was held that the plaintiff might maintain trespass—Strange pro defendente.” The marginal note in Nolan’s edition of 1795, not necessarily Strange’s own composition, is this: “Trespass lies for an accidental hurt;” and in that edition there is a reference to Buller’s N. P., p. 16. On referring to Buller, p. 16, where he is dealing with Weaver v. Ward, I find he writes as follows: “So (it is no battery) if one soldier hurt another in exercise; but if he plead it he must set forth the circumstances, so as to make it appear to the court that it was inevitable, and that he committed no negligence to give occasion to the hurt, for it is not not enough to say that he did it casualiter, et per infortunium, et contra voluntatem suam; for no man shall be excused of a trespass, unless it be justified entirely without his default: Weaver v. Ward; and, therefore, it has been holden that an action lay where the plaintiff standing by to see the defendant uncock his gun was accidentally wounded: Underwood v. Hewson.” On referring back to Weaver v. Ward, I can find nothing in the report to show that the court held, that in order to constitute a defence in the case of a trespass it is necessary to show that the act was inevitable. If inevitable, it would seem that there was a defence under the general issue; but a distinction is drawn between an act 39which is inevitable and an act which is excusable, and what Weaver v. Ward really lays down is that “no man shall be excused of a trespass except it may be judged utterly without his fault.”

Day v. Edwards, D. & E. 5 T. R. 648 (1794), merely decides that where a man negligently drives a cart against the plaintiff’s carriage, the injury being committed by the immediate act complained of, the remedy must be trespass, and not case.

But the case upon which most reliance was placed by the plaintiff’s counsel was Leame v. Bray, 3 East, 593. That was an action of trespass in which the plaintiff complained that the defendant with force and arms drove and struck a chaise which he was driving on the highway against the plaintiff’s curricle, which the plaintiff’s servant was driving, by means whereof the servant was thrown out, and the horses ran away, and the plaintiff, who jumped out to save his life, was injured. The facts stated in the report include a statement that “the accident happened in a dark night, owing to the defendant driving his carriage on the wrong side of the road, and the parties not being able to see each other; and that if the defendant had kept his right side there was ample room for the carriages to have passed without injury.” The report goes on to state: “But it did not appear that blame was imputable to the defendant in any other respect as to the manner of his driving. It was therefore objected for the defendant, that the injury having happened from negligence and not wilfully, the proper remedy was by an action on the case, and not of trespass vi et armis; and the plaintiff was thereupon nonsuited.” On the argument of the rule to set aside the verdict the whole discussion turned upon the question whether the injury was, as put by Lawrence, J., at p. 596 of the report, immediate from the defendant’s act, or consequential only from it, and in the result the nonsuit was set aside. But it clearly appears from the report that there was evidence upon which the jury might have found negligence, and indeed the defendant’s counsel assumed it in the very objection which prevailed with Lord Ellenborough when he nonsuited the plaintiff. There is nothing in any of the judgments to show that if in that case a plea had been pleaded denying any negligence, and the jury had found that the defendant was not guilty of any negligence, but (for instance) that the accident happened wholly through the darkness of the night making it impossible to distinguish one side of the road from the other and without negligence on either side, the court would have held that the defendant would have been liable either in trespass or in case.

All the cases to which I have referred were before the Court of Exchequer in 1875, in the case of Holmes v. Mather, and Bramwell, B., in giving judgment in that case, dealt with them thus: “As to the cases cited, most of them are really decisions on the form of action, whether case or trespass. The result of them is this, and it is intelligible enough: if the act that does an injury is an act of direct force 40vi et armis, trespass is the proper remedy (if there is any remedy), where the act is wrongful either as being wilful or as being the result of negligence. Where the act is not wrongful for either of these reasons, no action is maintainable, though trespass would be the proper form of action if it were wrongful. That is the effect of the decisions.”

This view of the older authorities is in accordance with a passage cited by Mr. Dickens from Bacon’s Abridgment, Trespass, I., p. 706, with a marginal reference to Weaver v. Ward. In Bacon the word “inevitable” does not find a place. “If the circumstance which is specially pleaded in an action of trespass do not make the act complained of lawful” (by which I understand justifiable even if purposely done to the extent of purposely inflicting the injury, as, for instance, in a case of self-defence) “and only make it excusable, it is proper to plead this circumstance in excuse; and it is in this case necessary for the defendant to show not only that the act complained of was accidental” (by which I understand, “that the injury was unintentional”), “but likewise that it was not owing to neglect or want of due caution.” In the present case the plaintiff sued in respect of an injury owing to the defendant’s negligence,—there was no pretence for saying that it was intentional so far as any injury to the plaintiff was concerned,—and the jury negatived such negligence. It was argued that nevertheless, inasmuch as the plaintiff was injured by a shot from the defendant’s gun, that was an injury owing to an act of force committed by the defendant, and therefore an action would lie. I am of opinion that this is not so, and that against any statement of claim which the plaintiff could suggest the defendant must succeed if he were to plead the facts sworn to by the witnesses for the defendant in this case, and the jury believing those facts, as they must now be taken by me to have done, found the verdict which they have found as regards negligence. In other words, I am of opinion that if the case is regarded as an action on the case for an injury by negligence the plaintiff has failed to establish that which is the very gist of such an action; if, on the other hand, it is turned into an action for trespass, and the defendant is (as he must be) supposed to have pleaded a plea denying negligence and establishing that the injury was accidental in the sense above explained, the verdict of the jury is equally fatal to the action. I am, therefore, of opinion that I am bound to give judgment for the defendant. As to costs, they must follow, unless the defendant foregoes his right.

Tort. The first count in the declaration alleged that, while the plaintiff was a passenger on an electric car of the defendant, the car was derailed at Tiverton, owing to the defendant’s negligence, “whereby the plaintiff was jolted and in many ways injured externally and internally.”

At the trial, plaintiff testified substantially to the same effect as the allegations in the declaration. As to the derailment, he testified that it was violent and that he was much thrown about. The evidence for the defendant tended to show that there was practically no jar when the car left the rails at Tiverton.

At the close of the evidence plaintiff requested, among others, the following ruling:—

“1. Upon all the evidence the plaintiff is entitled to recover on the first count.”

The judge refused to so rule.

The judge instructed the jury, in part, as follows:—

“The only matters, then, of damages for you to consider are these: First, what was the effect upon the plaintiff of the jolts when the car was derailed? To what extent did they injure the plaintiff?”

Plaintiff excepted to the charge. Verdict for defendant.^[41]

Sheldon, J. No question was made at the trial but that the defendant was liable for any injury done to the plaintiff by reason of its car having left the track. But if no injury was caused by this to the plaintiff, if he suffered no damage whatever from the defendant’s negligence, then he would not be entitled to recover. Although there has been negligence in the performance of a legal duty, yet it is only those who have suffered damage therefrom that may maintain an action therefor. Heaven v. Pender, 11 Q. B. D. 503, 507; Farrell v. Waterbury Horse Railroad, 60 Conn. 239, 246; Salmon v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, 19 Vroom, 5, 11; 2 Cooley on Torts (3d ed.), 791; Wharton on Negligence (2d ed.), sect. 3. In cases of negligence, there is no such invasion of rights as to entitle plaintiff to recover at least nominal damages, as in Hooten v. Barnard, 137 Mass. 36, and McAneany v. Jewett, 10 Allen, 151.^[42] Accordingly, 42the first and second of the plaintiff’s requests for rulings could not have been given, and the rulings made were all that the plaintiff was entitled to.

HART v. ALLEN
Supreme Court, Pennsylvania, October Term, 1833.
Reported in 2 Watts, 114.

Action on the case against owners of a vessel.^[44] Plaintiff put in evidence a bill of lading of chests of tea shipped on board defendant’s vessel; “to be delivered in good order, unavoidable accidents and the dangers of the river excepted....” Plaintiff also proved that the teas were delivered by defendants in a damaged state, owing to their having been wet. Defendants gave evidence that the boat, when on her passage up the river, was driven by a sudden squall of wind and snow sidewise, whereby the teas were wet and damaged; that she was well fitted for the voyage; that every exertion was made to save her; and that Samuel Johnston, the captain, was a man of experience. To rebut this the plaintiff gave evidence that Samuel Johnston was not an experienced boatman or pilot.

Judgment below for plaintiff. The original defendants brought error. One of the errors assigned was as follows:—

The court below erred in charging the jury, that although the accident in this case resulted from the act of God, and could not have been prevented by any human prudence or foresight; and although it would, in this respect, come within the exception that excuses the carrier in case of loss: still, if the crew of the boat was not sufficient, or if she was not under the control of a master or pilot sufficiently skilled to perform the duties corresponding to his station, the carrier cannot avail himself of the exception, nor excuse himself from responsibility to the owner, to the extent of the injury done to the goods. And also, in substance, that if the jury think that the boat was not fit for the voyage, or the master not competent, or the crew insufficient; they ought to find a verdict for the plaintiff, whatever might be their opinion as to the real cause of the upsetting of the boat.

Gibson, C. J.: Had the judge said no more than that the carrier is bound to provide a carriage or vessel in all respects adequate to the purpose, with a conductor or crew of competent skill or ability, and that “failing in these particulars, though the loss be occasioned by 43the act of God, he shall not set up a providential calamity to protect himself against what may have arisen from his own folly;” there would have been no room for an exception. But the cause was eventually put to the jury on a different principle: “though the accident resulted from the act of God,” it was said, “and could not have been prevented by any human prudence or foresight, and though it would in this respect otherwise have come within the exception that excuses the carrier in case of loss: still, if the crew of the office [?] were not sufficient, or if she were not under the control of a master or pilot sufficiently skilful to perform the duties correspondent to his station, the carrier cannot avail himself of the exception.” By this the jury were instructed, in accordance, as it was supposed, with the principle of Bell v. Reed and Beelor, 4 Binn. 127, that want of seaworthiness has the peculiar effect of casting every loss, from whatever cause, on the carrier, as a penalty, I presume, for his original delinquency, and not for its actual or supposed instrumentality in contributing to the disaster, which is admitted to have been produced, in this instance, by causes unconnected with the master or crew, and to have been of a nature which no human force or sagacity could control.

Does such a penalty necessarily result from the nature of the contract? A carrier is answerable for the consequences of negligence, not the abstract existence of it. Where the goods have arrived safe, no action lies against him for an intervening but inconsequential act of carelessness; nor can it be set up as a defence against payment of the freight; and for this plain reason, that the risk from it was all his own. Why, then, should it, in any other case, subject him to a loss which it did not contribute to produce, or give an advantage to one who was not prejudiced by it? It would require much to reconcile to any principle of policy or justice, a measure of responsibility which would cast the burthen of the loss on a carrier whose wagon had been snatched away by a whirlwind in crossing a bridge, merely because it had not been furnished with a proper cover or tilt to protect the goods from the weather. Yet the omission to provide such a cover would be gross negligence, but, like that imputed to the carrier in the case before us, such as could have had no imaginable effect on the event. A carrier is an insurer against all losses without regard to degrees of negligence in the production of them, except such as have been caused by an act of providence, or the common enemy: and why is he so? Undoubtedly to subserve the purposes, not of justice in the particular instance, but of policy and convenience: of policy, by removing from him all temptation to confederate with robbers or thieves—and of convenience, by relieving the owner of the goods from the necessity of proving actual negligence, which, the fact being peculiarly within the knowledge of the carrier or his servants, could seldom be done. Jones on Bail. 108, 109; 2 Kent, 59, 78. Such are the rule and the reason of it, and such is the exception. But we should enlarge the rule, 44or to speak more properly, narrow the exception far beyond the exigencies of policy or convenience, did we hold him an insurer against even the acts of providence, as a punishment for an abstract delinquency, where there was no room for the existence of a confederacy, or the operation of actual negligence; and to carry a responsibility, founded in no principle of natural equity beyond the requirements of necessity, would be gratuitous injustice. A delinquency which might have contributed to the disaster, such, for instance, as is imputable to the owner of a ship driven on a lee shore, for a defect in the rigging or sails, would undoubtedly be attended with different consequences; for as it would be impossible to ascertain the exact effect of the delinquency on the event, the loss would have to be borne by the delinquent on a very common principle, by which any one whose carelessness has increased the danger of injury from a sudden commotion of the elements, is chargeable with all the mischief that may ensue: as in Turberville v. Stamp, Skin. 681, where it was adjudged, that the negligent keeping of fire in a close would subject the party to all the consequences, though proximately produced by a sudden storm; and the same principle was held by this court in The Lehigh Bridge Company v. The Lehigh Navigation, 4 Rawle, 9. But it would be too much to require of the carrier to make good a loss from shipwreck, for having omitted to provide the ship with proper papers, which are a constituent part of seaworthiness, and the omission of them an undoubted negligence.

The first question, therefore, will be, whether the captain and crew of the boat had the degree of ability and skill thus indicated; and if it be found that they had not, then the second question will be, whether the want of it contributed in any degree to the actual disaster: but if either of these be found for the carrier, it will be decision [decisive?] of the cause. It seems, therefore, that ... the cause ought to be put, on these principles, to another jury.

SPADE v. LYNN & BOSTON R. CO.
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, May 19, 1897.
Reported in 168 Massachusetts Reports, 285.

Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by the alleged negligence of the defendant. The declaration contained three counts.

The third count^[46] alleged that while the plaintiff was a passenger in the defendant’s car, and in the exercise of due care, “one of the defendant’s agents or servants, in attempting to remove from the said car a certain person claimed and alleged by said defendant’s agent to be noisy, turbulent, and unfit to remain as a passenger in said car, conducted himself with such carelessness, negligence, and with the use of such unnecessary force, that said agent and servant, acting thus negligently, created a disorder, disturbance, and quarrel in said car, and thereby frightened the plaintiff and subjected her to a severe nervous shock, by which nervous shock the plaintiff was physically prostrated and suffered, and has continued to suffer, great mental and physical pain and anguish, and has been put to great expense.”

The defendant’s answer was a general denial.

Trial in the Superior Court, before Mason, C. J.

The plaintiff testified, among other things, that the conductor in putting off an intoxicated man twitched him in such a way as to push another intoxicated man over on to the plaintiff. The evidence for the defendant tended to disprove plaintiff’s claim that either of the intoxicated persons came in contact with her, or assaulted her.

The defendant requested (inter alia) an instruction, that there was no evidence to warrant a verdict on the third count. This request was refused.

The judge instructed the jury as follows:—

“Now there is a third count to which attention must be called. If the jury should find that there was no bodily injury to the plaintiff direct from the acts of the conductor, that is, no person was thrown against the plaintiff, if that statement is not accurate, the plaintiff still contends that if the manner of the removal was such that it occasioned fright and nervous shock that resulted in bodily injury, that she is still entitled to recover for that bodily injury. And I have to say to you as matter of law, that if the wrongful acts of the conductor, on the 46occasion of removing the disorderly passenger, did occasion fright and nervous shock to the plaintiff, by reason of which she sustained bodily injury, that she can recover compensation for that injury.

“It is settled law in this State that a person cannot recover for mere fright, fear or mental distress occasioned by the negligence of another, which does not result in bodily injury.

“But when the fright or fear or nervous shock produces a bodily injury, then there may be recovery for that bodily injury, and for all the pain, mental or otherwise, which may arise out of that bodily injury. The brain and the nervous system are so closely connected with the mind, are the instruments by which the mind communicates with the body and operates upon it, that we sometimes deal with the nervous conditions as if they were mental conditions, and possibly the testimony has to some extent treated them as one. But for the purpose of the principle which I am now stating, a clear distinction exists between what is mental and what is nervous. The nervous system, the brain and the nerve fibres, are a part of the body, and injury to them is bodily injury. Now if by the wrongful acts of this defendant or its agents, there was a mental shock, fright, and it ended with that, there can be no recovery. But if that mental shock produced a bodily injury, a disturbance of the brain or nervous system which continued and caused subsequent suffering, there may be recovery for that bodily injury and all that follows from it.”

To the above instructions, the defendant excepted.

Verdict for plaintiff.

Allen, J. This case presents a question which has not heretofore been determined in this Commonwealth, and in respect to which the decisions elsewhere have not been uniform. It is this: whether in an action to recover damages for an injury sustained through the negligence of another, there can be a recovery for a bodily injury caused by mere fright and mental disturbance. The jury were instructed that a person cannot recover for mere fright, fear or mental distress occasioned by the negligence of another, which does not result in bodily injury,^[47] but that when the fright or fear or nervous shock produces a bodily injury, there may be a recovery for that bodily injury, and for all the pain, mental or otherwise, which may arise out of that bodily injury.

47In Canning v. Williamstown, 1 Cush. 451, it was held, in an action against a town to recover damages for an injury sustained by the plaintiff in consequence of a defective bridge, that he could not recover if he sustained no injury to his person, but merely incurred risk and peril which caused fright and mental suffering. In Warren v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 163 Mass. 484, the evidence tended to show that the defendant’s train struck the carriage of the plaintiff, thereby throwing him out upon the ground, and it was held to be a physical injury to the person to be thrown out of a wagon, or to be compelled to jump out, even although the harm consists mainly of nervous shock. It was not therefore a case of mere fright, and resulting nervous shock.

The case calls for a consideration of the real ground upon which the liability or non-liability of a defendant guilty of negligence in a case like the present depends. The exemption from liability for mere fright, terror, alarm, or anxiety does not rest on the assumption that these do not constitute an actual injury. They do in fact deprive one of enjoyment and of comfort, cause real suffering, and to a greater or less extent disqualify one for the time being from doing the duties of life. If these results flow from a wrongful or negligent act, a recovery therefor cannot be denied on the ground that the injury is fanciful and not real. Nor can it be maintained that these results may not be the direct and immediate consequence of the negligence. Danger excites alarm. Few people are wholly insensible to the emotions caused by imminent danger, though some are less affected than others.

It must also be admitted that a timid or sensitive person may suffer not only in mind, but also in body, from such a cause. Great emotion may and sometimes does produce physical effects. The action of the heart, the circulation of the blood, the temperature of the body, as well as the nerves and the appetite, may all be affected. A physical injury may be directly traceable to fright, and so may be caused by it. We cannot say, therefore, that such consequences may not flow proximately from unintentional negligence, and if compensation in damages may be recovered for a physical injury so caused, it is hard on principle to say why there should not also be a recovery for the mere mental suffering when not accompanied by any perceptible physical effects.

It would seem, therefore, that the real reason for refusing damages sustained from mere fright must be something different; and it probably rests on the ground that in practice it is impossible satisfactorily to administer any other rule. The law must be administered in the courts according to general rules. Courts will aim to make these rules as just as possible, bearing in mind that they are to be of general application. But as the law is a practical science, having to do with the affairs of life, any rule is unwise if in its general application it will not as a usual result serve the purposes of justice. A new rule cannot be made for each case, and there must therefore be a certain generality 48in rules of law, which in particular cases may fail to meet what would be desirable if the single case were alone to be considered.

Rules of law respecting the recovery of damages are framed with reference to the just rights of both parties; not merely what it might be right for an injured person to receive, to afford just compensation for his injury, but also what it is just to compel the other party to pay. One cannot always look to others to make compensation for injuries received. Many accidents occur, the consequences of which the sufferer must bear alone. And in determining the rules of law by which the right to recover compensation for unintended injury from others is to be governed, regard must chiefly be paid to such conditions as are usually found to exist. Not only the transportation of passengers and the running of trains, but the general conduct of business and of the ordinary affairs of life, must be done on the assumption that persons who are liable to be affected thereby are not peculiarly sensitive, and are of ordinary physical and mental strength. If, for example, a traveller is sick or infirm, delicate in health, specially nervous or emotional, liable to be upset by slight causes, and therefore requiring precautions which are not usual or practicable for travellers in general, notice should be given, so that, if reasonably practicable, arrangements may be made accordingly, and extra care be observed.^[48] But, as a general rule, a carrier of passengers is not bound to anticipate or to guard against an injurious result which would only happen to a person of peculiar sensitiveness. This limitation of liability for injury of another description is intimated in Allsop v. Allsop, 5 H. & N. 534, 538, 539. One may be held bound to anticipate and guard against the probable consequences to ordinary people, but to carry the rule of damages further imposes an undue measure of responsibility upon those who are guilty only of unintentional negligence. The general rule limiting damages in such a case to the natural and probable consequences of the acts done is of wide application, and has often been expressed and applied. Lombard v. Lennox, 155 Mass. 70; White v. Dresser, 135 Mass. 150; Fillebrown v. Hoar, 124 Mass. 580; Derry v. Flitner, 118 Mass. 131; Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway v. Kellogg, 94 U. S. 469, 475; Wyman v. Leavitt, 71 Maine, 227; Ellis v. Cleveland, 55 Vt. 358; Phillips v. Dickerson, 85 Ill. 11; Hampton v. Jones, 58 Iowa, 317; Renner v. Canfield, 36 Minn. 90; Lynch v. Knight, 9 H. L. Cas. 577, 591, 595, 598; The Notting Hill, 9 P. D. 105; Hobbs v. London & Southwestern Railway, L. R. 10 Q. B. 111, 122.

The law of negligence in its special application to cases of accidents has received great development in recent years. The number of 49actions brought is very great. This should lead courts well to consider the grounds on which claims for compensation properly rest, and the necessary limitations of the right to recover. We remain satisfied with the rule that there can be no recovery for fright, terror, alarm, anxiety, or distress of mind, if these are unaccompanied by some physical injury; and if this rule is to stand, we think it should also be held that there can be no recovery for such physical injuries as may be caused solely by such mental disturbance, where there is no injury to the person from without. The logical vindication of this rule is, that it is unreasonable to hold persons who are merely negligent bound to anticipate and guard against fright and the consequences of fright; and that this would open a wide door for unjust claims, which could not successfully be met. These views are supported by the following decisions: Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas, 13 App. Cas. 222; Mitchell v. Rochester Railway, 151 N. Y. 107; Ewing v. Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, 147 Penn. St. 40; Haile v. Texas & Pacific Railway, 60 Fed. Rep. 557.

In the following cases, a different view was taken: Bell v. Great Northern Railway, 26 L. R. (Ir.) 428; Purcell v. St. Paul City Railway, 48 Minn. 134; Fitzpatrick v. Great Western Railway, 12 U. C. Q. B. 645. See also Beven, Negligence, 77 et seq.

It is hardly necessary to add that this decision does not reach those classes of actions where an intention to cause mental distress or to hurt the feelings is shown, or is reasonably to be inferred, as for example, in cases of seduction, slander, malicious prosecution or arrest, and some others. Nor do we include cases of acts done with gross carelessness or recklessness, showing utter indifference to such consequences, when they must have been in the actor’s mind. Lombard v. Lennox, and Fillebrown v. Hoar, already cited. Meagher v. Driscoll, 99 Mass. 281.

In the present case, no such considerations entered into the rulings or were presented by the facts. The entry therefore must be

Point of law raised by pleadings.^[50]

The statement of claim was as follows:—

“1. The plaintiff is the wife of Arthur David Dulieu, who carries on the business of a licensed victualler at the Bonner Arms, Bonner Street, Bethnal Green, in the county of London.

“2. On July 20, 1900, the plaintiff was behind the bar of her husband’s said public-house, she being then pregnant, when the defendants by their servant so negligently drove a pair-horse van as to drive it into the said public-house.

51“3. The defendants were also negligent in entrusting the driving of the said horses and van to their said servant, who had no knowledge or skill in driving.

“4. The plaintiff in consequence sustained a severe shock, and was and is seriously ill, and on September 29, 1900, gave premature birth to a child.

“5. In consequence of the shock sustained by the plaintiff the said child was born an idiot.

“The plaintiff claims damages in respect of the aforesaid matters.”

The statement of defence, after denying the allegations contained in the statement of claim proceeded:—

“3. The defendants submit as a matter of law that the damages sought to be recovered herein are too remote, and that the statement of claim on the face thereof discloses no cause of action.”

Kennedy, J. In this case the only question for the judgment of the court is in the nature of a demurrer.

The head of damage alleged in paragraph 5 was rightly treated by the plaintiff’s counsel as untenable.

The defendant’s counsel summed up his contention against the legal validity of the plaintiff’s claim in the statement that no action for negligence will lie where there is no immediate physical injury resulting to the plaintiff.

This is an action on the case for negligence—that is to say, for a breach on the part of the defendant’s servant of the duty to use reasonable and proper care and skill in the management of the defendant’s van. In order to succeed, the plaintiff has to prove resulting damage to herself and “a natural and continuous sequence uninterruptedly connecting the breach of duty with the damage as cause and effect.” Shearman and Redfield, Negligence, cited in Beven, Negligence in Law, 2d ed. p. 7. In regard to the existence of the duty here, there can, I think, be no question. The driver of a van and horses in a highway owes a duty to use reasonable and proper care and skill so as not to injure either persons lawfully using the highway, or property adjoining the highway, or persons who, like the plaintiff are lawfully occupying that property. His legal duty towards all appears to me to be practically identical in character and in degree. I understood the plaintiff’s counsel to suggest that there might exist a higher degree of duty towards the plaintiff sitting in a house than would have existed had she been in the street. I am not satisfied that this is so. The wayfarer in the street, as it seems to me, has in law as much right of redress if he is injured in person or in property by the negligence of another as the man who is lawfully sitting on a side-wall or in an adjoining house. “The whole law of negligence assumes the principle 52of ‘Volenti non fit injuria’ not to be applicable,” for reasons which Sir Frederick Pollock points out (The Law of Torts, by Sir F. Pollock, 6th ed. pp. 166, 167), in a passage which follows the quotation which I have just made. The legal obligations of the driver of horses are the same, I think, towards the man indoors as to the man out of doors; the only question here is whether there is an actionable breach of those obligations if the man in either case is made ill in body by such negligent driving as does not break his ribs but shocks his nerves.

Before proceeding to consider the objections to the maintenance of such a claim as that of the present plaintiff, it is, I think, desirable for clearness’ sake to see exactly what are the facts which ought to be assumed for the purposes of the argument. We must assume in her favor all that can be assumed consistently with the allegations of the statement of claim. We must, therefore, take it as proved that the negligent driving of the defendants’ servant reasonably and naturally caused a nervous or mental shock to the plaintiff by her reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily hurt, and that the premature childbirth, with the physical pain and suffering which accompanied it, was a natural and a direct consequence of the shock. I may just say in passing that I use the words “nervous” and “mental” as interchangeable epithets on the authority of the judgment of the Privy Council in Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas, 13 App. Cas. 222; but I venture to think “nervous” is probably the more correct epithet where terror operates through parts of the physical organism to produce bodily illness as in the present case. The use of the epithet “mental” requires caution, in view of the undoubted rule that merely mental pain unaccompanied by any injury to the person cannot sustain an action of this kind. Beven, Negligence in Law, 2d ed. p. 77.

Now, these being the assumed facts, what are the defendants’ arguments against the plaintiff’s right to recover damages in this action?

First of all, it is argued, fright caused by negligence is not in itself a cause of action—ergo, none of its consequences can give a cause of action. In Mitchell v. Rochester Ry. Co., (1896) 151 N. Y. 107, the point is put thus: “That the result may be nervous disease, blindness, insanity, or even a miscarriage, in no way changes the principle. These results merely show the degree of fright or the extent of the damages. The right of action must still depend upon the question whether a recovery may be had for fright.” With all respect to the learned judges who have so held, I feel a difficulty in following this reasoning. No doubt damage is an essential element in a right of action for negligence. I cannot successfully sue him who has failed in his duty of using reasonable skill and care towards me unless I can prove some material and measurable damage. If his negligence has caused me neither injury to property nor physical mischief, but only an unpleasant emotion of more or less transient duration, an essential 53constituent of a right of action for negligence is lacking. “Fear,” as Sir Frederick Pollock has stated (The Law of Torts, 6th ed. p. 51), “taken alone falls short of being actual damage not because it is a remote or unlikely consequence, but because it can be proved and measured only by physical effects.” It may, I conceive, be truly said that, viewed in relation to an action for negligence, direct bodily impact is, without resulting damage, as insufficient a ground of legal claim as the infliction of fright. That fright—where physical injury is directly produced by it—cannot be a ground of action merely because of the absence of any accompanying impact appears to me to be a contention both unreasonable and contrary to the weight of authority.

[The learned judge then cited cases in which an action was held to lie, where the only physical impact did not accompany but was a consequence of the fright; also a case where there was nothing in the nature of impact and yet recovery was allowed.]

If impact be not necessary, and if, as must be assumed here, the fear is proved to have naturally and directly produced physical effects, so that the ill results of the negligence which caused the fear are as measurable in damages as the same results would be if they arose from an actual impact, why should not an action for those damages lie just as well as it lies where there has been an actual impact? It is not, however, to be taken that in my view every nervous shock occasioned by negligence and producing physical injury to the sufferer gives a cause of action. There is, I am inclined to think, at least one limitation. The shock, where it operates through the mind, must be a shock which arises from a reasonable fear of immediate personal injury to oneself. A. has, I conceive, no legal duty not to shock B.’s nerves by the exhibition of negligence towards C., or towards the property of B. or C. The limitation was applied by Wright and Bruce, JJ., in the unreported case of Smith v. Johnson & Co., referred to by Wright, J., at the close of his judgment in Wilkinson v. Downton, [1897] 2 Q. B. 57, at p. 61. In Smith v. Johnson & Co. (unreported), a man was killed by the defendant’s negligence in the sight of the plaintiff, and the plaintiff became ill, not from the shock produced by fear of harm to himself, but from the shock of seeing another person killed. The court held that this harm was too remote a consequence of the negligence.^[51] I should myself, as I have already indicated, 54have been inclined to go a step further, and to hold upon the facts in Smith v. Johnson & Co. that, as the defendant neither intended to affect the plaintiff injuriously nor did anything which could reasonably or naturally be expected to affect him injuriously, there was no evidence of any breach of legal duty towards the plaintiff or in regard to him of that absence of care according to the circumstances which Willes, J., in Vaughan v. Taff Vale Ry. Co., (1860) 5 H. & N. 679, at p. 688, gave as a definition of negligence.

In order to illustrate my meaning in the concrete, I say that I should not be prepared in the present case to hold that the plaintiff was entitled to maintain this action if the nervous shock was produced, not by the fear of bodily injury to herself, but by horror or vexation arising from the sight of mischief being threatened or done either to some other person, or to her own or her husband’s property, by the intrusion of the defendants’ van and horses. The cause of the nervous shock is one of the things which the jury will have to determine at the trial.

It remains to consider the second and somewhat different form in which the defendants’ counsel put his objection to the right of the plaintiff to maintain this action. He contended that the damages are too remote, and relied much upon the decision of the Privy Council in Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas, 13 App. Cas. 222.

The principal ground of their judgment is formulated in the following sentence: “Damages arising from mere sudden terror unaccompanied by any actual physical injury, but occasioning a nervous or mental shock, cannot under such circumstances, their Lordships think, be considered a consequence which, in the ordinary course of things, would flow from the negligence of the gate-keeper.”

Why is the accompaniment of physical injury essential? For my own part, I should not like to assume it to be scientifically true that a nervous shock which causes serious bodily illness is not actually accompanied by physical injury, although it may be impossible, or at least difficult, to detect the injury at the time in the living subject. I should not be surprised if the surgeon or the physiologist told us that nervous shock is or may be in itself an injurious affection of the physical organism. Let it be assumed, however, that the physical injury follows the shock, but that the jury are satisfied upon proper and sufficient medical evidence that it follows the shock as its direct and natural effect, is there any legal reason for saying that the damage is less proximate in the legal sense than damage which arises contemporaneously? “As well might it be said” (I am quoting from the judgment of Palles, C. B., 26 L. R. Ir. at p. 439) “that a death caused 55by poison is not to be attributed to the person who administered it because the mortal effect is not produced contemporaneously with its administration.” Remoteness as a legal ground for the exclusion of damage in an action of tort means, not severance in point of time, but the absence of direct and natural causal sequence—the inability to trace in regard to the damage the “propter hoc” in a necessary or natural descent from the wrongful act. As a matter of experience, I should say that the injury to health which forms the main ground of damages in actions of negligence, either in cases of railway accidents or in running-down cases, frequently is proved, not as a concomitant of the occurrence, but as one of the sequelæ.

[As to Mitchell v. Rochester Ry. Co., 151 N. Y. 107, cited by defendant.] Shortly, the facts there were that the plaintiff, whilst waiting for a tram-car, was nearly run over by the negligent management of the defendant’s servant of a car drawn by a pair of horses, and owing to terror so caused fainted, lost consciousness, and subsequently had a miscarriage and consequent illness.

It may be admitted that the plaintiff in this American case would not have suffered exactly as she did, and probably not to the same extent as she did, if she had not been pregnant at the time; and no doubt the driver of the defendant’s horses could not anticipate that she was in this condition. But what does that fact matter? If a man is negligently run over or otherwise negligently injured in his body, it is no answer to the sufferer’s claim for damages that he would have suffered less injury, or no injury at all, if he had not had an unusually thin skull or an unusually weak heart.

[After commenting on the opinion in Spade v. Lynn & Boston R. R., 168 Mass. 285.]

Naturally one is diffident of one’s opinion when one finds that it is not in accord with those which have been expressed by such judicial authorities as those to which I have just referred. But certainly, if, as is admitted, and I think justly admitted, by the Massachusetts judgment, a claim for damages for physical injuries naturally and directly resulting from nervous shock which is due to the negligence of another in causing fear of immediate bodily hurt is in principle not too remote to be recoverable in law, I should be sorry to adopt a rule which would bar all such claims on grounds of policy alone, and in order to prevent the possible success of unrighteous or groundless actions. Such a course involves the denial of redress in meritorious cases, and it necessarily implies a certain degree of distrust, which I do not share, in the capacity of legal tribunals to get at the truth in this class of claims. My experience gives me no reason to suppose that a jury would really have more difficulty in weighing the medical evidence as to the effects of nervous shock through fright, than in 56weighing the like evidence as to the effects of nervous shock through a railway collision or a carriage accident, where, as often happens, no palpable injury, or very slight palpable injury, has been occasioned at the time.

I have now, I think, dealt with the authorities and the arguments upon which the defendants rely, and I have done so at greater length than I should have wished to do but for the general interest of the points involved and the difficulties which the conflict of authorities undoubtedly present. In this conflict I prefer, as I have already indicated, the two decisions of the Irish courts. They seem to me to constitute strong and clear authorities for the plaintiff’s contention. It was suggested on the part of the defendants that the applicability of the judgment in Bell v. Great Northern Company of Ireland, 26 L. R. Ir. 428, is affected by the fact that the female in that action was a passenger on the defendant’s railway, and as such had contractual rights. It appears to me that in the circumstances this fact can make no practical difference whatever. In the Irish case there was no special contract, no notice to the railway company, when they accepted her as a passenger, that she was particularly delicate, or peculiarly nervous or liable to fright. The contractual duty existed, as it often does exist, concurrently with the duty apart from contract; but the one is in such circumstances practically co-extensive with the other in the rights which it gives and the corresponding liabilities which it imposes.

I hold that, if on the trial of this action the jury find the issues left to them as the jury found them in Bell v. Great Northern Railway Company of Ireland, 26 L. R. Ir. 428, after the direction of Andrews, J., which was approved by the Exchequer Division, the plaintiff will have made out a good cause of action.

Phillimore, J.

I think there may be cases in which A. owes a duty to B. not to inflict a mental shock on him or her, and that in such a case, if A. does inflict such a shock upon B.—as by terrifying B.—and physical damage thereby ensues, B. may have an action for the physical damage, though the medium through which it has been inflicted is the mind.

I think there is some assistance to be got from the cases where fear of impending danger has induced a passenger to take means of escape which have in the result proved injurious to him, and where the carrier has been held liable for these injuries, as in Jones v. Boyce, 1 Stark. 493.

[The learned judge thought it possible that he might have come to the same conclusion as that arrived at in Victorian Railways Commissioners 57v. Coultas, though not for the reasons which have prominence in the judgment. He also thought that he should have come to the same decision as the Massachusetts court in Spade v. Lynn & Boston R. R.; but that he should not have expressed it in such broad and sweeping language.]

In the case before us the plaintiff, a pregnant woman, was in her house. It is said that she was not the tenant in possession and could not maintain trespass quare clausum fregit if this had been a direct act of the defendant and not of his servant (as it was). This is true: her husband was in possession. But none the less it was her home, where she had a right, and on some occasions a duty, to be; and it seems to me that if the tenant himself could maintain an action, his wife or child could do likewise. It is averred that by reason of the careless driving of the defendants’ servant a pair-horse van came some way into the room, and so frightened her that serious physical consequences thereby befell her. If these averments be proved, I think that there was a breach of duty to her for which she can have damages. The difficulty in these cases is to my mind not one as to the remoteness of the damage, but as to the uncertainty of there being any duty. Once get the duty and the physical damage following on the breach of duty, and I hold that the fact of one link in the chain of causation being mental only makes no difference. The learned counsel for the plaintiff has put it that every link is physical in the narrow sense. That may be or may not be. For myself, it is unimportant.

Wright, J.^[53] In this case the defendant, in the execution of what he seems to have regarded as a practical joke, represented to the plaintiff that he was charged by her husband with a message to her to the effect that her husband was smashed up in an accident, and was lying at The Elms at Leytonstone with both legs broken, and that she was to go at once in a cab with two pillows to fetch him home. All this was false. The effect of the statement on the plaintiff was a violent shock to her nervous system, producing vomiting and other more serious and permanent physical consequences at one time threatening her reason, and entailing weeks of suffering and incapacity to her as well as expense to her husband for medical attendance. These consequences were not in any way the result of previous ill-health or weakness of constitution; nor was there any evidence of predisposition to nervous shock or any other idiosyncrasy.

In addition to these matters of substance there is a small claim for 1s. 10½d. for the cost of railway fares of persons sent by the plaintiff to Leytonstone in obedience to the pretended message. As to this 1s. 10½d. expended in railway fares on the faith of the defendant’s statement, I think the case is clearly within the decision in Pasley v. Freeman, (1789) 3 T. R. 51. The statement was a misrepresentation intended to be acted on to the damage of the plaintiff.

The real question is as to the 100l., the greatest part of which is given as compensation for the female plaintiff’s illness and suffering. 59It was argued for her that she is entitled to recover this as being damage caused by fraud, and therefore within the doctrine established by Pasley v. Freeman, (1789) 3 T. R. 51, and Langridge v. Levy, (1837) 2 M. & W. 519. I am not sure that this would not be an extension of that doctrine, the real ground of which appears to be that a person who makes a false statement intended to be acted on must make good the damage naturally resulting from its being acted on. Here there is no injuria of that kind. I think, however, that the verdict may be supported upon another ground. The defendant has, as I assume for the moment, wilfully done an act calculated to cause physical harm to the plaintiff—that is to say, to infringe her legal right to personal safety, and has in fact thereby caused physical harm to her. That proposition without more appears to me to state a good cause of action, there being no justification alleged for the act. This wilful injuria is in law malicious, although no malicious purpose to cause the harm which was caused nor any motive of spite is imputed to the defendant.

It remains to consider whether the assumptions involved in the proposition are made out. One question is whether the defendant’s act was so plainly calculated to produce some effect of the kind which was produced that an intention to produce it ought to be imputed to the defendant, regard being had to the fact that the effect was produced on a person proved to be in an ordinary state of health and mind. I think that it was. It is difficult to imagine that such a statement, made suddenly and with apparent seriousness, could fail to produce grave effects under the circumstances upon any but an exceptionally indifferent person, and therefore an intention to produce such an effect must be imputed, and it is no answer in law to say that more harm was done than was anticipated, for that is commonly the case with all wrongs. The other question is whether the effect was, to use the ordinary phrase, too remote to be in law regarded as a consequence for which the defendant is answerable. Apart from authority, I should give the same answer and on the same ground as the last question, and say that it was not too remote. Whether, as the majority of the House of Lords thought in Lynch v. Knight, (1861) 9. H. L. C. 577, at pp. 592, 596, the criterion is in asking what would be the natural effect on reasonable persons, or whether, as Lord Wensleydale thought (9 H. L. C. 587, at p. 600), the possible infirmities of human nature ought to be recognized, it seems to me that the connection between the cause and the effect is sufficiently close and complete. It is, however, necessary to consider two authorities which are supposed to have laid down that illness through mental shock is a too remote or unnatural consequence of an injuria to entitle the plaintiff to recover in a case where damage is a necessary part of the cause of action. One is the case of Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas, 13 App. Cas. 222, where it was held in the Privy Council 60that illness which was the effect of shock caused by fright was too remote a consequence of a negligent act which caused the fright, there being no physical harm immediately caused. That decision was treated in the Court of Appeal in Pugh v. London, Brighton and South Coast Ry. Co., [1896] 2 Q. B. 248, as open to question. It is inconsistent with a decision in the Court of Appeal in Ireland: Bell v. Great Northern Ry. Co. of Ireland, (1890) 26 L. R. Ir. 428, where the Irish Exchequer Division refused to follow it; and it has been disapproved in the Supreme Court of New York; see Pollock on Torts, 4th ed. p. 47 (n). Nor is it altogether in point, for there was not in that case any element of wilful wrong; nor perhaps was the illness so direct and natural a consequence of the defendant’s conduct as in this case. On these grounds it seems to me that the case of Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas, 13 App. Cas. 222, is not an authority on which this case ought to be decided.

A more serious difficulty is the decision in Allsop v. Allsop, 5 H. & N. 534, which was approved by the House of Lords in Lynch v. Knight, 9 H. L. C. 577. In that case it was held by Pollock, C. B., Martin, Bramwell, and Wilde, BB., that illness caused by a slanderous imputation of unchastity in the case of a married woman did not constitute such special damage as would sustain an action for such a slander. That case, however, appears to have been decided on the ground that in all the innumerable actions for slander there were no precedents for alleging illness to be sufficient special damage, and that it would be of evil consequence to treat it as sufficient, because such a rule might lead to an infinity of trumpery or groundless actions. Neither of these reasons is applicable to the present case. Nor could such a rule be adopted as of general application without results which it would be difficult or impossible to defend. Suppose that a person is in a precarious and dangerous condition, and another person tells him that his physician has said that he has but a day to live. In such a case, if death ensued from the shock caused by the false statement, I cannot doubt that at this day the case might be one of criminal homicide, or that if a serious aggravation of illness ensued damages might be recovered. I think, however, that it must be admitted that the present case is without precedent. Some English decisions—such as Jones v. Boyce, (1816) 1 Stark. 493; Wilkins v. Day, (1883) 12 Q. B. D. 110; Harris v. Mobbs, (1878) 3 Ex. D. 268—are cited in Beven on Negligence as inconsistent with the decision in Victorian Railways Commissioners v. Coultas, 13 App. Cas. 222. But I think that those cases are to be explained on a different ground, namely, that the damage which immediately resulted from the act of the passenger or of the horse was really the result not of that act, but of a fright which rendered that act involuntary, and which therefore ought to be regarded as itself the direct and immediate cause of the damage. In Smith v. Johnson & Co. (unreported), decided in January last, 61Bruce, J., and I held that where a man was killed in the sight of the plaintiff by the defendant’s negligence, and the plaintiff became ill, not from the shock from fear of harm to himself, but from the shock of seeing another person killed, this harm was too remote a consequence of the negligence. But that was a very different case from the present.

There must be judgment for the plaintiff for 100l. 1s. 10½.

YATES v. SOUTH KIRKBY COLLIERIES
In the Court of Appeal, July 6, 1910.
Reported in [1910] 2 King’s Bench, 538.

Appeal against the award of the judge of the county court of Pontefract sitting as arbitrator under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1906.

The question raised by this appeal was whether a nervous shock received by a workman in the course of his employment was an “accident” which entitled him to compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1906. The facts as found by the county court judge were as follows:—

In October, 1909, the applicant,—a collier, forty-six years of age, who had been engaged in coal mining all his life, and for twenty-seven years had been working at the face of the coal in the pit belonging to the respondents,—while working as usual, heard a shout for help from the next working place. He ran around his loose end at once and found a fellow collier lying full length on the ground, having been knocked down by a fallen timber prop and some coal; he was bleeding all over his head and from his ears and eyes. The applicant picked him up in his arms and, with assistance, carried him away; he was not dead at the time, but died in a quarter of an hour. The effect on the applicant was such that he sustained a nervous shock, which incapacitated him from working at the coal face; he returned to his work on the Saturday, and at the order of the under-manager on the Monday following, but on neither occasion was he able to do work, 62and after describing to the under-manager and the Government inspector on the Monday the details of what happened on the Saturday he left the pit; he then consulted his doctor and has been under his care since. In November he tried again to work, and went to his old place, but though he stayed the shift he was unable to work, and his brother, who was his mate, did it for him. In January, 1910, he asked the under-manager for a by-work job, but the under-manager would not give him one, and he had not worked since.

Proceedings for compensation having been taken, the county court judge found as a fact that there was a genuine incapacity to work which was due to the nervous shock which he sustained in October, 1909, when it clearly was his duty to his employers to go to the assistance of the injured collier who shouted for help from the next working place, and that his doing so arose both “in course of” and “out of” his employment. The learned county court judge accordingly awarded the applicant compensation at 19s. a week to the date of the award, and 10s. a week till further order.

The respondents appealed.^[55]

Farwell, L. J. I am of the same opinion. It is rightly conceded that it was part of the man’s duty to go to the assistance of his fellow workman. Therefore there is no question that the events arose “out of and in the course of the employment.” The learned county court judge has found as a fact that there was a genuine incapacity to work, which was due to the nervous shock which the applicant sustained in October last. In my opinion nervous shock due to accident which causes personal incapacity to work is as much “personal injury by accident” as a broken leg, for the reasons already expressed by this court in the case of Eaves v. Blaenclydach Colliery Co., [1909] 2 K. B. 73. In truth I find it difficult, when the medical evidence is that as a fact a workman is suffering from a known complaint arising from nervous shock, to draw any distinction between that case and the case of a broken limb. I see no distinction for this purpose between the case of the guard who is not in fact physically injured by an accident to his train, but who, after assisting to carry away the wounded and dead, breaks down from nervous shock, and the case of the guard who in similar circumstances stumbles over some of the débris and breaks his leg.^[56] The difficulty is to prove the facts so as to avoid the risk of malingering, but when the facts have been proved, the injury causing incapacity to work arises from the accident in the one case just as much as in the other. I am, therefore, of opinion that the judgment of the learned county court judge must be affirmed.

63Kennedy, L. J. I am of the same opinion. It is beyond question that the incapacity of the applicant has arisen in the course of and out of the employment; and when you have a finding of fact by the learned county court judge that there has been a nervous shock, and that that nervous shock has produced a genuine condition of neurasthenia, I think myself the recent authorities show that this judgment ought to be supported. One knows perfectly well that neurasthenia, although there may be no outward sign if you merely look at the person, is treated, and successfully treated in some cases at any rate, by a treatment of the body. Directly you have that which requires treatment of the body, it means that a portion of that body (visible or invisible does not matter) is in a state of ill-health, and, if the condition of neurasthenia produces incapacity to work which has been brought about by something in the nature of an accident which arose “out of and in the course of the employment,” you have a case of “personal injury by accident” which is within the Act.

Section III
The Standard of Care

VAUGHAN v. MENLOVE
In the Common Pleas, January 23, 1837.
Reported in 3 Bingham’s New Cases, 468.

The declaration alleged, in substance, that plaintiff was the owner of two cottages; that defendant owned land near to the said cottages; that defendant had a rick or stack of hay near the boundary of his land which was liable and likely to ignite, and thereby was dangerous to the plaintiff’s cottages; that the defendant, well knowing the premises, wrongfully and negligently kept and continued the rick in the aforesaid dangerous condition; that the rick did ignite, and that plaintiff’s cottages were burned by fire communicated from the rick or from certain buildings of defendant’s which were set on fire by flames from the rick.

Defendant pleaded the general issue; and also several special pleas, denying negligence.

64At the trial it appeared that the rick in question had been made by the defendant near the boundary of his own premises; that the hay was in such a state when put together, as to give rise to discussions on the probability of fire; that though there were conflicting opinions on the subject, yet during a period of five weeks the defendant was repeatedly warned of his peril; that his stock was insured; and that upon one occasion, being advised to take the rick down to avoid all danger, he said “he would chance it.” He made an aperture or chimney through the rick; but in spite, or perhaps in consequence of this precaution, the rick at length burst into flames from the spontaneous heating of its materials; the flames communicated to the defendant’s barn and stables, and thence to the plaintiff’s cottages, which were entirely destroyed.

Patteson, J., before whom the cause was tried, told the jury that the question for them to consider was, whether the fire had been occasioned by gross negligence on the part of the defendant; adding, that he was bound to proceed with such reasonable caution as a prudent man would have exercised under such circumstances.

A verdict having been found for the plaintiff, a rule nisi for a new trial was obtained, on the ground that the jury should have been directed to consider, not whether the defendant had been guilty of a gross negligence with reference to the standard of ordinary prudence, a standard too uncertain to afford any criterion, but whether he had acted bona fide to the best of his judgment; if he had, he ought not to be responsible for the misfortune of not possessing the highest order of intelligence. The action under such circumstances was of the first impression.^[57]

Talfourd, Serjt., and Whately, showed cause.

The pleas having expressly raised issues on the negligence of the defendant, the learned judge could not do otherwise than leave that question to the jury. The declaration alleges that the defendant knew of the dangerous state of the rick, and yet negligently and improperly allowed it to stand. The plea of not guilty, therefore, puts in issue the scienter, it being of the substance of the issue: Thomas v. Morgan, 2 Cr. M. & R. 496. And the action, though new in specie, is founded on a principle fully established, that a man must so use his own property as not to injure that of others. On the same circuit a defendant was sued a few years ago for burning weeds so near the extremity of his own land as to set fire to and destroy his neighbors’ wood. The plaintiff recovered damages, and no motion was made to set aside the verdict. Then, there were no means of estimating the defendant’s negligence, except by taking as a standard the conduct of a man of ordinary prudence: that has been the rule always laid down, and there is no other that would not be open to much greater uncertainties.

65R. V. Richards, in support of the rule.

First, there was no duty imposed on the defendant, as there is on carriers or other bailees, under an implied contract, to be responsible for the exercise of any given degree of prudence: the defendant had a right to place his stack as near to the extremity of his own land as he pleased, Wyatt v. Harrison, 3 B. & Adol. 871: under that right, and subject to no contract, he can only be called on to act bona fide to the best of his judgment; if he has done that, it is a contradiction in terms, to inquire whether or not he has been guilty of gross negligence. At all events what would have been gross negligence ought to be estimated by the faculties of the individual, and not by those of other men. The measure of prudence varies so with the varying faculties of men, that it is impossible to say what is gross negligence with reference to the standard of what is called ordinary prudence. In Crook v. Jadis, 5 B. & Adol. 910, Patteson, J., says, “I never could understand what is meant by parties taking a bill under circumstances which ought to have excited the suspicion of a prudent man;” and Taunton, J., “I cannot estimate the degree of care which a prudent man should take.”...

Tindal, C. J. I agree that this is a case primæ impressionis; but I feel no difficulty in applying to it the principles of law as laid down in other cases of a similar kind. Undoubtedly this is not a case of contract, such as a bailment or the like, where the bailee is responsible in consequence of the remuneration he is to receive: but there is a rule of law which says you must so enjoy your own property as not to injure that of another; and according to that rule the defendant is liable for the consequence of his own neglect: and though the defendant did not himself light the fire, yet mediately he is as much the cause of it as if he had himself put a candle to the rick; for it is well known that hay will ferment and take fire if it be not carefully stacked. It has been decided that if an occupier burns weeds so near the boundary of his own land that damage ensues to the property of his neighbor, he is liable to an action for the amount of injury done, unless the accident were occasioned by a sudden blast which he could not foresee. Turberville v. Stamp, 1 Salk. 13. But put the case of a chemist making experiments with ingredients, singly innocent, but when combined liable to ignite; if he leaves them together, and injury is thereby occasioned to the property of his neighbor, can any one doubt that an action on the case would lie?

It is contended, however, that the learned judge was wrong in leaving this to the jury as a case of gross negligence, and that the question of negligence was so mixed up with reference to what would be the conduct of a man of ordinary prudence that the jury might have thought the latter the rule by which they were to decide; that such a rule would be too uncertain to act upon; and that the question ought to have been whether the defendant had acted honestly and bona fide 66to the best of his own judgment. That, however, would leave so vague a line as to afford no rule at all, the degree of judgment belonging to each individual being infinitely various: and though it has been urged that the care which a prudent man would take, is not an intelligible proposition as a rule of law, yet such has always been the rule adopted in cases of bailment, as laid down in Coggs v. Bernard, 2 Ld. Raym. 909. Though in some cases a greater degree of care is exacted than in others, yet in “the second sort of bailment, viz., commodatum or lending gratis, the borrower is bound to the strictest care and diligence to keep the goods so as to restore them back again to the lender; because the bailee has a benefit by the use of them, so as if the bailee be guilty of the least neglect he will be answerable; as if a man should lend another a horse to go westward, or for a month; if the bailee put this horse in his stable, and he were stolen from thence, the bailee shall not be answerable for him; but if he or his servant leave the house or stable doors open, and the thieves take the opportunity of that, and steal the horse, he will be chargeable, because the neglect gave the thieves the occasion to steal the horse.” The care taken by a prudent man has always been the rule laid down; and as to the supposed difficulty of applying it, a jury has always been able to say, whether, taking that rule as their guide, there has been negligence on the occasion in question.

Instead, therefore, of saying that the liability for negligence should be co-extensive with the judgment of each individual, which would be as variable as the length of the foot of each individual, we ought rather to adhere to the rule, which requires in all cases a regard to caution such as a man of ordinary prudence would observe.^[58] That was in substance the criterion presented to the jury in this case, and therefore the present rule must be discharged.

[Concurring opinions were delivered by Park, and Vaughan, JJ. Gaselee, J. concurred in the result.]

This was an appeal by the defendants against the decision of the judge of the County Court of Birmingham. The case was tried before a jury, and a verdict found for the plaintiff for the amount claimed by the particulars. The particulars of the claim alleged, that the plaintiff sought to recover for damage sustained by the plaintiff by reason of the negligence of the defendants in not keeping their water-pipes and the apparatus connected therewith in proper order.

The case stated that the defendants were incorporated by stat. 7 Geo. IV., c. cix., for the purpose of supplying Birmingham with water.

By the 84th section of their Act it was enacted, that the company should, upon the laying down of any main-pipe or other pipe in any street, fix, at the time of laying down such pipe, a proper and sufficient fire-plug in each such street, and should deliver the key or keys of such fire-plug to the persons having the care of the engine-house in or near to the said street, and cause another key to be hung up in the watch-house in or near to the said street. By sec. 87, pipes were to be eighteen inches beneath the surface of the soil. By the 89th section, the mains were at all times to be kept charged with water. The defendants derived no profit from the maintenance of the plugs distinct from the general profits of the whole business, but such maintenance was one of the conditions under which they were permitted to exercise the privileges given by the Act. The main-pipe opposite the house of the plaintiff was more than eighteen inches below the surface. The fire-plug was constructed according to the best known system, and the materials of it were at the time of the accident sound and in good order. The apparatus connected with the fire-plug was as follows:—

The lower part of a wooden plug was inserted in a neck, which projected above and formed part of the main. About the neck there was a bed of brickwork puddled in with clay. The plug was also enclosed in a cast iron tube, which was placed upon and fixed to the brickwork. The tube was closed at the top by a movable iron stopper having a hole in it for the insertion of the key, by which the plug was loosened when occasion required it.

The plug did not fit tight to the tube, but room was left for it to move freely. This space was necessarily left for the purpose of easily and quickly removing the wooden plug to allow the water to flow. On the removal of the wooden plug the pressure upon the main forced the water up through the neck and cap to the surface of the street.

68On the 24th of February, a large quantity of water, escaping from the neck of the main, forced its way through the ground into the plaintiff’s house. The apparatus had been laid down twenty-five years, and had worked well during that time. The defendants’ engineer stated, that the water might have forced its way through the brickwork round the neck of the main, and that the accident might have been caused by the frost, inasmuch as the expansion of the water would force up the plug out of the neck, and the stopper being incrusted with ice would not suffer the plug to ascend. One of the severest frosts on record set in on the 15th of January, 1855, and continued until after the accident in question. An incrustation of ice and snow had gathered about the stopper, and in the street all round, and also for some inches between the stopper and the plug. The ice had been observed on the surface of the ground for a considerable time before the accident. A short time after the accident, the company’s turncock removed the ice from the stopper, took out the plug, and replaced it.

The judge left it to the jury to consider whether the company had used proper care to prevent the accident. He thought, that, if the defendants had taken out the ice adhering to the plug, the accident would not have happened, and left it to the jury to say whether they ought to have removed the ice. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for the sum claimed.

Field, for the appellant. There was no negligence on the part of the defendants. The plug was pushed out by the frost, which was one of the severest ever known.

The Court then called on

Kennedy, for the respondent. The company omitted to take sufficient precautions. The fire-plug is placed in the neck of the main. In ordinary cases the plug rises and lets the water out; but here there was an incrustation round the stopper, which prevented the escape of the water. This might have been easily removed. It will be found, from the result of the cases, that the company were bound to take every possible precaution. The fact of premises being fired by sparks from an engine on a railway is evidence of negligence: Piggott v. Eastern Counties Railway Company, 3 C. B. 229 (E. C. L. R. vol. 54); Aldridge v. Great Western Railway Company, 3 M. & Gr. 515 (Id. 42), 4 Scott, N. R. 156, 1 Dowl. N. S. 247, S. C. [Martin, B. I held, in a case tried at Liverpool, in 1853, that, if locomotives are sent through the country emitting sparks, the persons doing so incur all the responsibilities of insurers; that they were liable for all the consequences.^[59] I invited counsel to tender a bill of exceptions to that ruling. Water is a different matter.] It is the defendants’ water, therefore they are bound to see that no injury is done to any one by 69it. An action has been held to lie for so negligently constructing a hayrick at the extremity of the owner’s land, that, by reason of its spontaneous ignition, his neighbor’s house was burnt down: Vaughan v. Menlove, 3 Bing. N. C. 468 (E. C. L. R. vol. 32). [Bramwell, B. In that case discussions had arisen as to the probability of fire, and the defendant was repeatedly warned of the danger, and said he would chance it.] He referred to Wells v. Ody, 1 M. & W. 452. [Alderson, B. Is it an accident which any man could have foreseen?] A scientific man could have foreseen it. If no eye could have seen what was going on, the case might have been different; but the company’s servants could have seen, and actually did see, the ice which had collected about the plug. It is of the last importance, that these plugs, which are fire-plugs, should be kept by the company in working order. The accident cannot be considered as having been caused by the act of God: Siordet v. Hall, 4 Bing. 607 (Id. 13).

Alderson, B. I am of opinion that there was no evidence to be left to the jury. The case turns upon the question, whether the facts proved show that the defendants were guilty of negligence. Negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doing something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do.^[60] The defendants might have been liable for negligence, if, unintentionally, they omitted to do that which a reasonable person would have done, or did that which a person taking reasonable precautions would not have done. A reasonable man would act with reference to the average circumstances of the temperature in ordinary years. The defendants had provided against such frosts as experience would have led men, acting prudently, to provide against; and they are not guilty of negligence, because their precautions proved insufficient against the effects of the extreme severity of the frost of 1855, which penetrated to a greater depth than any which ordinarily occurs south of the polar regions. Such a state of circumstances constitutes a contingency against which no reasonable man can provide. The result was an accident for which the defendants cannot be held liable.

Martin, B. I think that the direction was not correct, and that there was no evidence for the jury. The defendants are not responsible, unless there was negligence on their part. To hold otherwise would be to make the company responsible as insurers.

70Bramwell, B. The Act of Parliament directed the defendants to lay down pipes, with plugs in them, as safety-valves, to prevent the bursting of the pipes. The plugs were properly made, and of proper material; but there was an accumulation of ice about this plug, which prevented it from acting properly. The defendants were not bound to keep the plugs clear. It appears to me that the plaintiff was under quite as much obligation to remove the ice and snow which had accumulated, as the defendants. However that may be, it appears to me that it would be monstrous to hold the defendants responsible because they did not foresee and prevent an accident, the cause of which was so obscure, that it was not discovered until many months after the accident had happened.

YERKES v. NORTHERN PACIFIC R. CO.
Supreme Court, Wisconsin, November 29, 1901.
Reported in 112 Wisconsin Reports, 184.

Dodge, J.... Plaintiff assigns as error the definition of the due care which plaintiff was bound to exercise to avert the charge of contributory negligence, viz.:—

“The plaintiff cannot recover in this case unless you find that he was in no manner guilty of any want of ordinary care, or such care as persons of ordinary care ordinarily use, which contributed to his said injuries.”^[62]

That this was an incorrect and misleading definition of “ordinary care” has been declared so often by this court as to make further discussion unnecessary. The rule has been repeatedly laid down that due care is to be tested by the surrounding circumstances, and that no definition is complete or correct which does not embody that element.^[63] Ordinary care is the care ordinarily exercised by the great 71mass of mankind, or its type, the ordinarily prudent person, under the same or similar circumstances, and the omission of the last qualification, “under the same or similar circumstances,” or “under like circumstances,” is error. Boelter v. Ross L. Co., 103 Wis. 324, 330; Dehsoy v. Milwaukee E. R. & L. Co., 110 Wis. 412; Warden v. Miller, ante, p. 67. The necessity of the omitted qualification to a correct definition of due care is especially obvious under the circumstances of this case. What would be the care of an ordinarily prudent person, standing in safety upon a stationary platform, or even standing upon the perfect and level footboard of a moving switch engine, would not be the care to be expected of one attempting to perform the services of a yard man upon a bent, declining, and defective footboard such as here presented. The attention of the jury was not called by this instruction to a very important element which they must consider in order to decide whether the plaintiff was or was not guilty of contributory negligence, and the instruction to them on the subject was therefore misleading and erroneous.

HILL v. GLENWOOD
Supreme Court, Iowa, July 13, 1904.
Reported in 124 Iowa Reports, 479.

Weaver, J.^[64] The plaintiff claims to have been injured upon one of the public walks in the city of Glenwood, and that such injury was occasioned by reason of the negligence of the city in the maintenance of the walk at the place of the accident, and without fault on his own part contributing thereto. From verdict and judgment in his favor for $665, the city appeals. In this court the appellant makes no claim that the city was not negligent, but a reversal is sought on other grounds.

It was shown without dispute that plaintiff had been blind for many years, and this fact is the basis of the criticism upon the charge given to the jury. In the third paragraph of the charge, the court, defining negligence, said: “(3) Negligence is defined to be the want of ordinary care; that is, such care as an ordinary prudent person would exercise under like circumstances. There is no precise definition of 72ordinary care, but it may be said that it is such care as an ordinarily prudent person would exercise under like circumstances, and should be proportioned to the danger and peril reasonably to be apprehended from a lack of proper prudence. This rule applies alike to both parties to this action, and may be used in determining whether either was negligent.” In the eighth paragraph, referring to the plaintiff’s duty to exercise care for his own safety, the following language is used: “(8) It must also appear from the evidence that the plaintiff did not in any way contribute to the happening of the accident in question by any negligence on his part; that is, by his own want of ordinary care. The plaintiff, on his part, was under obligation to use ordinary care to prevent injury when passing over any sidewalk; and if he failed so to do, and his failure in any way contributed to the happening of the accident in question, then he cannot recover herein. The evidence shows without dispute that he was blind, and this fact should be considered by you in determining what ordinary care on his part would require when he was attempting to pass over one of the sidewalks of this city.” Counsel for appellant do not deny that the rules here laid down would be a correct statement of the law of negligence and contributory negligence as applied to the ordinary case of sidewalk accident, but it is urged that the conceded fact of plaintiff’s blindness made it the duty of the court to say to the jury that a blind person who attempts to use the public street “must exercise a higher degree of care and caution than a person ordinarily would be expected or required to use had he full possession of his sense of sight.” We cannot give this proposition our assent. It is too well established to require argument or citation of authority that the care which the city is bound to exercise in the maintenance of its streets is ordinary and reasonable care, the care which ordinarily marks the conduct of a person of average prudence and foresight. So, too, it is equally well settled that the care which a person using the street is bound to exercise on his own part to discover danger and avoid accident and injury is of precisely the same character, the ordinary and reasonable care of a person of average prudence and foresight. The streets are for the use of the general public without discrimination; for the weak, the lame, the halt and the blind, as well as for those possessing perfect health, strength, and vision. The law casts upon one no greater burden of care than upon the other. It is true, however, that in determining what is reasonable or ordinary care we must look to the circumstances and surroundings of each particular case. As said by us in Graham v. Oxford, 105 Iowa, 708: “There is no fixed rule for determining what is ordinary care applicable to all cases, but each case must be determined according to its own facts.” In the case before us the plaintiff’s blindness is simply one of the facts which the jury must give consideration, in finding whether he did or did not act with the care which a reasonably prudent man would ordinarily exercise, 73when burdened by such infirmity. In other words, the measures which a traveler upon the street must employ for his own protection depend upon the nature and extent of the peril to which he knows, or in the exercise of reasonable prudence ought to know, he is exposed. The greater and more imminent the risk, the more he is required to look out for and guard against injury to himself; but the care thus exercised is neither more nor less than ordinary care—the care which men of ordinary prudence and experience may reasonably be expected to exercise under like circumstances. See cases cited in 21 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, (2d ed.) 465, note 1. In the case at bar the plaintiff was rightfully upon the street, and if he was injured by reason of the negligence of the city, and without contributory negligence on his part, he was entitled to a verdict. In determining whether he did exercise due care it was proper for the jury, as we have already indicated, to consider his blindness, and in view of that condition, and all the surrounding facts and circumstances, find whether he exercised ordinary care and prudence. If he did, he was not guilty of contributory negligence.

This view of the law seems to be fairly embodied in the instructions to which exception is taken. If the appellant believed, as it now argues, that the charge should have been more specific, and dwelt with greater emphasis upon the fact of plaintiff’s blindness as an element for the consideration of the jury in finding whether he exercised reasonable care, it had the right to ask an instruction framed to meet its views in that respect. No such request was made, and the omission of the court to so amplify the charge on its own motion was not error.^[65]

KEITH v. WORCESTER STREET R. Co.
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, November 26, 1907.
Reported in 196 Massachusetts Reports, 478.

Two Actions of Tort for personal injuries received by the plaintiff’s intestate caused by her falling when stepping across street railway rails which were piled by the defendant street railway company on the highway next to the curbing, and were allowed by the street railway company and the defendant town to remain there, and which, it was alleged, constituted an obstruction of the highway.^[66]

The accident happened in the daytime. The plaintiff’s intestate was near-sighted, and could not recognize a friend at a distance of more than ten or twelve feet.

74At the trial in the Superior Court, defendants requested the following instruction:—

“If the plaintiff’s intestate had defective eyesight, she should take greater care in walking the street than one of good eyesight; and if she failed to use this greater degree of care, the verdict must be for the defendant.”

This request was refused, subject to exception.

In the charge to the jury, the presiding judge stated: “The plaintiff contends and has got to show by a fair preponderance of the evidence that Mrs. Keith was injured, and that she was injured while she was using ... a degree of care that a reasonably prudent and careful person, acting prudently and carefully at the time, would have exercised and should have exercised in your judgment under all the circumstances then surrounding Mrs. Keith. That means not only external circumstances, that means not only the way in which the rails were placed, the location of the car, the necessity of action on her part, but it means also with reference to her personal peculiarities as they were shown to exist upon the stand. For instance, the conduct of a perfectly sound and healthy person may be properly regarded as one thing, when the same conduct on the part of a diseased or infirm person might be regarded as something very different.

“What might be in your judgment perfectly reasonable and proper and careful on the part of a sound person might be regarded fairly by you as improper and careless on the part of an infirm person.

“So, in this case, while I cannot instruct you as a matter of law that Mrs. Keith, if you find her to be near-sighted, was bound to use a higher degree of care than a person not near-sighted, I have got to leave it to you as a matter of fact whether a near-sighted person would not, in order to be careful, have to exercise a higher degree of care than a person not near-sighted. In other words, I have got to leave it to you to determine whether or not a near-sighted person is using due care if he or she under the particular circumstances acts exactly as a person who was not near-sighted would have done. In other words, it is a matter of fact for you to determine whether Mrs. Keith was called on to do differently from a person in full possession of eyesight rather than as a matter of law for me to direct you in regard to it.”

The jury found for the plaintiff in both cases.

Rugg, J.... The defendant asked the court to rule that if the person injured “had defective eyesight, she should take greater care in walking the street than one of good sight, and if she failed to use this greater degree of care the verdict must be for the defendant.” This request properly was refused, for the reason that it directed a verdict upon a single phase of the testimony, which was not necessarily decisive. In this respect the prayer differs vitally from the one which in Winn v. Lowell, 1 Allen, 177, this court held should have been 75given.^[67] We see no reason for modifying the decision in Winn v. Lowell, nor is it inconsistent with subsequent cases. The standard of care established by the law is what the ordinarily prudent and cautious person would do to protect himself under given conditions. There is no higher or different standard for one who is aged, feeble, blind, halt, deaf or otherwise impaired in capacity, than for one in perfect physical condition. It has frequently, in recent as well as earlier cases, been said, in referring to one under some impediment, that greater caution or increased circumspection may be required in view of these adverse conditions. See, for example, Winn v. Lowell, 1 Allen, 177; Hall v. West End Street Railway, 168 Mass. 461; Hilborn v. Boston & Northern Street Railway, 191 Mass. 14; Vecchioni v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 191 Mass. 9; Hawes v. Boston Elevated Railway, 192 Mass. 324; Hamilton v. Boston & Northern Street Railway, 193 Mass. 324. These expressions mean nothing more than that a person so afflicted must put forth a greater degree of effort than one not acting under any disabilities, in order to attain that standard of care which the law has established for everybody. When looked at from one standpoint, it is incorrect to say that a blind person must exercise a higher degree of care than one whose sight is perfect, but in another aspect, a blind person may be obliged to take precautions, practice vigilance and sharpen other senses, unnecessary for one of clear vision, in order to attain that degree of care which the law requires. It may depend in some slight degree upon how the description of duty begins, where the emphasis may fall at a given moment, but when the whole proposition is stated, the rights of the parties are as fully protected in the one way as in the other. It is perhaps more logical to say that the plaintiff is bound to use ordinary care, and that in passing upon what ordinary care demands, due consideration should be given to blindness or other infirmities. This was the course pursued by the Superior Court. Neff v. Wellesley, 148 Mass. 487. Smith v. Wildes, 143 Mass. 556. But it is also correct to say that in the exercise of common prudence one of defective eyesight must usually as matter of general knowledge take more care and employ keener watchfulness in walking upon the streets and avoiding obstructions than the same person with good eyesight, in order to reach the standard established by the law for all persons alike, whether they be weak or strong, sound or deficient.

Gregory, C. J. Meredith sued Reed before a justice for an injury done by a stallion of the latter to the mare of the former, resulting in the death of the mare. Jury trial, verdict for the defendant; motion for a new trial overruled and judgment. The evidence is in the record. The facts are substantially as follows: In May, 1865, the defendant owned a stallion, which had previously been let to mares, but owing to the sickness of the owner, was not so let during the spring of 1865. He was a gentle stallion, and had never been known by the owner to be guilty of any vicious acts. Not being in use, he had been kept up in a stable for four or five months. He was secured in the stable by a strong halter and chain fastened through an iron ring in the manger. The stable door was securely fastened on the inside by a strong iron hasp, passed over a staple, and a piece of chain passed two or three times through the staple over the hasp, and the ends firmly tied together with a strong cord. It was also fastened on the outside by a piece of timber, one end of which was planted in the ground, while the other rested against the door. The horse was thus secured on the day and night the injury occurred. The gate of the enclosure surrounding the stable was shut and fastened as usual. About 11 o’clock that night the horse was found loose on the highway, and did the injury complained of. Early the following morning the outside gate was found open; the stable door was found open, with the log prop lying some distance to one side, and the chain which had been passed through the staple was gone, and the cord with which it had been tied was found cut and the pieces lying on the floor.

There are forty-two alleged errors assigned, but many of them are not, in our opinion, so presented as to entitle them to consideration in this Court. So far as the substantial rights of the appellant are involved, all the questions properly presented resolve themselves into the inquiry as to the nature and extent of the liability of the owner of a domestic animal for injuries done by it to the personal property of another, disconnected from any trespass to real estate.

It is contended, on the one hand, that ordinary care was all the law required of the defendant in this case. On the other it is claimed that the utmost care was necessary to free him from liability. Ordinary care is all that the law required in the case in judgment. What is ordinary care in some cases would be carelessness in others. The law regards the circumstances surrounding each case, and the nature of the animal or machinery under control. Greater care is required to be taken of a stallion than of a mare; so in the management of a steam-engine, greater care is necessary than in the use of a plow. Yet it is 77all ordinary care; such care as a prudent, careful man would take under like circumstances. The degree of care is always in proportion to the danger to be apprehended. The case at bar was properly sent to the jury, and the verdict is fully sustained by the evidence.

DENVER ELECTRIC COMPANY v. SIMPSON
Supreme Court, Colorado, April Term, 1895.
Reported in 21 Colorado Reports, 371.

Action for damage caused to plaintiff, while passing along a public alley, by his coming in contact with one of defendants’ wires heavily charged with electricity, which had become detached from its overhead fastening, and was hanging down to within about two feet of the ground. At the trial there was some evidence tending to show that the position of the wire was due to the negligence of the defendants. Verdict for plaintiff, and judgment thereon. Defendant appealed; alleging as one ground the giving of certain instructions as to the care required by defendant. Those instructions are stated in the opinion.^[69]

Campbell, J.... This court does not recognize any degrees of negligence, such as slight or gross, and logically it ought not to recognize any degrees in its antithesis, care.^[70] The court instructed the jury in this case that the defendant was not an insurer of the safety of plaintiff, but that in constructing its line and maintaining the same in repair, it was held to the utmost degree of care and diligence; that in this respect it is bound to the highest degree of care, skill, and diligence in the construction and maintenance of its lines of wire and other appurtenances, and in carrying on its business, so as to make the same safe against accidents so far as such safety can, by the use of such care and diligence, be secured. If it observed such degree of care, it was not liable; if it failed therein, it was liable for injuries caused thereby.

We think the court was unfortunate in attempting to draw any distinctions in the degrees of care or negligence. It would have been safer and the better practice to instruct the jury,—which ought hereafter 78to be observed,—even in cases like the one before us, that the defendant was bound to exercise that reasonable care and caution which would be exercised by a reasonably prudent and cautious person under the same or similar circumstances. In addition to this, the jury should have been instructed that the care increases as the danger does, and that where the business in question is attended with great peril to the public, the care to be exercised by the person conducting the business is commensurate with the increased danger. But, in effect, this is what the court did. Under the facts of the case, the law required of the defendant conducting, as it did, a business so dangerous to the public, the highest degree of care which skill and foresight can attain consistent with the practical conduct of its business under the known methods and the present state of the particular art. This is the measure of the duty owed by a common carrier to a passenger for hire. Thompson’s Carriers of Passengers, p. 208, and cases cited. Not for the same reason, or because the doctrine rests upon the same principle, but with even greater force should this rule apply to a person or corporation engaged in the equally, if not more, dangerous business of distributing electricity throughout a city by means of wires strung over the public alleys and streets, in so far as concerned its duty to the travelling public.

In those courts where degrees of negligence are not countenanced, nevertheless, in cases where the duty of a common carrier of passengers is laid down, the jury are told that carriers are bound to the utmost degree of care which human foresight can attain. This is upon the theory that reasonable or ordinary care in a case of that kind is the highest care which human ingenuity can practically exercise, and that, as a matter of law, courts will hold every reasonably prudent and careful man to the exercise of the utmost care and diligence in protecting the public from the dangers necessarily incident to the carrying on of a hazardous business.

Where the facts of a case naturally lead equally intelligent persons honestly to entertain different views as to the degree of care resting upon a defendant, the court ought not to lay down a rule prescribing any particular or specific degree in that case. But where all minds concur—as they must in a case like the one we are now considering—in regarding the carrying on of a business as fraught with peril to the public inherent in the nature of the business itself, the court makes no mistake in defining the duty of those conducting it as the exercise of the utmost care. It was, therefore, not prejudicial error for the court to tell the jury in this case what the law requires of the defendant, viz., the highest degree of care in conducting its business.

Gillett, J. Complaint by appellee to recover damages for loss of property by fire, by reason of the alleged negligence of appellant. There was a verdict and judgment in favor of appellee.^[72]

Appellant complains of appellee’s instructions five and six, which were given by the court in the order indicated by their numbers. They are as follows: “(5) It is the duty of a railroad to use all reasonable precaution in running and operating its trains, and in providing its engines with proper spark-arresters, so as to prevent injury to the property of others by sparks or fire emitted or thrown therefrom. (6) If you believe from all of the evidence and circumstances in the case that at the time and prior to the destruction of the property of the plaintiff, as alleged in his complaint, there were a number of wooden buildings and structures standing on either side of the defendant’s track and in close proximity thereto, including the barn or stable of said Melissa McFall in the town of Hobbs, and at such time it was, and for some time prior thereto it had been, unusually dry, thereby 80rendering such wood buildings and structures, including the barn or stable of said Melissa McFall, and also the property of the plaintiff herein, unusually dry, inflammable, and easily set on fire by sparks and coals of fire emitted from defendant’s engines in passing through said town, and that there was also at the time, and for several hours prior thereto had been, a strong wind blowing continuously across the defendant’s track, in the direction of the barn or stable of said Melissa McFall, and the wooden buildings and structures near the defendant’s track, including the property of the plaintiff herein, which greatly and unusually increased the danger and risk of setting fire to such buildings by sparks and coals of fire emitted or thrown from its engine in passing through said town, over ordinary times and conditions, and all of which facts and conditions the defendant knew at the time, the defendant, under such circumstances, would be required to use a greater degree of care in operating and running its engines through said town to prevent injury to such buildings or property by sparks or coals of fire emitted or thrown from its engine, than it would at ordinary times and under ordinary conditions.”

Assuming, without deciding, that it was not error for the court, in its fifth instruction, to use the term “reasonable precaution,” instead of the preferable one, “ordinary care,”^[73] and assuming further, since the care that the company was required to exercise was, so far as the element of law was concerned, to be measured by a fixed standard, which was to be fully complied with (Wharton, Negligence [2d ed.], § 46), that it was proper to use the expression “all reasonable precaution,” the question arises whether it is not likely that the jury was misled by the charge in the next instruction that in the circumstances therein hypothetically stated “a greater degree of care” was required than in ordinary conditions. The sixth instruction would have been proper, had the court charged, after stating to the jury hypothetically the conditions which existed, leaving it to them to determine whether the danger was increased, that, in the event they so found, it was their duty, in determining whether reasonable or ordinary care had been exercised, to consider the increased danger of fire, yet we cannot say that this was the fair meaning of the words in which said instruction was couched.

There has been much discussion in the books concerning the correctness of the old doctrine as to degrees of negligence. New York Central R. Co. v. Lockwood, (1873) 17 Wall. 357, 21 L. Ed. 627; Steamboat New World v. King, (1853) 16 How. 469, 14 L. Ed. 1019; Ohio, etc., R. Co. v. Selby, (1874) 47 Ind. 471, 17 Am. Rep. 719; Pennsylvania Co. v. Sinclair, (1878) 62 Ind. 301, 30 Am. Rep. 185; Wharton, Negligence (2d ed.), § 44; 6 Albany L. J. 313; 2 Ames & 81Smith, Cases on Torts, 143; 21 Am. and Eng. Ency. Law (2d ed.), 459, and cases cited. While we apprehend that the adverse opinions which have been expressed concerning such doctrine were not intended to be understood as militating against the view that the legal standard of care is not the same in all relations, or to discountenance the practice of charging the jury in terms that indicate the extent of care required, as great, ordinary, or slight (1 Shearman & Redfield, Negligence [5th ed.], § 47), yet the point which we wish to enforce now is that in all cases negligence consists simply in a failure to measure up to the legal standard of care. It was said by Willes, J., in Grill v. General Iron Screw, etc., Co., (1866) L. R. 1 C. P. 600, 611: “Confusion has arisen from regarding negligence as a positive instead of a negative word. It is really the absence of such care as it was the duty of the defendant to use.”

Here we admittedly have a case in which it was the duty of the company to exercise ordinary care, but what does an instruction mean that informs the jury that in certain circumstances a greater degree of care is required, when it has for a background an instruction, which is applicable to all circumstances, that all reasonable precaution must be used? We think that in such a case the jury would understand that more than ordinary care was required, and it is not improbable that the effect of giving such an instruction, following an instruction like 5, would be to lead the jury to infer that the defendant’s duty was raised by the circumstances recited to a pitch of intensity that could not reasonably have been attained.

It was said by this court in Meredith v. Reed, (1866) 26 Ind. 334, 337: “What is ordinary care in some cases, would be carelessness in others. The law regards the circumstances surrounding each case, and the nature of the animal or machinery under control. Greater care is required to be taken of a stallion than of a mare; so in the management of a steam engine, greater care is necessary than in the use of a plough. Yet it is all ordinary care.” The legal standard of care required in a particular relationship is always the same, although the amount of care thus required depends upon the particular circumstances. Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Terry, (1858) 8 Ohio St. 570; Weiser v. Broadway, etc., St. R. Co., (1895) 6 Ohio Dec. 215. As has been observed by a modern writer: “This standard may vary in fact, but not in law.” 2 Jaggard, Torts, p. 819. In an article in 3 [6] Albany, L. J. 314, it is said: “The ratio, proportion or correspondence of diligence to circumstances, of care to surroundings, is fixed and identical. And, in determining a question of diligence or negligence in either case [as between two cases previously used by way of illustration], it would be only necessary to apply the same rule to varying circumstances and persons, to demand the same ratio between varying extremes. And it is not too much to assert that all the perplexity and misunderstanding on the subject of diligence and negligence are 82due to the habit of confounding the specific acts and circumstances, which must always vary, with the ratio or relation between them, which remains always the same.”

In 13 Am. and Eng. Ency. Law (2d ed.), 416, it is said: “The very statement of the general rule that reasonable care is required to prevent injuries to others from fire, implies that what is reasonable care must depend upon the circumstances of each particular case. It is, however, inaccurate to say, as many of the cases do, that the degree of care varies with the particular circumstances. It is only reasonable care that is required in any case; but the greater the danger, or the more likely the communication of fire and the ignition of the property of others, the more precautions and the closer vigilance reasonable care requires.” As above suggested, cases can be found in which it is stated that the degree of care to be used depends upon the danger, but, as has been observed by this court, it is not every statement of the law as found in an opinion or text-book, however well and accurately put, which can properly be embodied in an instruction. Garfield v. State, (1881) 74 Ind. 60. The viciousness of the instruction in question lies in its tendency to lead the jury to infer that the legal standard of ordinary care was raised by the circumstances recited, thus making possible the inference that a great but undefined extent of care was required, whereas all that the law exacted was the ordinary care which the situation demanded, or such care as it is to be assumed that an ordinarily prudent man would exercise in the circumstances, were the risk his own.^[74]

In this case the acts and omissions which the complaint charged as negligent were various, so that the question of what was ordinary care arose in a number of ways, and we can only conclude, in view of the misleading character of the instruction under consideration, that prejudicial error has intervened.

Assumpsit for negligence in losing 764½ doubloons, intrusted to the defendant to be carried from New York to Boston, as a gratuitous bailee. The gold was put up in two distinct bags, one within the other, and at the trial, upon the general issue, it appeared that the defendant, who was a money broker, brought them on board of the steamboat bound from New York to Providence; that in the morning while the steamboat lay at New York, and a short time before sailing, one of the bags was discovered to be lost, and that the other bag was left by the defendant on a table in his valise in the cabin, for a few moments only, while he went on deck to send information of the supposed loss to the plaintiffs, there being then a large number of passengers on board, and the loss being publicly known among them. On the defendant’s return the second bag was also missing and after every search no trace of the manner of the loss could be ascertained. The valise containing both bags was brought on board by the defendant on the preceding evening, and put by him in a berth in the forward cabin. He left it there all night, having gone in the evening to the theatre, and on his return having slept in the middle cabin. The defendant had his own money to a considerable amount in the same valise. There was evidence to show that he made inquiries on board, if the valise would be safe, and that he was informed, that if it contained articles of value, it had better be put into the custody of the captain’s clerk in the bar, under lock and key. There were many other circumstances in the case. The argument at the trial turned wholly on the question of gross negligence, and all the facts were fully commented on by counsel. But as the case is intended only to present the discussion on the question of law, it is not thought necessary to recapitulate them.^[76]

Story, J., after summing up the facts, said, I agree to the law as laid down at the bar, that in cases of bailees without reward, they are 84liable only for gross negligence. Such are depositaries, or persons receiving deposits without reward for their care; and mandataries, or persons receiving goods to carry from one place to another without reward. The latter is the predicament of the defendant. He undertook to carry the gold in question for the plaintiff, gratuitously, from New York to Providence, and he is not responsible unless he has been guilty of gross negligence. Nothing in this case arises out of the personal character of the defendant, as broker. He is not shown to be either more or less negligent than brokers generally are; nor if he was, is that fact brought home to the knowledge of the plaintiffs. They confided the money to him as a broker of ordinary diligence and care, having no other knowledge of him; and, therefore, no question arises as to what would have been the case, if the plaintiffs had known him to be a very careless or a very attentive man. Jones’ Bail. 46. The language of the books, as to what constitutes gross negligence, or not, is sometimes loose and inaccurate from the general manner in which propositions are stated. When it is said, that gross negligence is equivalent to fraud, it is not meant that it cannot exist without fraud. There may be very gross negligence in cases where there is no pretence that the party has been guilty of fraud, though certainly such negligence is often presumptive of fraud. In determining what is gross negligence, we must take into consideration what is the nature of the thing bailed. If it be of little value, less care is required than if it be of great value. If a bag of apples were left in a street for a short time, without a person to guard it, it would certainly not be more than ordinary neglect. But if the bag were of jewels or gold, such conduct would be gross negligence. In short, care and diligence are to be proportional to the value of the goods, the temptation and facility of stealing them, and the danger of losing them. So Sir William Jones lays down the law. “Diamonds, gold, and precious trinkets,” says he, “ought from their nature to be kept with peculiar care, under lock and key; it would, therefore, be gross negligence in a depositary to leave such deposit in an open antechamber; and ordinary neglect, at least, to let them remain on the table, where they might possibly tempt his servants.” Jones’ Bail. 38, 46, 62. So in Smith v. Horne, 2 Moore’s R. 18, it was held to be gross negligence in the case of a carrier, under the usual notice of not being responsible for goods above £5 in value, to send goods in a cart with one man, when two were usually sent to see to the delivery of them. So in Booth v. Wilson, 1 Barn. & Ald. 59, it was held gross negligence in a gratuitous bailee to put a horse into a dangerous pasture. In Batson v. Donovan, 4 Barn. & Ald. 21, the general doctrine was admitted in the fullest terms. It appears to me that the true way of considering cases of this nature is, to consider whether the party has omitted that care which bailees, without hire, or mandataries of ordinary prudence usually take of property of this nature. If he has, then it constitutes a case of gross 85negligence. The question is not whether he has omitted that care, which very prudent persons usually take of their own property, for the omission of that would be but slight negligence; nor whether he has omitted that care which prudent persons ordinarily take of their own property, for that would be but ordinary negligence: but whether there be a want of that care, which men of common sense, however inattentive, usually take, or ought to be presumed to take of their property, for that is gross negligence. The contract of bailees without reward is not merely for good faith, but for such care as persons of common prudence in their situation usually bestow upon such property. If they omit such care, it is gross negligence.

The present is a case of a mandatary of money. Such property is by all persons, negligent as well as prudent, guarded with much greater care than common property. The defendant is a broker, accustomed to the use and transportation of money, and it must be presumed he is a person of ordinary diligence. He kept his own money in the same valise; and took no better care of it than of the plaintiff’s. Still if the jury are of opinion that he omitted to take that reasonable care of the gold which bailees without reward in his situation usually take, or which he himself usually took of such property, under such circumstances, he has been guilty of gross negligence.

Verdict for the plaintiffs for $5700, the amount of one bag of the gold; for the defendant as to the other bag.^[77]

Action of tort under Revised Laws, chapter 111, section 267, for the death of a passenger on a street railway.^[78]

87The material portions of the statute are as follows:—

“If a corporation which operates a railroad or a street railway, by reason of its negligence or by reason of the unfitness or gross negligence of its agents or servants, while engaged in its business,^[79] causes the death of a passenger, or of a person who is in the exercise of due care and who is not a passenger or in the employ of such corporation, it shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, which shall be recovered by an indictment,” and shall be paid to the executor or administrator, to the use of the widow and children or the next of kin. “Such corporation shall also be liable in damages in the sum of not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, which shall be assessed with reference to the degree of culpability of the corporation or of its servants or agents, and shall be recovered in an action of tort ... by the executor or administrator of the deceased for the use of the persons hereinbefore specified in the case of an indictment.... But no executor or administrator shall, for the same cause, avail himself of more than one of the remedies given by the provisions of this section.”

At the trial the plaintiff requested the following rulings:—

“6. When the duty of exercising the highest degree of care is incumbent upon the defendant, any failure upon the part of its servants to exercise that degree of care is gross negligence.

“7. The term ‘gross’ in the allegation gross negligence, when used with reference to the degree of care required and not fulfilled, is merely an expletive, when the degree of care required is the very highest.

“8. There are no degrees of negligence.”

The plaintiff excepted to the refusal of the judge to give the rulings requested, and to such parts of the charge as were in conflict with them. The defendant had a verdict, and the case is here on these exceptions.

Loring, J.... The judge was right in refusing to give the sixth ruling asked for. A failure to exercise the highest degree of care is slight negligence.

3. The seventh ruling requested was wrong. The term “gross negligence” in a case where the degree of care due is the highest degree of care means that there has been a gross failure to exercise that degree of care.^[80]

4. There are degrees of care in cases under R. L. c. 111, § 267, by force of that act.^[81]

Error to Circuit Court of Cuyahoga County.

The plaintiff below, John Corrigan, an infant under the age of fourteen, by his guardian, sued the Rolling Mill Company for damages suffered while in the defendants’ employ, and which he alleged were caused by their negligence.

The answer of the defendants alleged, among other defences, that the injury occurred solely through the plaintiff’s fault.

As to this ground of defence, the Court instructed the jury in part as follows:—

It was the duty of the plaintiff to use ordinary care and prudence; just such care and prudence as a boy of his age, of ordinary care and prudence, would use under like or similar circumstances. You should take into consideration his age, the judgment and knowledge he possessed.

The Company filed its petition in error.^[82]

Williams, J. The only questions presented in this case are those arising upon the special instructions given by the Court in response to the request of the jury. These instructions, the plaintiff in error contends, are erroneous in their entirety and in detail.

1. First, it is claimed that the Court erred in the statement of the plaintiff’s duty, in the opening proposition of the charge, wherein the jury were instructed that “it was the duty of the plaintiff to use ordinary care,” which the Court defined to be “just such care as boys of that age, of ordinary care and prudence, would use under like circumstances,” and that the jury “should take into consideration the age of the plaintiff, and the judgment and knowledge he possessed.” We have found no decision of this Court upon the subject of the contributory negligence of infants, or the measure of care required of them. Elsewhere the decisions are conflicting. Each of three different rules on the subject has found judicial sanction. One rule requires of children the same standard of care, judgment, and discretion, in anticipating and avoiding injury, as adults are bound to exercise.^[83] Another 89wholly exempts small children from the doctrine of contributory negligence. Between these extremes a third and more reasonable rule has grown into favor, and is now supported by the great weight of authority, which is, that a child is held to no greater care than is usually possessed by children of the same age. Authors and judges, however, do not always employ the same language in giving expression to the rule. In Beach on Contributory Negligence, sec. 46, it is thus expressed: “An infant plaintiff who, on the one hand, is not so young as to escape entirely all legal accountability, and on the other hand is not so mature as to be held to the responsibility of an adult is, of course, in cases involving the question of negligence, to be held responsible for ordinary care, and ordinary care must mean, in this connection, that degree of care and prudence which may reasonably be expected of a child.” The decisions enforcing this rule, that children are to be held responsible only for such degree of care and prudence as may reasonably be expected of them, taking due account of their age and the particular circumstances, are very numerous. “It is well settled,” says Mr. Justice Hunt in Railroad Company v. Stout, 17 Wall. 657, “that the conduct of an infant of tender years is not to be judged by the same rule which governs that of an adult.... The care and caution required of a child is according to his maturity and capacity only, and this is to be determined in each case by the circumstances of that case.” In Shearman & Redfield on Negligence, sec. 73, it is said to be “now settled by the overwhelming weight of authority that a child is held, as far as he is personally concerned, only to the exercise of such care and discretion as is reasonably to be expected from children of his own age.” Another author says, “A child is only bound to exercise such a degree of care as children of his particular age may be presumed capable of exercising.” Whittaker’s Smith on Neg., 411.

This rule appears to rest upon sound reason as well as authority. To constitute contributory negligence in any case there must be a want of ordinary care and a proximate connection between such want of care and the injury complained of; and ordinary care is that degree of care which persons of ordinary care and prudence are accustomed to use under similar circumstances. Children constitute a class of persons of less discretion and judgment than adults, of which all reasonably informed men are aware. Hence ordinarily prudent men reasonably expect that children will exercise only the care and prudence of children, and no greater degree of care should be required of them than is usual under the circumstances among careful and prudent persons of the class to which they belong. We think it a sound rule, therefore, that in the application of the doctrine of contributory negligence to children, in actions by them or in their behalf for injuries occasioned by the negligence of others, their conduct should not be judged by the same rule which governs that of adults, and while it is 90their duty to exercise ordinary care to avoid the injuries of which they complain, ordinary care for them is that degree of care which children of the same age, of ordinary care and prudence, are accustomed to exercise under similar circumstances.

That portion of the charge of the Court under discussion is in substantial conformity to this conclusion. The care and prudence which a boy of the plaintiff’s age of ordinary care and prudence “would use under like and similar circumstances,” as expressed in the charge, is such care as “is reasonably to be expected from a boy of his age,” or “which boys of his age usually exercise,” as the books express it. No different effect is given to the charge of which the plaintiff in error can complain, by the direction to the jury to take into consideration the age of the boy “and the judgment and knowledge he possessed.” This did not diminish the degree of care required by the previous portion of the instruction.

STONE v. DRY DOCK R. CO.
Court of Appeals, New York, June 4, 1889.
Reported in 115 New York Reports, 104.

Appeal from judgment of the General Term of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered upon an order made October 26, 1887, which affirmed a judgment in favor of defendant, entered upon an order nonsuiting plaintiff on trial.

This was an action to recover damages for the alleged negligence in causing the death of plaintiff’s intestate, a child of seven years and three or four months old.

The facts, so far as material, are stated in the opinion.^[85]

91Andrews, J. The nonsuit was placed on the ground that an infant seven years of age was sui juris, and that the act of the child in crossing the street in front of the approaching car was negligence on her part, which contributed to her death, and barred a recovery. We think the case should have been submitted to the jury.

The negligence of the driver of the car is conceded. His conduct in driving rapidly along Canal Street at its intersection with Orchard Street, without looking ahead, but with his eyes turned to the inside of the car, was grossly negligent. Mangam v. Brooklyn R. R. Co., 38 N. Y. 455; Railroad Co. v. Gladmon, 15 Wall. 401. It cannot be asserted as a proposition of law that a child just passed seven years of age is sui juris, so as to be chargeable with negligence. The law does not define when a child becomes sui juris. Kunz v. City of Troy, 104 N. Y. 344. Infants under seven years of age are deemed incapable of committing crime, and by the common law such incapacity presumptively continues until the age of fourteen. An infant between those ages was regarded as within the age of possible discretion, but on a criminal charge against an infant between those years the burden was upon the prosecutor to show that the defendant had intelligence and maturity of judgment sufficient to render him capable of harboring a criminal intent. 1 Arch. 11. The Penal Code preserves the rule of the common law except that it fixes the age of twelve instead of fourteen as the time when the presumption of incapacity ceases. Penal Code, §§ 18, 19.

In administering civil remedies the law does not fix any arbitrary period when an infant is deemed capable of exercising judgment and discretion. It has been said in one case that an infant three or four years of age could not be regarded as sui juris, and the same was said in another case of an infant five years of age. Mangam v. Brooklyn R. R., supra; Fallon v. Central Park, N. & E. R. R. R. Co., 64 N. Y. 13. On the other hand, it was said in Cosgrove v. Ogden, 49 N. Y. 255, that a lad six years of age could not be assumed to be incapable of protecting himself from danger in streets or roads, and in another case that a boy of eleven years of age was competent to be trusted in the streets of a city. McMahon v. Mayor, &c., 33 N. Y. 642. From the nature of the case it is impossible to prescribe a fixed period when a child becomes sui juris. Some children reach the point earlier than others. It depends upon many things, such as natural capacity, physical conditions, training, habits of life, and surroundings. These and other circumstances may enter into the question. It becomes, therefore, a question of fact for the jury where the inquiry is material unless the child is of so very tender years that the Court can safely decide the fact. The trial Court misapprehended the case of Wendell v. New York Central Railroad Company, 91 N. Y. 420, in supposing that it decided, as a proposition of law, that a child of seven years was capable of exercising judgment so as to be chargeable with contributory 92negligence. It was assumed in that case, both on the trial and on appeal, that the child whose conduct was in question was capable of understanding, and did understand the peril of the situation, and the evidence placed it beyond doubt that he recklessly encountered the danger which resulted in his death. The boy was familiar with the crossing, and, eluding the flagman who tried to bar his way, attempted to run across the track in front of an approaching train in plain sight, and unfortunately slipped and fell, and was run over and killed. It appeared that he was a bright, active boy, accustomed to go to school and on errands alone, and sometimes was intrusted with the duty of driving a horse and wagon, and that on previous occasions he had been stopped by the flagman while attempting to cross the track in front of an approaching train, and had been warned of the danger. The Court held, upon this state of facts, that the boy was guilty of culpable negligence. But the case does not decide, as matter of law, that all children of the age of seven years are sui juris.

We are inclined to the opinion that in an action for an injury to a child of tender years, based on negligence, who may or may not have been sui juris when the injury happened, and the fact is material as bearing upon the question of contributory negligence, the burden is upon the plaintiff to give some evidence that the party injured was not capable, as matter of fact, of exercising judgment and discretion. This rule would seem to be consistent with the principle now well settled in this State, that in an action for a personal injury, based on negligence, freedom from contributory negligence on the part of the party injured is an element of the cause of action. In the present case the only fact before the jury bearing upon the capacity of the child whose death was in question was that she was a girl seven years and three months old. This, we think, did not alone justify an inference that the child was incapable of exercising any degree of care. But, assuming that the child was chargeable with the exercise of some degree of care, we think it should have been left to the jury to determine whether she acted with that degree of prudence which might reasonably be expected, under the circumstances, of a child of her years. This measure of care is all that the law exacts in such a case. Thurber v. Harlem, B. M. & F. R. R. Co., 60 N. Y. 335.^[86]

Appeal by original defendants from the decision of the Appellate Court for the First District; 89 Ill. App. 368.

Plaintiff was a newsboy, between eleven and twelve years old, and his stand was at Dearborn and Monroe streets in the city of Chicago. He was going from his home, about four miles distant, to his place of business. By permission of the driver, he got on a wagon loaded with brick. He stood up on the rear of the wagon behind the box, and held on to the hind end-gate of the wagon. The wagon was one of a procession of loaded teams in a street-car track. The next wagon behind was owned by defendant. The end of the pole of defendant’s wagon struck the plaintiff’s leg, inflicting a serious wound. Plaintiff had been in the paper business since he was nine years old, and had been in the habit of riding down town on wagons.

94Under instructions, the substance of which is stated in the opinion, the jury found a verdict for plaintiff.^[87]

Cartwright, J.... The first two instructions each directed the jury to find the defendant guilty, provided they should believe, from the evidence, the existence of certain facts. One of the essential facts which the law required to be found was that the plaintiff was in the exercise of ordinary care for his own safety, and each of those instructions informed the jury that the fact was proved if he was in the exercise of ordinary care for a boy of his age. They directed the jury to return a verdict for the plaintiff if they found he was in the exercise of ordinary care for a boy of his age and the defendant was negligent and the injury resulted. That was not a correct rule of law, since the question of care was not to be determined alone by the plaintiff’s age, but also from his intelligence, experience, and ability to understand and comprehend dangers and care for himself. The case was one in which the defendant was entitled to correct instructions upon that question. It was a question whether plaintiff was not guilty of negligence in riding where he did, in a procession of teams, outside of the box, behind the end-gate of the wagon. The position was a dangerous one, not provided or used for passengers or intended for such use. Plaintiff had a right to ride on the wagon with the driver’s consent, but it was his duty to use reasonable care for his own safety. There was a string of heavily loaded teams in the car tracks, where it was difficult, if not impossible, to turn out, and the difficulty and danger in stopping when one of a procession stops is matter of common knowledge. Cases cited as to the liability of common carriers of passengers where a car is full and a passenger rides upon the platform have no bearing on this question. Passengers are accustomed to be upon platforms and are sometimes compelled to ride there, and different rules are applied to a common carrier from those governing parties not in that relation. There was no necessity whatever for the plaintiff assuming the position that he did. These facts were not controverted or in dispute, but are gathered from his own testimony. If the damage to the plaintiff was caused by his own negligence in assuming such a position, he could not recover. In determining that question his age was to be taken into account, but it could not be said, as a matter of law, that he was too young to exercise any care for his personal safety or that he was incapable of negligence. Unquestionably, he was capable of exercising some degree of judgment and discretion and some degree of care for his own safety. He had lived in the city and had been engaged in business, and was accustomed to ride on wagons. Judge Thompson, in his Commentaries on Law of Negligence (vol. I, sect. 309), says: “Two lads of equal age and natural capacity, one of them raised in the country and the other in the city, might approach a 95given danger, and the one would be perfectly competent to care for himself while the other would be helpless in the face of it. Therefore, the capacity, the intelligence, the knowledge, the experience, and the discretion of the child are always evidentiary circumstances,—circumstances with reference to which each party has the right to introduce evidence, which evidence is to be considered by the jury.” The rule established by our own decisions is, that age is not the only element to be considered, but that intelligence, capacity, and experience are also to be taken into account. Weick v. Lander, 75 Ill. 93; City of Chicago v. Keefe, 114 Id. 222; Illinois Central Railroad Company v. Slater, 129 Id. 91.

BULLOCK v. BABCOCK
Supreme Court of Judicature, New York, October, 1829.
Reported in 3 Wendell, 391.

This was an action of trespass, assault, and battery.

In 1816, the defendant, then being about twelve years of age, shooting an arrow from a bow, struck the plaintiff and put out one of his eyes, the plaintiff being then between nine and ten years of age. The plaintiff and defendant were schoolmates. The boys attending the school were assembled near the school-house. One of them had a bow and arrow, with which he and the defendant had been shooting at a mark. Some remark was made by the plaintiff, when the defendant said, “I will shoot you,” and took the bow and arrow from another boy who then held it. The plaintiff ran into the school-house and hid behind a fire-board standing before the fire-place in the school-room. The defendant followed to the door of the school-room, and saying, 96“See me shoot that basket,” discharged the arrow. At that moment the plaintiff raised his head above the fire-board, and the arrow struck him. There was a basket standing on a desk in the direction that the arrow was aimed. When the arrow was shot, there were a number of boys in the school-room. There had been no quarrel between the boys. The plaintiff, however, on entering the school-house was frightened, and said he was afraid he would be shot. The plaintiff suffered great pain for two months, became blind of one eye, and for five years was disabled from attending school in consequence of the weakness of sight of the other eye. His mother became a widow; and when the plaintiff was able to attend school, her poverty prevented his receiving an ordinary education. This suit was commenced in 1827, within a year after the plaintiff attained his age.

The judge charged the jury that the shooting the arrow in the school-room where there were a number of boys assembled was an unlawful act; that it appeared to him to have been, at the least, grossly negligent and unjustifiable; and that, if the jury thought so, they ought to find a verdict for the plaintiff, with damages. The defendant excepted. The jury found for the plaintiff, with $180 damages, and a motion was now made to set aside the verdict.

By the Court, Marcy, J. It is not, I apprehend, necessary for us to say whether the judge erred or not in his remark to the jury that, under the circumstances of the case, the act of the defendant in shooting the arrow in the school-room, where there were a number of scholars, was not lawful; for, if the act in itself was lawful, and there was not a proper care to guard against consequences injurious to others, the actor must be held responsible for such consequences.

In ordinary cases, if the injury is not the effect of an unavoidable accident, the person by whom it is inflicted is liable to respond in damages to the sufferer. Where, in shooting at butts, the archer’s arrow glanced and struck another, it was holden to be a trespass. Year-Book, 21 H. VII. fol. 28. So where a number of persons were lawfully exercising themselves at arms, one, whose gun accidentally went off, was held liable in trespass for the injury occasioned by the accident. Weaver v. Ward. Where, in a dark night, the defendant got on the wrong side of the road, and an injury ensued to the person of the plaintiff, trespass for the damage was sustained. Leame v. Bray, 3 East, 593. It is decided in the case of Wakeman v. Robinson, if the accident happen entirely without the fault of the defendant, or any blame being imputable to him, an action will not lie. In that case, the blame imputable to the defendant was, that, his horse being young and spirited, he used him without a curb rein; that in his alarm he probably pulled the wrong rein; and that he ought to have continued on in a straight course. The blame fairly imputed to the defendant, it will be perceived, must have been slight indeed, as it certainly was in the case of the injury done by the glancing of the arrow when shooting at a mark 97(a lawful act), and by the accidental discharge of the musket at a training; and yet, in each of these cases, an action for the injury was maintained. Unless a rule is to be applied to this case different from that applicable to a transaction between adults, the proof was most abundant to charge the defendant with the consequences of the injury. Infants, in the same manner as adults, are liable for trespass, slander, assault, &c.^[89] Bing. on Infancy, 110; 8 T. R. 335; 16 Mass. Rep. 389; 982 Inst. 328. Where infants are the actors, that might probably be considered an unavoidable accident which would not be so considered where the actors are adults; but such a distinction, if it exists, does not apply to this case. The liability to answer in damages for trespass does not depend upon the mind or capacity of the actors; for idiots and lunatics, as we see by the case reported in Hobart, are responsible in the action of trespass for injuries inflicted by them. 1 Chit. Pl. 66.

Section IV
Proof of Negligence^[91]

METROPOLITAN RAILWAY COMPANY v. JACKSON
In the House of Lords, December 13, 1877.
Reported in 3 Appeal Cases, 193.

The Lord Chancellor (Lord Cairns):^[92]—

My Lords, in this case an action was brought by the respondent against the Metropolitan Railway Company for negligence in not carrying the respondent safely as a passenger on the railway, and for injuring his thumb by the act of one of the appellants’ servants in suddenly and violently closing the door of the railway carriage.

The question is, Was there at the trial any evidence of this negligence which ought to have been left to the jury? The Court of Common Pleas, consisting of Lord Coleridge, Mr. Justice Brett, and Mr. Justice Grove, were of opinion that there was such evidence. The Court of Appeal was equally divided; the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Justice of Appeal Amphlett holding that there was evidence, the Lord Chief Baron and Lord Justice of Appeal Bramwell holding that there was not.

99The facts of the case are very short. The respondent in the evening of the 18th of July, 1872, took a third-class ticket from Moorgate Street to Westbourne Park, and got into a third-class compartment; the compartment was gradually filled up, and when it left King’s Cross all the seats were occupied. At Gower Street Station three persons got in and were obliged to stand up. There was no evidence to show that the attention of the company’s servants was drawn to the fact of an extra number being in the compartment; but there was evidence that the respondent remonstrated at their getting in with the persons so getting in, and a witness who travelled in the same compartment stated that he did not see a guard or porter at Gower Street.

At Portland Road, the next station, the three extra passengers still remained standing up in the compartment. The door of the compartment was opened and then shut; but there was no evidence to show by whom either act was done. Just as the train was starting from Portland Road there was a rush, and the door of the compartment was opened a second time by persons trying to get in. The respondent, who had up to this time kept his seat, partly rose and held up his hand to prevent any more passengers coming in. After the train had moved, a porter pushed away the people who were trying to get in, and slammed the door to, just as the train was entering the tunnel. At that very moment the respondent, by the motion of the train, fell forward and put his hand upon one of the hinges of the carriage door to save himself, and at that moment, by the door being slammed to, the respondent’s thumb was caught and injured.

The case as to negligence having been left to the jury, the jury found a verdict for the respondent with £50 damages. There was not, at your lordships’ bar, any serious controversy as to the principles applicable to a case of this description. The judge has a certain duty to discharge, and the jurors have another and a different duty. The judge has to say whether any facts have been established by evidence from which negligence may be reasonably inferred; the jurors have to say whether, from those facts, when submitted to them, negligence ought to be inferred. It is, in my opinion, of the greatest importance in the administration of justice that these separate functions should be maintained, and should be maintained distinct. It would be a serious inroad on the province of the jury, if, in a case where there are facts from which negligence may reasonably be inferred, the judge were to withdraw the case from the jury upon the ground that, in his opinion, negligence ought not to be inferred; and it would, on the other hand, place in the hands of the jurors a power which might be exercised in the most arbitrary manner, if they were at liberty to hold that negligence might be inferred from any state of facts whatever. To take the instance of actions against railway companies: a company might be unpopular, unpunctual, and irregular in its service; badly equipped as to its staff; unaccommodating to the public; notorious, 100perhaps for accidents occurring on the line; and when an action was brought for the consequences of an accident, jurors, if left to themselves, might, upon evidence of general carelessness, find a verdict against the company in a case where the company was really blameless. It may be said that this would be set right by an application to the court in banc, on the ground that the verdict was against evidence; but it is to be observed that such an application, even if successful, would only result in a new trial; and on a second trial, and even on subsequent trials, the same thing might happen again.

In the present case I am bound to say that I do not find any evidence from which, in my opinion, negligence could reasonably be inferred. The negligence must in some way connect itself, or be connected by evidence, with the accident. It must be, if I might invent an expression founded upon a phrase in the civil law, incuria dans locum injuriae. In the present case there was no doubt negligence in the company’s servants, in allowing more passengers than the proper number to get in at the Gower Street Station; and it may also have been negligence if they saw these supernumerary passengers, or if they ought to have seen them, at Portland Road, not to have then removed them; but there is nothing, in my opinion, in this negligence which connects itself with the accident that took place. If, when the train was leaving Portland Road, the overcrowding had any effect on the movements of the respondent; if it had any effect on the particular portion of the carriage where he was sitting, if it made him less a master of his actions when he stood up or when he fell forward, this ought to have been made matter of evidence; but no evidence of the kind was given.

As regards what took place at Portland Road, I am equally unable to see any evidence of negligence connected with the accident, or indeed of any negligence whatever. The officials cannot, in my opinion, be held bound to prevent intending passengers on the platform opening a carriage door with a view of looking or getting into the carriage. They are bound to have a staff which would be able to prevent such persons getting in where the carriage was already full, and this staff they had, for the case finds that the porter pushed away the persons who were attempting to get in. So also with regard to shutting the door; these persons had opened the door, and thereupon it was not only proper but necessary that the door should be shut by the porter; and, as the train was on the point of passing into a tunnel, he could not shut it otherwise than quickly or in this sense violently....

Lord Blackburn:—

My Lords, I also am of opinion that in this case the judgment should be reversed, and a nonsuit entered. On a trial by jury it is, I conceive, undoubted that the facts are for the jury, and the law for the judge. It is not, however, in many cases practicable completely to sever the law from the facts.

101But I think it has always been considered a question of law to be determined by the judge, subject, of course, to review whether there is evidence which, if it is believed, and the counter-evidence, if any, not believed, would establish the facts in controversy. It is for the jury to say whether and how far the evidence is to be believed. And if the facts, as to which evidence is given, are such that from them a farther inference of fact may legitimately be drawn, it is for the jury to say whether that inference is to be drawn or not. But it is for the judge to determine, subject to review, as a matter of law whether from those facts that farther inference may legitimately be drawn.

My Lords, in delivering the considered judgment of the Exchequer Chamber in Ryder v. Wombwell, Law Rep. 4 Ex. 32, 38, Willes, J., says: “Such a question is one of mixed law and fact; in so far as it is a question of fact, it must be determined by a jury, subject no doubt to the control of the court, who may set aside the verdict, and submit the question to the decision of another jury; but there is in every case a preliminary question, which is one of law, viz., whether there is any evidence on which the jury could properly find the verdict for the party on whom the onus of proof lies. If there is not, the judge ought to withdraw the question from the jury, and direct a nonsuit if the onus is on the plaintiff, or direct a verdict for the plaintiff if the onus is on the defendant. It was formerly considered necessary in all cases to leave the question to the jury, if there was any evidence, even a scintilla, in support of the case; but it is now settled that the question for the judge (subject, of course, to review), is, as is stated by Maule, J., in Jewell v. Parr, 13 C. B. 909, 916, ‘not whether there is literally no evidence, but whether there is none that ought reasonably to satisfy the jury that the fact sought to be proved is established.’”

He afterwards observes, Law Rep. 4 Ex. 42, very truly in my opinion, “There is no doubt a possibility in all cases where the judges have to determine whether there is evidence on which the jury may reasonably find a fact, that the judges may differ in opinion, and it is possible that the majority may be wrong. Indeed, whenever a decision of the court below on such a point is reversed, the majority must have been so either in the court above or the court below. This is an infirmity which must affect all tribunals.”

I quite agree that this is so, and it is an evil. But I think it a far slighter evil than it would be to leave in the hands of the jury a power which might be exercised in the most arbitrary manner....

[The concurring opinions of Lord O’Hagan and Lord Gordon are omitted.]

Judgment given for the plaintiff in the court below reversed, and a nonsuit to be entered.^[93]

Declaration, that the defendants were possessed of a bridge over a certain public highway, and it became their duty to maintain and keep in repair the bridge, so that it should not be injurious to any person passing under it; yet the defendants so negligently maintained the bridge, that while the plaintiff was lawfully passing under the bridge a portion of the materials of the bridge fell down and injured the plaintiff.

103Plea: Not guilty. Issue joined.

At the trial before Hannen, J., at the sittings in Middlesex after Michaelmas Term, 1869, it appeared, according to the plaintiff’s evidence, that the plaintiff, on the 20th of January, 1869, was passing along the Blue Anchor Road, Bermondsey, under the railway bridge of the defendants, when a brick fell and injured him on the shoulder. A train had passed just previously, but whether it was a train of the defendants, or of another company (whose trains also pass over the bridge), did not appear. The bridge had been built three years, and is an iron girder bridge resting on iron piers, on one side, and on a perpendicular brick wall with pilasters, on the other, and the brick fell from the top of one of the pilasters, where one of the girders rested on the pilaster.

The defendants called no witnesses,^[94] but rested their defence on there being no evidence of negligence in the defendants; and also on the ground that the injury to the plaintiff’s shoulder was not really caused by the falling of the brick.

As to the evidence of negligence, the learned judge told the jury that if they thought the bare circumstance of a brick falling out was not evidence of negligence, they would find for the defendants; if they thought otherwise, for the plaintiff; and the court would determine whether there was legal evidence of negligence or not, as to which he should reserve leave to the defendants to move.

The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for 25l.

A rule was obtained to enter a nonsuit, on the ground that there was no evidence of negligence to leave to the jury.^[95]

Cockburn, C. J. As we have had the whole matter carefully brought before us, with the cases bearing upon the subject, I think we should gain nothing by taking further time to consider it; and, therefore, although I regret to say we are not unanimous upon the point, I think it is better to dispose of the case at once.

My own opinion is, that this is a case to which the principle res ipsa loquitur is applicable, though it is certainly as weak a case as can well be conceived in which that maxim could be taken to apply. But I think the maxim is applicable; and my reason for saying so is this. The company who have constructed this bridge were bound to construct it in a proper manner, and to use all reasonable care and diligence in keeping it in such a state of repair that no damage from its defective condition should occur to those who passed under it, the public having a right to pass under it. Now we have the fact that a brick falls out of this structure, and injures the plaintiff. The proximate cause appears to have been the looseness of the brick, and the vibration of a train passing over the bridge, acting upon the defective 104condition of the brick. It is clear, therefore, that the structure in reference to this brick was out of repair. It is clear that it was incumbent on the defendants to use reasonable care and diligence, and I think the brick being loose affords, prima facie, a presumption that they had not used reasonable care and diligence. It is true that it is possible that, from changes in the temperature, a brick might get into the condition in which this brickwork appears to have been from causes operating so speedily as to prevent the possibility of any diligence and care applied to such a purpose intervening in due time, so as to prevent an accident. But inasmuch as our experience of these things is, that bricks do not fall out when brickwork is kept in a proper state of repair, I think where an accident of this sort happens, the presumption is that it is not the frost of a single night, or of many nights, that would cause such a change in the state of this brickwork as that a brick would fall out in this way; and it must be presumed that there was not that inspection and that care on the part of the defendants which it was their duty to apply. On the other hand, I admit most readily that a very little evidence would have sufficed to rebut the presumption which arises from the manifestly defective state of this brickwork. It might have been shown that many causes, over which the defendants had no control, might cause this defect in so short a time as that it could not be reasonably expected that they should have inspected it in the interval. They might, if they were able, have shown that they had inspected the bridge continually, or that such a state of things could not be anticipated, and had never been heard of or known before. Anything which tended to rebut the presumption arising from an accident caused by the defective condition of the brickwork, which it was their duty to keep in a proper condition of repair, even if such evidence were but slight, might have sufficed; but the defendants chose to leave it on the naked state of facts proved by the plaintiff. Upon that naked state of facts it is not unimportant to see what might have been the cause of the defective condition of this brickwork. We have the fact, the datum, that the brickwork was in a defective condition, and we have it admitted that it was the defendants’ duty to use reasonable care and diligence to keep it in a proper condition. Where it is the duty of persons to do their best to keep premises, or a structure, of whatever kind it may be, in a proper condition, and we find it out of condition, and an accident happens therefrom, it is incumbent upon them to show that they used that reasonable care and diligence which they were bound to use, and the absence of which it seems to me may fairly be presumed from the fact that there was the defect from which the accident has arisen. Therefore, there was some evidence to go to the jury, however slight it may have been, of this accident having arisen from the negligence of the defendants; and it was incumbent on the defendants to give 105evidence rebutting the inference arising from the undisputed facts; that they have not done, and I therefore think this rule must be discharged.

[Lush, J., delivered a concurring opinion. Hannen, J., delivered a dissenting opinion.]

Werner, J. The question presented by this appeal is whether the case is one in which it is proper to apply the maxim res ipsa loquitur....^[97]

The phrase res ipsa loquitur, literally translated, means that the thing or affair speaks for itself. It is merely a short way of saying that the circumstances attendant upon an accident are themselves of such a character as to justify the conclusion that the accident was caused by negligence. The inference of negligence is deducible, not from the mere happening of the accident, but from the attendant circumstances. “It is not that, in any case, negligence can be assumed from the mere fact of an accident and an injury; but in these cases the surrounding circumstances which are necessarily brought into view by showing how the accident occurred, contain, without further proof, sufficient evidence of the defendant’s duty and of his neglect to perform it. The fact of the casualty and the attendant circumstances may themselves furnish all the proof of negligence that the injured person is able to offer, or that it is necessary to offer.” Shearman & Redfield on Negligence, § 59. This section was quoted with approval by Judge Cullen in writing for this court in Griffen v. Manice, 166 N. Y. 188, 193, and in that connection he expressed the view that “the application of the principle depends on the circumstances and character of the occurrence, and not on the relation between the parties, except indirectly so far as that relation defines the measure of duty imposed on the defendant.” He quoted also from the opinion of Judge Danforth in Breen v. N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co., 109 N. Y. 297, 300, in which the author said “there must be reasonable evidence of negligence, but when the thing causing the injury is shown to be under the control of a defendant, and the accident is such as, in the ordinary course of business, does not happen if reasonable care is used, it does, in the absence of explanation by the defendant, afford sufficient evidence that the accident arose from want of care on its part.” In the Griffen case Judge Cullen followed this quotation from the Breen case, with the pertinent observation that he could see no reason “why the rule thus declared is not applicable to all cases or why the probative force of the evidence depends on the relation of the parties. Of course, the relation of the parties may determine the fact to be proved, whether it be want of the highest care or only want of ordinary care, and, doubtless, circumstantial evidence, like direct evidence, may be insufficient as a matter of law to establish the want of ordinary care, though sufficient to prove absence of the highest degree of 107diligence. But the question in every case is the same whether the circumstances surrounding the occurrence are such as to justify the jury in inferring the fact in issue.” Thus we see that this court is definitely committed to the view that the application of the maxim res ipsa loquitur depends, not upon the relation of the injured person to the person or party who is charged with causing the injury, but upon the explanatory circumstances which surround the happening of the accident. The rule thus expressed has been recognized in the recent cases of Robinson v. Consolidated Gas Co., 194 N. Y. 37, 41, and Hardie v. Boland Co., 205 N. Y. 336, 341, and has been followed in many cases in the several Appellate Divisions.^[98]

While it is, therefore, the settled law that the maxim is applicable to any case where the facts warrant its application, it is apparent that the employee who invokes it against his employer encounters difficulties that do not hamper the wayfarer in a public place or the passenger in a common carrier’s conveyance. The man who was lawfully upon the highway need go no farther in the first instance than to prove that he was hit by a falling wall (Mullen v. St. John, 57 N. Y. 567) or by a flying missile (Wolf v. Am. Tract Soc., 164 N. Y. 30, 33; Hogan v. Manh. Ry. Co., 149 N. Y. 23; Volkmar v. Manh. Ry. Co., 134 N. Y. 418), and that the thing by which he was injured came from the premises of the defendant. The passenger who was for the time under the protection of a common carrier needs only to show that the train upon which he was riding left the track (Seyboldt v. N. Y., L. E. & W. R. R. Co., 95 N. Y. 562, 565) or collided with another car or train (Loudoun v. Eighth Ave. R. R. Co., 162 N. Y. 380) and thus caused his injuries. The reason for the rule in such cases is not far to seek. The owner of a building or structure must exercise a high degree of care to so keep it that the wayfarer on the public streets shall not be injured by falling walls or missiles. The common carrier is under the strict duty to its passenger to keep its cars and tracks in a safe condition, and in all such cases where the plaintiff “has shown a situation which could not have been produced except by the operation of abnormal causes, the onus then rests upon the defendant to prove that the injury was caused without his fault.” Seyboldt v. N. Y., L. E. & W. R. R. Co., 95 N. Y. 565, 568. Ordinarily walls do not fall, missiles do not fly and trains are not derailed when those in control are in the exercise of the requisite care, and, therefore, the inference of negligence follows in logical sequence.

In the nature of things the injured employee who sues his employer must present a much higher degree of proof than is necessary in the case of a wayfarer or passenger. It is to be emphasized, however, that 108the difference is one of degree and not of kind. This more onerous burden which is placed upon the employee is the natural concomitant of the relation of the parties and of their resultant obligations. The employer is bound merely to the exercise of reasonable care in providing his employee with a safe place in which to work, with proper and adequate tools, appliances and machinery, and with fellow-employees competent for the tasks to which they are assigned. If the injured employee sues at common law and seeks to invoke the maxim, he must necessarily make proof of facts and circumstances which, under the common law, exclude every inference except that of the employer’s negligence. This means that the employee must himself be free from the imputation of contributory negligence; that he is not the victim of the negligence of co-employees; that the injury is not the result of some risk either inherent in the occupation or voluntarily assumed by the employee; and that the accident is one which, in the ordinary course of events, could not have happened if the employer had exercised the degree of care required of him by the common law. The same rule applies, in a modified degree, where the employee sues under the Employers’ Liability Act, as the plaintiff in this case has done. In such a case the plaintiff must establish facts and circumstances which, under the statute, would entitle him to recover in the absence of a sufficient explanation by the defendant, absolving him from the imputation of negligence. The proof must not be conjectural or speculative, but must consist of evidence which, tested by the ordinary rules of experience and observation, points to the single conclusion that the employer’s omission of a duty which he owes to his employee was the sole efficient cause of the accident. Ferrick v. Eidlitz, 195 N. Y. 248, 252.

The next question, in logical progression, is whether the plaintiff has established his case by facts and circumstances which negative the existence of any cause for the accident by which he was injured, save the negligence of the defendant. The plaintiff, as has been stated, was a locomotive fireman in the employ of the defendant. On the 25th of March, 1911, he and his engineer left Malone on engine No. 2055 for Moira to assist in bringing back a train. After arriving at Moira the engine was turned around and coupled to another engine already attached to a train, and a start was made for the return to Malone. Suddenly there occurred an explosion in the fire box of the engine which drove the doors from their fastenings, and expelled fire and boiling water into the cab, and burned and scalded the plaintiff, and blew him out of the cab to the ground with such force as to bruise him. Although this accident was of an unusual character, it will be assumed for the purposes of this discussion that it was not such an occurrence as would, in and of itself, justify the application of the maxim res ipsa loquitur, for the engine was then in the custody and control of the plaintiff and his engineer. The mere happening of the accident did not necessarily exclude the inference that it might have been caused by the negligence of the plaintiff, or without any negligence at all. 109It was, therefore, necessary for the plaintiff to supplement the proof of the accident with evidence tending to show that it resulted from the failure of the defendant to exercise ordinary care, either in the selection of the engine or in keeping it in reasonably safe repair. In that behalf the record discloses a number of facts and circumstances that bear upon the accident very directly and cogently. It appears that the train crews employed by the defendant have nothing to do with the care and inspection of the internal and hidden parts of the engines. That work is committed to a special corps of employees whose place of duty is in the hostelry where the engines are housed, made ready for service, and turned over to the crews designated to take them out. The engineers are charged with the duty of making a report of each trip which shall specify any needed repairs that come under their observation. The engineer Francey, who was on engine 2055 at the time of the accident, testified that he had used it on various specified dates during the month preceding the day of the accident, and that he had orally reported it as leaking, although he had been turning in written reports which made no mention of the fact. While such a circumstance might ordinarily affect the credibility of a witness, all doubt upon this subject is dissipated by the testimony of the defendant’s witnesses showing that the engine was inspected by the foreman of boiler makers on or about March 21st, 1911, and found to be in a leaky condition. Several of defendant’s witnesses testified that the engine had been in the shop at various times during the month on account of leaking flues, and that the last repairs in this regard were made two or three days before the accident.

After the accident an examination of the engine was made which revealed the probable cause of the trouble. One of the flues, which extend longitudinally through the boiler from the rear flue sheet to another flue sheet next the smoke stack, had been pushed or blown out of its socket in the rear flue sheet so that the forward end of the flue projected several feet beyond the forward flue sheet; thus leaving an opening in the rear flue sheet through which the boiling water and steam were admitted into the fire pot where the explosion was generated. There were 342 of these flues which were each 1⅞ inches in diameter and about 16 feet in length. These flues are “safe ended” into the flue sheets so that when they are in perfect condition there can be no leakage through them from the boiler. The particular flue that was blown or driven out of its place was in the bottom row of flues where there could be no inspection without taking out the “brick arch,” and that could be done only when the boiler was not in steam. There can be no doubt that the explosion by which the plaintiff was injured was due immediately to the displacement of the flue; but the cause of the dislodgement of the flue is not so clear. It is a matter of common knowledge that steam, like electricity, is a capricious and fickle agency which sometimes causes unexpected and unexplainable accidents. If the plaintiff’s case were wholly dependent upon evidence 110merely showing the happening of this explosion, it might be necessary to hold that he had not proved enough to give him the benefit of the maxim which he invokes. The ultimate question, therefore, is whether he has the support of surrounding circumstances which show that the accident was of “such a character as does not ordinarily occur where the party charged with responsibility has exercised the degree of care and caution required by law to avoid such a mishap.” Henson v. Lehigh Valley R. R. Co., 194 N. Y. 205, 211. We think he has. The defendant’s foreman testified that if a flue is loose at both ends it would be liable to move from the pressure, and that if a flue is loose at one end it is more liable to move than one that is not loose. It is undisputed that defendant’s chief boiler man inspected this engine on the 21st or 22d of March and found that a number of flues, about twenty-five, were leaking. These were repaired, but the boiler still leaked on the 24th, and the explosion occurred on the 25th. Since the defendant’s experts had found loose and leaking flues which they repaired, it is reasonable to infer that the displacement of another flue within two or three days was attributable to the same cause. This was not a part of the locomotive over which the plaintiff had any control, or in respect of which he had, so far as the record discloses, any duty or knowledge. The work of inspection and repair was the work of the defendant, and any failure in this regard was its failure. The almost immediate recurrence of a condition that had led to inspection and repair was circumstantial evidence which tended to show that the work had not been thoroughly done. We think, therefore, that the plaintiff was entitled to rest upon the rule of res ipsa loquitur, and that in the absence of a satisfactory and convincing explanation by the defendant, the plaintiff was entitled to recover.

Counsel for the defendant contends that such an explanation has been made. In that regard it appears that the locomotive was of a modern and standard type; that for several months from January, 1910, it was in the main shops of the defendant at Rutland, where it was given a thorough overhauling and sent out in perfect condition; that the complaints of leakage made in the early part of 1911 were followed by prompt inspection and complete repair. This was an explanation well calculated indeed to create a serious issue of fact, but we think it would be going too far to hold that it was conclusive as matter of law. The limitations of the rule of res ipsa loquitur, and the legal effect of defendant’s explanation, were well stated in the charge to the jury, and we think the judgment entered on the verdict must stand.

The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.

Willard Bartlett, Ch. J., Collin, Cuddeback, Hogan, and Cardozo, JJ., concur; Hornblower, J., not sitting.

Fletcher Moulton, L. J., read the following judgment:^[100]—This is an appeal from the judgment delivered by the judge of the county court of Middlesex held in Clerkenwell in an action in which the plaintiff sued for damages resulting from an accident which occurred while she was a passenger in a motor omnibus belonging to the defendants.

The plaintiff’s claim was based on two alternative grounds: (1) that the defendants’ servants, whilst in charge of the motor omnibus, were guilty of negligence causing the accident, and (2) that the motor omnibus was itself a dangerous machine, and that the defendants were liable for having placed it upon the roadway, thereby creating a nuisance, whereby the plaintiff suffered damage.

112The evidence given at the trial as to the nature and circumstances of the accident was meagre in the extreme. The plaintiff deposed to nothing more than that she was a passenger in the omnibus, and that she heard breaking of glass, and knew that the omnibus had hit something, and that she heard something fall. She tried to get out, and, in so doing, hurt her foot. No other witness was called who was present at the time of the accident, but evidence was given on her behalf by a police constable, who came up afterwards, and proved that an electric standard had been broken in the accident, and that the hind step of the motor omnibus had been slightly bent. No other damage had been caused to the omnibus. He also proved that the road was in a greasy state at the time by reason of rain that had fallen during the day. He was asked by the plaintiff’s counsel as to certain admissions made to him at the time by the driver and conductor of the omnibus, and proved that they stated to him that the hind part of the omnibus skidded, when going about five miles an hour, while the driver was trying to avoid two other vehicles. The defendants called no evidence except as to the quantum of damage. At the end of the plaintiff’s case, counsel for the defendants submitted that there was no evidence, either of negligence or of nuisance, to go to the jury, and the learned judge gave partial effect to that contention by withdrawing from the jury the question of negligence in the driving or management of the car. The plaintiff did not take exception to this by giving a cross notice of appeal, nor was the point raised before the Divisional Court, and it is not, in my opinion, open to her counsel to raise it now. But, apart from this, I am of opinion that the learned judge was right in so doing. There was no evidence whatever that the accident was due to negligence on the part of the servants of the defendants who were in charge of the omnibus, unless the mere occurrence of the accident amounts to such evidence. In my opinion the mere occurrence of such an accident is not in itself evidence of negligence. Without attempting to lay down any exhaustive classification of the cases in which the principle of res ipsa loquitur applies, it may generally be said that the principle only applies when the direct cause of the accident, and so much of the surrounding circumstances as was essential to its occurrence, were within the sole control and management of the defendants, or their servants, so that it is not unfair to attribute to them a prima facie responsibility for what happened. An accident in the case of traffic on a highway is in marked contrast to such a condition of things. Every vehicle has to adapt its own behaviour to the behaviour of other persons using the road, and over their actions those in charge of the vehicle have no control. Hence the fact that an accident has happened either to or through a particular vehicle is by itself no evidence that the fault, if any, which led to it was committed by those in charge of that vehicle. Exceptional cases may occur in which the peculiar nature of the accident may throw light upon the question on 113whom the responsibility lies, but there is nothing of the kind here. The collision with the electric standard was due to the omnibus skidding, and, if we are to give any weight to the admissions made by the defendants’ servants which were proved in evidence in chief as part of the plaintiff’s case, that skidding was due to difficulties in avoiding other vehicles. There is certainly no evidence to negative such a probable explanation of what actually happened, and it is impossible to say that this points to negligence, or that it establishes that any negligent act of the defendants’ servant was the cause of the accident. I am therefore of opinion that the learned judge acted rightly in withdrawing from the jury the issue as to the accident being due to negligence of the defendants’ servants in the driving or management of the vehicle.^[101]

CARMODY v. BOSTON GAS LIGHT CO.
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, January 2, 1895.
Reported in 162 Massachusetts Reports, 539.

Four actions for damages occasioned to the respective plaintiffs by the escape of gas were tried together.

Plaintiffs’ evidence tended to show that gas escaped into plaintiffs’ apartments from defendant’s pipes in the street; that plaintiffs inhaled the gas while asleep; and that the escape was due to the defective condition of the pipe.

Defendant’s evidence tended to prove that the defect in the pipe and the consequent escape of gas was due to acts of third persons of which the defendant had no notice, and not to any negligence of the defendant.

The plaintiffs requested the judge to rule that there was evidence enough of want of proper care on the part of the defendant to make it responsible, on the ground that it was bound to conduct its gas in a proper manner; and that the fact that the gas escaped was prima facie evidence of some neglect on the part of the defendant.

The judge declined so to rule, and instructed the jury as follows:

“The mere fact that a pipe broke and the gas escaped is not of itself sufficient to establish the liability of the company. It is evidence for you to consider upon the question of neglect; but there is other evidence bearing upon this question of neglect, and so it becomes a matter for you to determine, in view of all the evidence bearing upon the question, the burden being upon the plaintiffs to satisfy you, as a result 114of all the evidence, that there was in fact a neglect by the defendant, through which, and by means of which, this gas escaped.”

Upon the counsel for the plaintiffs remarking, “Your honor has not given the requests I asked for, and so I will except to that,” the judge replied as follows: “Well, you asked me to say that the fact that the gas escaped is prima facie evidence of some neglect on the part of the defendant. I do not choose to use that expression ‘prima facie evidence,’ unless the defendant consents to it. I have already told the jury that it was evidence of neglect, or of negligence, on the defendant’s part, and evidence the force of which it was for them to determine in connection with any other evidence in the case bearing upon the same subject.”

The jury returned a verdict for the defendant; and the plaintiffs alleged exceptions.^[102]

Barker, J. The plaintiffs asked the court to instruct the jury “that there was evidence enough of want of proper care on the part of the defendant to make it responsible, on the ground that it was bound to conduct its gas in a proper manner, and that the fact that the gas escaped was prima facie evidence of some neglect on the part of the defendant.” This request was copied from a ruling given in Smith v. Boston Gas Light Co., 129 Mass. 318, where this court said of it that, as applied to the facts of that case, it could not be said to be wrong. The presiding justice in the present case declined to give the instruction, but instructed the jury in other terms, which fully and correctly dealt with the phases of the cause to which the request was addressed.

While the ruling requested is sufficiently correct if it be construed as declaring that there was enough evidence of want of proper care to be submitted to the jury, it would invade the proper province of the jury if it was understood by them to mean that there was evidence enough to require them to find the defendant negligent, and the presiding justice was not bound to give a ruling which, as applied to the case upon trial, might have been so understood. Nor was he bound to use the Latin phrase upon which the plaintiffs insisted, but might well say, in place of it, that the fact that gas escaped was evidence of neglect “and evidence the force of which it was for them to determine in connection with any other evidence in the case bearing on the same subject.”

The plaintiffs’ exception did not go to the charge as given, but merely to the refusal of the request. They nevertheless argue that the statement of the charge, that “the mere fact that a pipe broke and the gas escaped is not of itself sufficient to establish the liability of the company,” was incorrect. But there was evidence with which 115the jury had to deal tending to show that the defendant had used due care to conduct its gas in a proper manner, and that the escape of gas by which the plaintiffs were injured was due to the acts of third persons of which the defendant had no notice, and not to any negligence of the defendant.

It is apparent, from the situation of the evidence and the context of the charge, that the sentence to which the plaintiffs now object could not have been understood by the jury as forbidding them to draw the inference of negligence from the facts that a pipe broke and that gas escaped; but that, as there was other evidence bearing upon the question of negligence, they must consider and weigh it all, and not come to a conclusion upon two circumstances merely.

The true construction of the ruling asked, as applied to the case at bar, would be, that, as matter of law, the breaking of a pipe and the consequent escape of gas prove negligence. The true rule is, that a jury may find negligence from those circumstances, but it is for them to say whether they will do so; and, if there are other circumstances bearing on the question, they must weigh them all.

Instructions that evidence “is sufficient to show,” or “has a tenddency to show,” or “is enough to show,” or “is prima facie evidence of,” are not to be understood as meaning that there is a presumption of fact, but that the jury are at liberty to draw the inference from them. Commonwealth v. Clifford, 145 Mass. 97. Commonwealth v. Keenan, 148 Mass. 470. And so the instruction in a case where a number of circumstances bearing upon a question of fact are in evidence, that a part of them are not of themselves sufficient to establish the fact, coupled with explicit instructions that they are to be considered, must be understood as directing the jury to weigh together all the pertinent circumstances, and not to draw their inference from a part without considering all.

BENEDICK v. POTTS
Court of Appeals, Maryland, June 28, 1898.
Reported in 88 Maryland Reports, 52.

Appeal from Circuit Court, where judgment was entered on a verdict for defendant, ordered by the court.

Defendant owned and operated, at a pleasure resort, a mimic railway, which was a wooden structure. Open cars were hoisted up an incline to the highest point of the railway, and were then run by gravity 116down and around a circular track to the ground. The length of the spiral track was about two thousand feet, and it made three circuits before reaching the ground. At about the middle of the last circle nearest the ground, the cars passed through a tunnel which was part of the structure. This tunnel was one hundred and fifty feet long, and completely incased that portion of the track, and hid the cars and their occupants from all observation when passing through it. The cars were provided with handles for the occupants to grasp during the rapid descent. Plaintiff was the sole occupant of the rear seat in one of the cars. The car was started and made the descent; but when it reached the ground at the end of the track the plaintiff was not in it, though as it entered the tunnel he was seen to be upon it. Search was at once made, and he was found inside the tunnel, in an unconscious condition, with a wound upon his head. After several days he was restored to consciousness. For the damages thus sustained, this suit was brought.

The car did not leave the track, no part of it was shown to be out of repair, the track was not defective, and no explanation is given in the record as to what caused the injury. The plaintiff distinctly stated that he made no effort to rise as he passed through the tunnel, and that he did not relax his grasp on the sides of the car. He was in the car when it passed into the tunnel. He was not in it when it emerged. How he got off was not shown.

Upon this state of facts the trial court instructed the jury that there was no legally sufficient evidence to show that the defendant had been guilty of negligence; and the verdict and judgment were accordingly entered for defendant. Plaintiff brought up the record by appeal.^[104]

McSherry, C. J. This is an action to recover damages for a personal injury, and the single question which the record presents is whether there was legally sufficient evidence of the defendant’s imputed negligence to carry the case to the jury. The facts are few and simple. [The learned judge then stated the facts.]

It is a perfectly well-settled principle that to entitle a plaintiff to recover in an action of this kind he must show not only that he has sustained an injury but that the defendant has been guilty of some negligence which produced that particular injury. The negligence alleged and the injury sued for must bear the relation of cause and effect. The concurrence of both and the nexus between them must exist to constitute a cause of action. As an injury may occur from 117causes other than the negligence of the party sued, it is obvious that before a liability on account of that injury can be fastened upon a particular individual, it must be shown, or there must be evidence legally tending to show, that he is responsible for it; that is, that he has been guilty of the negligence that produced or occasioned the injury. In no instance can the bare fact that an injury has happened, of itself and divorced from all the surrounding circumstances, justify the inference that the injury was caused by negligence. It is true that direct proof of negligence is not necessary. Like any other fact, negligence may be established by the proof of circumstances from which its existence may be inferred. But this inference must, after all, be a legitimate inference and not a mere speculation of conjecture. There must be a logical relation and connection between the circumstances proved and the conclusion sought to be adduced from them. This principle is never departed from, and in the very nature of things it never can be disregarded. There are instances in which the circumstances surrounding an occurrence and giving a character to it are held, if unexplained, to indicate the antecedent or coincident existence of negligence as the efficient cause of an injury complained of. These are the instances where the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applied. This phrase, which literally translated means that “the thing speaks for itself,” is merely a short way of saying that the circumstances attendant upon an accident are themselves of such a character as to justify a jury in inferring negligence as the cause of that accident; and the doctrine which it embodies, though correct enough in itself, may be said to be applicable to two classes of cases only, viz., “first, when the relation of carrier and passenger exists and the accident arises from some abnormal condition in the department of actual transportation; second, where the injury arises from some condition or event that is in its very nature so obviously destructive of the safety of person or property and is so tortious in its quality as, in the first instance at least, to permit no inference save that of negligence on the part of the person in the control of the injurious agency.” Thomas on Neg. 574. But it is obvious that in both instances more than the mere isolated, single, segregated fact that an injury has happened must be known. The injury, without more, does not necessarily speak or indicate the cause of that injury—it is colorless; but the act that produced the injury being made apparent may, in the instances indicated, furnish the ground for a presumption that negligence set that act in motion. The maxim does not go to the extent of implying that you may from the mere fact of an injury infer what physical act produced that injury; but it means that when the physical act has been shown or is apparent and is not explained by the defendant, the conclusion that negligence superinduced it may be drawn as a legitimate deduction of fact. It permits an inference that the known act which produced the injury was a negligent act, but it does not permit an inference 118as to what act did produce the injury. Negligence manifestly cannot be predicated of any act until you know what the act is. Until you know what did occasion an injury, you cannot say that the defendant was guilty of some negligence that produced that injury. There is, therefore, a difference between inferring as a conclusion of fact what it was that did the injury; and inferring from a known or proven act occasioning the injury that there was negligence in the act that did produce the injury. To the first category the maxim res ipsa loquitur has no application; it is confined, when applicable at all, solely to the second. In no case where the thing which occasioned the injury is unknown has it ever been held that the maxim applies; because when the thing which produced the injury is unknown it cannot be said to speak or to indicate the existence of causative negligence. In all the cases, whether the relation of carrier and passenger existed or not, the injury alone furnished no evidence of negligence—something more was required to be shown. For instance: In Penn. R. R. Co. v. MacKinney, 124 Pa. St. 462, it was said: “A passenger’s leg is broken, while on his passage, in a railroad car. This mere fact is no evidence of negligence on the part of the carrier until something further be shown. If the witness who swears to the injury testifies also that it was caused by a crash in a collision with another train of cars belonging to the same carrier, the presumption of negligence immediately arises; not, however, from the fact that the leg was broken, but from the circumstances attending the fact.” And so in Byrne v. Boadle, 2 Hurl. & Colt. 728, there was proof not only of an injury but there was evidence to show how the injury happened, and the presumption of negligence was applied, not because of there being an injury, but because of the way or manner in which the injury was produced. And in Howser’s case, 80 Md. 146, the injury was caused by cross-ties falling from a moving train upon the plaintiff who was walking by the side of the track, and the presumption of negligence was allowed, not as an inference deducible from the injury itself, but as a conclusion resulting from the method in which and the instrumentality by which the injury had been occasioned. In the recent case of Consolidated Traction Co. v. Thalheimer, Court of Errors and Appeals, N. J., 2 Amer. Neg. Rep. 196,^[105] it appeared that the plaintiff was a passenger of the appellant, and, having been notified by the conductor that the car was approaching the point where she desired to alight, got up from her seat and walked to the door while the car was in motion, and, while going through the doorway, she was thrown into the street by a sudden lurch and thus injured. The court said: “At all events, the fact that such a lurch or jerk occurred, as would have been unlikely to occur if proper care had been exercised, brings the case within the maxim res ipsa loquitur.” The inference of negligence arose not from the injury to the passenger, but from the act that 119caused the injury. In B. & O. R. R. v. Worthington, 21 Md. 275, the train was derailed in consequence of an open switch, and it was held that the injury thus inflicted on the passenger was presumptive evidence of negligence—not that the mere injury raised such a presumption, but that the injury caused in the way and under the circumstances shown indicated actionable negligence unless satisfactorily explained.

Whether, therefore, there be a contractual relation between the parties or not, there must be proof of negligence or proof of some circumstances from which negligence may be inferred, before an action can be sustained. And whether you characterize that inference an ordinary presumption of fact, or say of the act that caused the injury, the thing speaks for itself, you assert merely a rebuttable conclusion deduced from known and obvious premises. It follows, of course, that when the act that caused the injury is wholly unknown or undisclosed, it is simply and essentially impossible to affirm that there was a negligent act; and neither the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur nor any other principle of presumption can be invoked to fasten a liability upon the party charged with having by negligence caused the injury for the infliction of which a suit has been brought.

Now, in the case at bar there is no evidence that the car on the track was out of repair. The car went safely to its destination, carrying the other occupants. There is no evidence that the roof of the tunnel struck the appellant, or that the fact that a small part of the central plank of the tunnel roof had been slabbed off had the most remote connection with the accident. It is a case presenting not a single circumstance showing how or by what agency the injury occurred, and in which, with nothing but the isolated fact of the injury having happened, being proved, it is insisted that the jury shall be allowed to speculate as to the cause that produced it, and then to infer from the cause thus assumed but not established, that there was actionable negligence. It is not an attempt to infer negligence from an apparent cause, but to infer the cause of the injury from the naked fact of injury, and then to superadd the further inference that this inferred cause proceeded from negligence. If in Howser’s case, supra, there had been no other evidence than the mere fact of an injury, it cannot be pretended that the jury would have been allowed to speculate as to how the injury had occurred.

The appellant was on the car when it entered the tunnel; he was not on the car when it emerged, but was found in an unconscious state in the tunnel. There was no defect in or abnormal condition affecting the means of actual transportation. The other occupants of the car passed safely through. What caused the appellant to be out of the car is a matter of pure conjecture. No one has explained or attempted to explain how he got where he was found. Indeed, the two persons who occupied the front seat were ignorant of the appellant’s absence 120from the car until it had reached its destination, and the appellant himself distinctly testified that he did not relax his hold to the car and did not attempt to rise, but lowered his head as he entered the tunnel. All that is certain is, that he was injured in some way and he asks that the jury may be allowed, in the absence of all explanatory evidence, to infer that some act of a negligent character for which the appellee is responsible, caused the injury sustained by the appellant. No case has gone to that extent and no known principle can be cited to sanction such a position. There has been no circumstance shown which furnishes the foundation for an inference of negligence; and the circumstances which have been shown obviously do not bring the case within the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. There was, consequently, no error in the ruling complained of, and the judgment of the Circuit Court must be affirmed.

Section V
The Duty of Care—Misfeasance and Nonfeasance

FLINT & WALLING MANUFACTURING CO. v. BECKETT
Supreme Court, Indiana, December 18, 1906.
Reported in 167 Indiana Reports, 491.

Beckett brought this action against the Flint & Walling Manufacturing Company to recover damages for harm done to his barn and the contents thereof, owing to the fact that the company constructed a windmill thereon in such an insufficient manner that it fell upon the roof of the barn.

The complaint contained, in substance, the following statements:—

There was an air-shaft in the centre of the barn, extending from the bottom to, and projecting through, the roof. Defendant contracted with plaintiff to erect on the air-shaft a windmill consisting of a wheel, tower, etc., to be erected in a first-class manner. The defendant erected the windmill in a negligent manner; especially in the mode of fastening the tower to the air-shaft. In consequence of this defective construction, a wind of ordinary velocity caused the windmill to break and twist the air-shaft and fall about sixty feet on the roof of the barn.

Trial in the Circuit Court. Verdict for plaintiff and judgment thereon. Defendant company appealed.^[107]

121Gillett, J.

The leading contention of appellant’s counsel is that the duty it owed to appellee arose out of contract, and that, as appellant was not engaged in a public employment, its obligation could only be enforced by an action on the contract for a breach thereof. The latter insistence cannot be upheld. It is, of course, true that it is not every breach of contract which can be counted on as a tort, and it may also be granted that if the making of a contract does not bring the parties into such a relation that a common-law obligation exists, no action can be maintained in tort for an omission properly to perform the undertaking. It by no means follows, however, that this common-law obligation may not have its inception in contract. If a defendant may be held liable for the neglect of a duty imposed on him, independently of any contract, by operation of law, a fortiori ought he to be liable where he has come under an obligation to use care as the result of an undertaking founded on a consideration.

Where the duty has its roots in contract, the undertaking to observe due care may be implied from the relationship, and should it be the fact that a breach of the agreement also constitutes such a failure to exercise care as amounts to a tort, the plaintiff may elect, as the common-law authorities have it, to sue in case or in assumpsit. It is broadly stated in 1 Comyn’s Digest, Action on the Case for Negligence, A 4, p. 418, that “if a man neglect to do that, which he has undertaken to do, an action upon the case lies.... But, if there be not any neglect in the defendant, an action upon the case does not lie against him, though he do not perform his undertaking.” Professor Pollock says: “One who enters on the doing of anything attended with risk to the persons or property of others is held answerable for the use of a certain measure of caution to guard against that risk. To name one of the commonest applications, ‘those who go personally or bring property where they know that they or it may come into collision with the persons or property of others have by law a duty cast upon them to use reasonable care and skill to avoid such collision.’... In some cases this ground of liability may coexist with a liability on contract towards the same person, and arising (as regards the breach) out of the same facts. Where a man interferes gratuitously, he is bound to act in a reasonable and prudent manner according to the circumstances and opportunities of the case. And this duty is not affected by the fact, if so it be, that he is acting for reward, in other words, under a contract, and may be liable on the contract. The two duties are distinct, except so far as the same party cannot be compensated twice over for the same facts, once for the breach of contract and again for the wrong. Historically the liability in tort is older; and indeed it was by special development of this view that the action of assumpsit, afterwards the common mode of enforcing simple contracts, was brought into use. ‘If a smith prick my horse with a nail, 122etc., I shall have my action upon the case against him, without any warranty by the smith to do it well.... For it is the duty of every artificer to exercise his art rightly and truly as he ought.’” Webb’s Pollock, Torts, 533–536. This general thought also finds expression in Mr. Street’s valuable work (1 Street, Foundations of Legal Liability, 92). It is there said: “The general doctrine may be laid down thus: In every situation where a man undertakes to act or to pursue a particular course he is under an implied legal obligation or duty to act with reasonable care, to the end that the person or property of others may not be injured by any force which he sets in operation or by any agent for which he is responsible. If he fails to exercise the degree of caution which the law requires in a particular situation, he is held liable for any damage that results to another just as if he had bound himself by an obligatory promise to exercise the required degree of care. In this view, statements so frequently seen in negligence cases, to the effect that men are bound to act with due and reasonable care, are really vital and significant expressions. If there had been any remedial necessity for so declaring, it could obviously have been said without violence to the principle that men who undertake to act are subject to a fictitious or implied promise to act with due care.” See also Howard v. Shepherd, (1850) 9 C. B. (67 Eng. Com. Law) 296, 321; Coy v. Indianapolis Gas Co., (1897) 146 Ind. 655, 36 L. R. A. 535; Parrill v. Cleveland, etc., R. Co., (1900) 23 Ind. App. 638; Rich v. New York, etc., R. Co., (1882) 87 N. Y. 382; Dean v. McLean, (1875) 48 Vt. 412, 21 Am. Rep. 130; Stock v. City of Boston, (1889) 149 Mass. 410, 21 N. E. 871, 14 Am. St. 430; Bickford v. Richards, (1891) 154 Mass. 163, 27 N. E. 1014, 26 Am. St. 224; Addison, Torts (3d ed.), p. 13; 1 Thompson, Negligence (2d ed.), § 5; 1 Shearman & Redfield, Negligence (5th ed.), §§ 9, 22; Saunders, Negligence, 55, 121; 6 Cyc. Law and Proc. 688.

The position in which appellant placed this large and heavy structure, located, as it was, upon the barn, some seventy feet above the earth, was such that it was calculated to do great harm to appellee’s property should it fall. We cannot doubt, in view of the terms of the contract, construed in the light of the practical construction which the parties gave to it, to say nothing of the extraneous agreement set forth in the complaint, that it was the duty of appellant to exercise ordinary care to secure the tower in such a manner that this heavy and exposed structure would not, under the action of ordinary winds, weave around and become detached from the body of the air-shaft. Insecurely fastened, as the complaint shows that this structure was, appellant was bound to apprehend that it might fall, and that, if it did, great injury would thereby be occasioned to appellee. It was also bound to apprehend, from the very care and skill which it impliedly held itself out as exercising (a circumstance calculated to throw appellee off his guard), and from the fact that an examination 123was difficult, that in all probability the defects would not be observed in time to avoid the injury. Indeed, as laid down in Mowbray v. Merryweather, [1895] 2 Q. B. 640, and Devlin v. Smith, (1882) 89 N. Y. 470, 42 Am. Rep. 311, appellee owed no duty, so far as appellant was concerned, to examine the tower. The contrivance was inherently dangerous, and the circumstances of placing it upon the barn, as shown, made it calculated to eventuate in harm. This being true, and as there was no intervening responsible agency between appellee and the wrong, so that the causal relation remained unbroken, we can perceive no reason for acquitting appellant of responsibility as a tort feasor. See Wharton, Negligence (2d ed.), § 438; 1 Beven, Negligence (2d ed.), 62; Roddy v. Missouri Pac. R. Co., (1891) 104 Mo. 234, 15 S. W. 1112, 12 L. R. A. 746, 24 Am. St. 333. It is not necessary to consider the extent to which contracts may impose obligations to exercise care for the protection of third persons, for here the relation is direct and immediate, but we quote, as showing that there is clearly a liability in tort, in such a case as this, the following general statements in 1 Shearman & Redfield, Negligence (5th ed.), § 117, with reference to the liability for selling dangerous goods: “But one who knowingly sells an article intrinsically dangerous to human life or health, such as poison, explosive oils or diseased meat, concealing from the buyer knowledge of that fact, is responsible to any person who, without fault on the part of himself or any other person, sufficient to break the chain of causation, is injured thereby. And we see no reason why the same rule should not apply to articles known to be dangerous to property.”

A number of questions are argued by appellant’s counsel which are based upon the contention that the theory of the complaint was that appellant had committed a breach of contract. The latter insistence is based on the fact that the contract is set out in full in the complaint. It is often difficult to determine whether, in the statement of such a cause of action as the one under consideration, wherein the very breach of the contract also constitutes negligence, the purpose of the pleader was to rely upon a breach of contract or to charge negligence in the violation of the implied duty which was created by the undertaking of the defendant. It is true that in an action on the case for negligence, wherein the declaration or complaint is not based on mere nonfeasance it is not necessary to plead a consideration, and, therefore, where the action is based on the manner in which an undertaking was performed, or, in other words, on some misfeasance or malfeasance, the allegation of a consideration may be regarded as one of the markings of an action ex contractu. But we do not understand that this is a controlling consideration; on the contrary, it does not appear to admit of question that if the contract or consideration be set out as a matter of inducement only, the plaintiff’s action may be 124regarded as one in case for a violation of the common-law duty which the circumstances had imposed upon the defendant. 1 Chitty, Pleading, *135; Dickson v. Clifton, 2 Wils. 319; Watson, Damages for Per. Inj., § 570; 21 Ency. Pl. and Pr., 913. We are especially impressed with the view that in code pleading, which was designed preëminently to be a system of fact pleading, a plaintiff, in suing in tort, may properly set out his contract, as constituting the underlying fact, instead of charging the defendant’s undertaking in general terms, and that the plaintiff does not thereby necessarily commit himself to the theory that his action is for breach of contract. Leeds v. City of Richmond, (1885) 102 Ind. 372; Parrill v. Cleveland, etc., R. Co., supra; McMurtry v. Kentucky Cent. R. Co., (1886) 84 Ky. 462, 1 S. W. 815; Watson, Damages for Per. Inj., § 570. In the complaint before us appellee not only sets out the written contract, but he pleads a supplemental or subsidiary agreement as well, so that it can hardly be said that he relied on the written contract as the foundation of the action. He charges no breach of the contract except as it can be implied from the allegations of negligence; he alleges damages “by reason of the defendant’s negligence, carelessness, imprudence, and unskilfulness in erecting, constructing, and fastening said steel tower to said air-shaft as aforesaid;” he charges, in setting forth the total amount of his damages, that they were occasioned “by reason of the defendant’s negligence and failure of duty as herein alleged,” and he avers that he “had no notice or knowledge of the faulty, negligent, and unskilful erection of said mill,” and that he himself was without fault or negligence in the premises. In view of the general structure of the complaint, and applying to it the rule that a construction of a pleading which will give effect to all of its material allegations is to be preferred, where reasonably possible (Monnett v. Turpie, [1892] 133 Ind. 424), it appears to us that it must be held that the action was for the tort. But, admitting that there is room for doubt on this subject, the fact that the court below, as the record plainly shows, tried the cause on the theory that it was an action ex delicto, must settle the question against the contention of appellant. Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Acres, (1886) 108 Ind. 548; Diggs v. Way, (1899) 22 Ind. App. 617.

Appeal from an order of a judge at chambers affirming an order of a master directing that the plaintiff’s bill of costs should be referred back to be drawn on the county court scale.

The action was brought to recover damages for personal injuries to the plaintiff while a passenger on the defendants’ railway. The statement of claim alleged an agreement by the defendants to carry the plaintiff safely, and a breach of that agreement in negligently and improperly managing the train in which he was, so that it ran into the wall at Baker Street Station, whereby the plaintiff sustained injury. It was admitted by the defendants that the accident occurred by the negligence of the engine-driver in not turning off steam in time to prevent the train running into the dead-end at the station. A sum of 20l. was paid into court, and the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for 25l.

When the plaintiff’s costs were taken in to be taxed, the master was of opinion that, on the authority of Taylor v. Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Ry. Co., [1895] 1 Q. B. 134, the act of the engine-driver being one of omission, the action was founded on contract, and that therefore the plaintiff was only entitled to costs on the county court scale. On appeal, this decision was affirmed by Day, J.

The plaintiff appealed.

Kemp, Q. C., and Cagney, for the plaintiff, submitted that the action was in fact an action of tort, and was tried as such, and that the plaintiff was entitled to costs on the High Court scale.

Lawson Walton, Q. C., and George Elliott, for the defendants. The duty of the defendants was contractual, and they were bound to take due care not to injure the plaintiff. The act which caused the injury was an omission to turn off steam, and amounted to a nonfeasance. It was not an act of commission or misfeasance, and the defendants were not liable in tort. The distinction is dealt with in the judgment of Lindley, L. J., and A. L. Smith, L. J., in Taylor v. Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Ry. Co., [1895] 1 Q. B. 134, and the present case comes within that authority.

[They also cited Foulkes v. Metropolitan District Ry. Co., 4 C. P. D. 267; 5 C. P. D. 157.]

A. L. Smith, L. J., read the following judgment:^[109] There appears to have been some misapprehension as to what was decided in the case of Taylor v. Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Ry. Co., [1895] 1 Q. B. 134, to which I was a party.

126The plaintiff in the present case was a passenger on the defendants’ railway, and whilst lawfully riding in one of their carriages was injured by its being negligently run into a dead-end by the defendants’ driver.

It has been thought by the master, and also by Day, J., that, because the negligence was that the driver omitted to turn off steam, this constituted a nonfeasance or omission within what was said in the above-mentioned case, and that as the plaintiff had recovered 25l. and no more he was only entitled to county court costs. I am clearly of opinion that this is not what was decided, nor is any such statement to be found in that judgment.

The distinction between acts of commission or misfeasance, and acts of omission or nonfeasance, does not depend on whether a driver or signalman of a defendant company has negligently turned on steam or negligently hoisted a signal, or whether he has negligently omitted to do the one or the other. The distinction is this, if the cause of complaint be for an act of omission or nonfeasance which without proof of a contract to do what has been left undone would not give rise to any cause of action (because no duty apart from contract to do what is complained of exists), then the action is founded upon contract and not upon tort. If, on the other hand, the relation of the plaintiff and the defendants be such that a duty arises from that relationship, irrespective of contract, to take due care, and the defendants are negligent, then the action is one of tort, and as regards the County Court Acts and costs this is what was laid down in the above-mentioned case. The appeal should be allowed with costs here and below.

Rigby, L. J. I entirely agree. It appears to me that the attempt to dissect the act of the defendants’ servant, and to treat the mere omission to turn off steam as a nonfeasance within the meaning of the cases referred to, altogether fails. An engine-driver is in charge of the train, and a passenger is in that train, independently of contract, with the permission of the defendants. That passenger is injured in consequence of the train being negligently brought into collision with the dead-end. The proper description of what was done is that it was a negligent act in so managing the train as to allow it to come into contact with the dead-end and so cause the accident. It is a case in which the company by their servant neglected a duty which they owed to the plaintiff—that is to say, it was a case in which an action of tort could be brought.

Action by Mrs. Grizzle against the Southern Railway Company and T. A. O’Neal.

The petition alleged, in substance, that the petitioner’s husband was killed by the negligence of the railway company, and of O’Neal, who was the engineer in charge of the train, while the train was being operated over a public-road crossing. It was alleged, inter alia, that no bell was rung nor whistle sounded, nor the speed of the train checked, and that the requirements of the blow-post law^[111] were entirely disregarded by the engineer. To this petition O’Neal demurred on several grounds. The demurrer was overruled, and O’Neal excepted.^[112]

Cobb, P. J. 1. An agent is not ordinarily liable to third persons for mere nonfeasance. Kimbrough v. Boswell, 119 Ga. 210. An agent is, however, liable to third persons for misfeasance.^[113] Nonfeasance is the total omission or failure of the agent to enter upon the performance of some distinct duty or undertaking which he has agreed with his principal to do. Misfeasance means the improper doing of an act which the agent might lawfully do; or, in other words, it is the performing of his duty to his principal in such a manner as to infringe upon the rights and privileges of third persons. Where an agent fails to use reasonable care or diligence in the performance of his duty, he will be personally responsible to a third person who is injured by such misfeasance. The agent’s liability in such cases is not based upon the ground of his agency, but upon the ground that he is a wrong-doer, and as such he is responsible for any injury he may cause. When once he enters upon the performance of his contract with his principal, and in doing so omits, or fails to take reasonable care in the commission of, some act which he should do in its performance, whereby some third person is injured, he is responsible therefor to the same extent as if he had committed the wrong in his own behalf. See 2 Clark & 128Skyles on Agency, 1297 et seq. Misfeasance may involve also to some extent the idea of not doing; as where an agent engaged in the performance of his undertaking does not do something which it is his duty to do under the circumstances, or does not take that precaution or does not exercise that care which a due regard to the rights of others requires. All this is not doing, but it is not the not doing of that which is imposed upon the agent merely by virtue of his relation, but of that which is imposed upon him by law as a responsible individual in common with all other members of society. It is the same not doing which constitutes actionable negligence in any relation. Mechem on Ag. § 572. As was said by Gray, C. J., in Obsorne v. Morgan, 130 Mass. 102 (39 Am. Rep. 439): “If the agent once actually undertakes and enters upon the execution of a particular work, it is his duty to use reasonable care in the manner of executing it, so as not to cause any injury to third persons which may be the natural consequence of his acts; and he cannot, by abandoning its execution midway and leaving things in a dangerous condition, exempt himself from liability to any person who suffers injury by reason of his having so left them without proper safeguards. This is not nonfeasance or doing nothing, but it is misfeasance, doing improperly.” In that case the agent was held liable by the fall of a tackle-block and chains from an iron rail suspended from the ceiling of a room, which fell for the reason that the agent had suffered them to remain in such a manner and so unprotected that they fell upon and injured the plaintiff. In Bell v. Josselyn, 3 Gray, 309 (63 Am. Dec. 742), Metcalf, J., said: “Assuming that he was a mere agent, yet the injury for which this action was brought was not caused by his nonfeasance, but by his misfeasance. Nonfeasance is the omission of an act which a person ought to do; misfeasance is the improper doing of an act which a person might lawfully do.... The defendant’s omission to examine the state of the pipes, ... before causing the water to be let on, was a nonfeasance. But if he had not caused the water to be let on, that nonfeasance would not have injured the plaintiff.”

In the present case the failure of the engineer to comply with the requirements of the blow-post law was not doing, but the running of the train over the crossing at a high rate of speed without giving the signals required by law was a positive act, and the violation of a duty which both the engineer and the railroad company owed to travelers upon the highway. The engineer having once undertaken in behalf of the principal to run the train, it was incumbent upon him to run it in the manner prescribed by law; and a failure to comply with the law, although it involved an act of omission, was not an act of mere nonfeasance, but was an act of misfeasance. This view is strengthened by the fact that the blow-post law renders the engineer indictable for failure to comply with its provisions. The allegations of the 129petition were therefore sufficient to charge O’Neal with a positive tort, for which the plaintiff would be entitled to bring her action against him.^[114]

BLACK v. NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN, AND HARTFORD R. CO.
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, January 2, 1907.
Reported in 193 Massachusetts Reports, 448.

Tort for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the servants of the defendant on February 7, 1903, while the plaintiff was a passenger of the defendant. Writ dated March 20, 1903.

At the trial in the Superior Court, Wait, J., at the close of the plaintiff’s evidence ordered a verdict for the defendant; and the plaintiff alleged exceptions. The material evidence is described or quoted in the opinion.

Knowlton, C. J. This action was brought to recover for an injury alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant’s servants. The plaintiff was a passenger on the defendant’s train, which ran from Boston through Ashmont on the evening of February 7, 1903. He testified to having become so intoxicated that he had no recollection of anything that occurred after leaving a cigar store in Boston, until he awoke in the Boston City Hospital, about four o’clock the next day. One Thompson testified “that he took the 9.23 train on the evening of February 7, 1903, at the South Station in Boston for Ashmont, and occupied a seat near the rear of the last car of the train; that there were about twenty passengers in the car, and he noticed Black sitting in the seat opposite, very erect, with his eyes closed. When the conductor came through, Mr. Black went through his pockets as if he were looking for a ticket, and not being able to find it, tendered a fifty-cent piece in payment for his fare. The conductor began to name off the stations from Field’s Corner first and then Ashmont and when he said ‘Ashmont,’ Mr. Black nodded his head. The conductor gave him his change and his rebate check. At Ashmont, where the train stops, there is a gravelled walk, running the whole length, as a platform, then there is a flight of steps, ten or twelve, that leads up to the asphalt walk around the station, so when you go up from the steps you have to walk along this walk. The 130conductor and brakeman took Black out of the car, with one on each side. The distance from the steps of the car to the steps that lead up to the station was twenty-five feet. As they went along the platform, the conductor and trainman were on each side of him. They tried to stand him up, but his legs would sink away from him. They sort of helped him up and carried him to the bottom of the steps. When they went to the bottom of the steps, they continued, one on each side of him. Then one of the men got on one side with his arm around him and the other back of him sort of pushing him, and they took him up about the fifth or sixth step, and after they got him up there, they turned right around and left him and went down the steps. Mr. Black sort of balanced himself there just a minute and then fell completely backward. He turned a complete somersault and struck on the back of his head. The railroad men just had time to get down to the foot of the steps. There was a railing that led up those steps and the steps were about ten feet wide. Mr. Black was upon the right-hand side going up and he was left right near the railing. When he fell, he did not seize hold of anything, his arms were at his side.”

On this testimony the jury might find that the plaintiff was so intoxicated as to be incapable of standing, or walking, or caring for himself in any way, and that the defendant’s servants, knowing his condition, left him halfway up the steps where they knew, or ought to have known, that he was in great danger of falling and being seriously injured. They were under no obligation to remove him from the car, or to provide for his safety after he left the car. But they voluntarily undertook to help him from the car, and they were bound to use ordinary care in what they did that might affect his safety. Not only in the act of removal, but in the place where they left him, it was their duty to have reasonable regard for his safety in view of his manifest condition. The jury might have found that they were negligent in leaving him on the steps, where a fall would be likely to do him much harm. Moody v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 189 Mass. 277.

The defence rests principally upon the fact that the plaintiff was intoxicated, and was incapable of caring for himself after he was taken from the train, and therefore was not in the exercise of due care. If his voluntary intoxication was a direct and proximate cause of the injury, he cannot recover. The plaintiff contends that it was not a cause, but a mere condition, well known to the defendant’s servants, and that their act was the direct and proximate cause of the injury, with which no other act or omission had any causal connection. The distinction here referred to is well recognized in law....

We are of opinion that the jury in the present case might have found that the plaintiff was free from any negligence that was a direct and proximate cause of the injury.

Error from Wyandotte District Court.

Smith, J. This was an action brought by Adeline Cappier, the mother of Irvin Ezelle, to recover damages resulting to her by reason of the loss of her son, who was run over by a car of plaintiff in error, and died from the injuries received. The trial court, at the close of the evidence introduced to support a recovery by plaintiff below, held that no careless act of the railway company’s servants in the operation of the car was shown, and refused to permit the case to be considered by the jury on the allegations and attempted proof of such negligence. The petition, however, contained an averment that the injured person had one leg and an arm cut off by the car-wheels, and that the servants of the railway company failed to call a surgeon, or to render him any assistance after the accident, but permitted him to remain by the side of the tracks and bleed to death. Under this charge of negligence a recovery was had.

While attempting to cross the railway tracks Ezelle was struck by a moving freight-car pushed by an engine. A yardmaster in charge of the switching operations was riding on the end of the car nearest to the deceased and gave warning by shouting to him. The warning was either too late or no heed was given to it. The engine was stopped. After the injured man was clear of the track, the yardmaster signalled the engineer to move ahead, fearing, as he testified, that a passenger train then about due would come upon them. The locomotive and car went forward over a bridge, where the general yardmaster was informed of the accident and an ambulance was summoned by telephone. The yardmaster then went back where the injured man was lying and found three Union Pacific switchmen binding up the wounded limbs and doing what they could to stop the flow of blood. The ambulance arrived about thirty minutes later and Ezelle was taken to a hospital, where he died a few hours afterward.

In answer to particular questions of fact, the jury found that the accident occurred at 5.35 P. M.; that immediately one of the railway employees telephoned to police headquarters for help for the injured man; that the ambulance started at 6.05 P. M. and reached the nearest hospital with Ezelle at 6.20 P. M., where he received proper medical and surgical treatment. Judgment against the railway company was based on the following question and answer:—

“Ques. Did not defendant’s employees bind up Ezelle’s wounds and try to stop the flow of blood as soon as they could after the accident happened? Ans. No.”

132The lack of diligence in the respect stated was intended, no doubt, to apply to the yardmaster, engineer, and fireman in charge of the car and engine.

These facts bring us to a consideration of the legal duty of these employees toward the injured man after his condition became known. Counsel for defendant in error quotes the language found in Beach on Contributory Negligence (3d ed.), § 215, as follows:—

“Under certain circumstances, the railroad may owe a duty to a trespasser after the injury. When a trespasser has been run down, it is the plain duty of the railway company to render whatever service is possible to mitigate the severity of the injury. The train that has occasioned the harm must be stopped, and the injured person looked after; and, when it seems necessary, removed to a place of safety, and carefully nursed, until other relief can be brought to the disabled person.”

The principal authority cited in support of this doctrine is Northern Central Railway Co. v. The State, use of Price et al, 29 Md. 420, 96 Am. Dec. 545. The court in that case first held that there was evidence enough to justify the jury in finding that the operatives of the train were negligent in running it too fast over a road-crossing without sounding the whistle, and that the number of brakemen was insufficient to check its speed. Such negligence was held sufficient to uphold the verdict, and would seem to be all that was necessary to be said. The court, however, proceeded to state that, from whatever cause the collision occurred, it was the duty of the servants of the company, when the man was found on the pilot of the engine in a helpless and insensible condition, to remove him, and to do it with proper regard to his safety and the laws of humanity. In that case the injured person was taken in charge by the servants of the railway company and, being apparently dead, without notice to his family, or sending for a physician to ascertain his condition, he was moved to defendant’s warehouse, laid on a plank and locked up for the night. The next morning, when the warehouse was opened, it was found that during the night the man had revived from his stunned condition and moved some paces from the spot where he had been laid, and was found in a stooping posture, dead but still warm, having died from hemorrhage of the arteries of one leg, which was crushed at and above the knee. It had been proposed to place him in the defendant’s station-house, which was a comfortable building, but the telegraph operator objected, and directed him to be taken into the warehouse, a place used for the deposit of old barrels and other rubbish.

The Maryland case does not support what is so broadly stated in Beach on Contributory Negligence. It is cited by Judge Cooley, in his work on Torts, in a note to a chapter devoted to the negligence of bailees (ch. xx.), indicating that the learned author understood the reasoning of the decision to apply where the duty began after the railway employees had taken charge of the injured person.

133After the trespasser on the track of a railway company has been injured in collision with a train, and the servants of the company have assumed to take charge of him, the duty arises to exercise such care in his treatment as the circumstances will allow. We are unable, however, to approve the doctrine that when the acts of a trespasser himself result in his injury, where his own negligent conduct is alone the cause, those in charge of the instrument which inflicted the hurt, being innocent of wrong-doing, are nevertheless blamable in law if they neglect to administer to the sufferings of him whose wounds we might say were self-imposed. With the humane side of the question courts are not concerned. It is the omission or negligent discharge of legal duties only which come within the sphere of judicial cognizance. For withholding relief from the suffering, for failing to respond to the calls of worthy charity, or for faltering in the bestowment of brotherly love on the unfortunate, penalties are found not in the laws of men, but in that higher law, the violation of which is condemned by the voice of conscience, whose sentence of punishment for the recreant act is swift and sure. In the law of contracts it is now well understood that a promise founded on a moral obligation will not be enforced in the courts. Bishop states that some of the older authorities recognize a moral obligation as valid, and says:—

“Such a doctrine, carried to its legitimate results, would release the tribunals from the duty to administer the law of the land; and put, in the place of law, the varying ideas of morals which the changing incumbents of the bench might from time to time entertain.” (Bish. Cont. § 44.)

Ezelle’s injuries were inflicted, as the court below held, without the fault of the yardmaster, engineer, or fireman in charge of the car and locomotive. The railway company was no more responsible than it would have been had the deceased been run down by the cars of another railroad company on a track parallel with that of plaintiff in error. If no duty was imposed on the servants of defendant below to take charge of, and care for, the wounded man in such a case, how could a duty arise under the circumstances of the case at bar? In Barrows on Negligence, page 4, it is said:—

“The duty must be owing from the defendant to the plaintiff, otherwise there can be no negligence, so far as the plaintiff is concerned; ... and the duty must be owing to plaintiff in an individual capacity, and not merely as one of the general public.

“This excludes from actionable negligence all failures to observe the obligations imposed by charity, gratitude, generosity, and the kindred virtues. The moral law would obligate an attempt to rescue a person in a perilous position,—as a drowning child,—but the law of the land does not require it, no matter how little personal risk it might involve, provided that the person who declines to act is not responsible for the peril.” (See, also, Kenney v. The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, 70 Mo. 252, 257.)

134In the several cases cited in the brief of counsel for defendant in error to sustain the judgment of the trial court, it will be found that the negligence on which recoveries were based occurred after the time when the person injured was in the custody and care of those who were at fault in failing to give him proper treatment.

The judgment of the court below will be reversed, with directions to enter judgment on the findings of the jury in favor of the railway company.

All the justices concurring.^[116]

HUNICKE v. MERAMEC QUARRY COMPANY
Supreme Court of Missouri, December 19, 1914.
Reported in 262 Missouri Reports, 560.

Woodson, P. J.... I do not understand counsel for plaintiff to make the broad claim that, in the absence of the question of emergency, presented in this case, it would have been the duty of the defendant to have furnished medical or surgical treatment for the injured man, upon the occasion mentioned; but I do understand counsel to contend, and which I believe is the law, that when an employee is engaged in any dangerous business for the master, and while in the performance of his duties, as such, he is so badly injured that he is thereby rendered physically or mentally incapable of procuring medical assistance for himself, then that duty, as a matter of law, is devolved upon the master, and that he must perform that duty with reasonable diligence and in a reasonable manner, through the agency of such of his employees as may be present at the time.

In other words, without trying to state the law in detail governing the masters duties in all cases of this character, that duty is put in operation whenever, under the facts and circumstances of the case, the employee is thereby so injured that he or she is incapacitated from caring for himself or herself, as the case may be.

The uncontradicted evidence in this case shows that the deceased was so badly injured that he was physically incapacitated to care for himself or to engage medical or surgical treatment; also, that the character of his injuries was such as required immediate surgical attention, for it was apparent to all present that his leg was frightfully crushed, and that his life’s blood was freely flowing from his body. So obvious was this that several of those present, at the time of the 135accident, tried by their crude methods, to stop its flow. But the highest officer of the company present, the superintendent, thought none of their remedies were worthy of trial and told them their proposed treatment would do no good. He then telephoned to Dr. Kirk, at Kimswick, the condition of the injured man, Hunicke, and requested him to come to Wicks and treat the injured man; but the doctor being previously engaged in a serious case, could not leave it. The doctor, however, telephoned the superintendent to bring the injured party to Kimswick, some two miles distant, and that he would there treat him.

The evidence shows that both Wicks and Kimswick were on the railroad and that a hand-car was present which could have been used in conveying Hunicke from the former to the latter place for treatment.

For some reason not made clear, the superintendent declined to take the injured man to Kimswick for treatment, but telephoned the facts of the injury to the manager of the company at St. Louis, some twelve or fourteen miles distant, who telephoned back to the superintendent to place the injured man on the next train and send him to St. Louis. This was done; and some three or four hours later, the train arrived in the city; and upon the arrival of the train Hunicke was speedily taken to the hospital where his limb was amputated; but in the meantime practically all of the blood of his body had flowed therefrom, and he died shortly thereafter.

In the statement of the case we have set out much of the evidence tending to show the negligence of the defendant in not procuring surgical treatment for Hunicke more promptly, and that he would not have died had he received prompt treatment. That evidence tended to show that Kimswick was only two miles distant from the place of injury and that the injured man could have been taken there on a hand-car in a very few minutes, probably from fifteen to twenty, at the outside. Had this been done, in all probability the flow of blood would have been stanched several hours before it was finally stopped in the city of St. Louis.

It is true that there was some evidence which tended to show that such a trip on a hand-car would have been rough and jolting, and thereby might have aggravated the flow of the blood, but conceding that to be true, it could not have caused more waste of blood than did the constant flow during the hours that passed while he was waiting for the train and being conveyed to the city of St. Louis thereon. And it seems to me that common sense would teach us that a trip on a hand-car to Kimswick would not have caused the blood to flow more freely than the trip on the train to St. Louis, six or seven times as far, would have done.

But be that as it may, when we consider those facts in connection with all the other facts and circumstances shown by the evidence, we 136have reached the conclusion that this, as well as the question of negligence in delaying the procurement of a surgeon, was for the jury, and that the evidence introduced was sufficient to make out a prima facie case for the plaintiff.

In other words, we are of the opinion that the evidence tended to show that the company was guilty of negligence in not using more diligence in procuring medical and surgical treatment for this party; also that it tended to show that said negligence was the proximate cause of his death.

In my opinion there is no possibility of doubt but what the law is that, whenever one person employs another to perform dangerous work, and while performing that work he is so badly injured as to incapacitate him from caring for himself, then the duty of providing medical treatment for him is devolved upon the employer; and that duty in my opinion, grows out of the fact that when we get down to the real facts in all such cases, there is an unexpressed humane and natural understanding existing between them to the effect that whenever any one in such a case is so injured that he cannot care for himself, then the employer will furnish him medical or surgical treatment as the case may be.

This is common knowledge. There is not an industrial institution in this country, great or small, where that practice is not being carried on to-day; and that has been the custom and usage among men from the dawn of civilization down to the present day, and will continue to be practised in the future, just so long as the human heart beats in sympathy for the unfortunate, and desires to aid suffering humanity. The same principle underlies all other avocations of life. Even armies while engaged in actual warfare observe and obey this rule when possible. The soldier who refuses to render surgical or medical aid to the victim of his own sword, is eschewed by all decent men; while upon the other hand, all who administer to the wants and necessities of the sick and wounded are considered as God’s noblemen and as princes among men. So universally true and deep-seated is this humane feeling among men, and so universally recognized and practised among them, that it has become a world-wide rule of moral conduct among men, brothers, friends and foes; and it says to one and all, You must exercise all reasonable efforts and means at hand to alleviate the pain and suffering and save the lives and limbs of those who have been stricken in your presence. For the violation of this rule of moral conduct there is no penalty attached save the condemnation of God and the scorn of all good men and women.

But seeing the wisdom, goodness and justice of this moral law, the law of the land laid its strong hand upon it, the same as it did upon many other good and useful customs of England, and breathed into it a living rule of legal conduct among men. It says unto all who employ 137labor that, because of this universally practised custom of men to furnish medical and surgical aid for those who are stricken in their presence, you must furnish the employee with such services when he is so badly injured that he is incapacitated from caring for himself.

This is but the application or extension of the common-law rule which requires the master to furnish his servant with a safe place in which to work, and safe instrumentalities with which to perform that labor.

That law grew out of the old customs and usages of the English people, of furnishing their servants with a safe place in which to work and safe instrumentalities with which to labor. So universally true was that custom that the law read into all contracts of labor an implied promise on the part of the master to furnish those safeguards to his servants. There is no statutory or written law upon the subject. It is simply what is called the unwritten or common law of England, which has been adopted by statutes in this and many other States of the Union.

So in like manner into the universal custom of employers furnishing his employees with medical aid when so badly injured that they could not care for themselves, the common law, as in the cases of the safety appliances before mentioned, breathed an implied agreement or duty on the part of the former to furnish the latter medical or surgical aid whenever he was so badly injured that he could not care for himself.

This law, like the one previously mentioned, has no statutory origin, but has ripened into a law from wise and humane usages and customs that are so old that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and will continue so long as the conduct of man is prompted and governed by love and humane sentiments.

As previously stated, I am firmly of the opinion that the petition stated a good cause of action against the defendant, and that the evidence was sufficient to make a case for the jury; and so believing, I think the action of the trial court in granting a new trial to the plaintiff for the first and second reasons assigned by counsel for defendant, was not erroneous, but proper.^[117]

DEPUE v. FLATAU
Supreme Court, Minnesota, March 15, 1907.
Reported in 100 Minnesota Reports, 299.

Action in the District Court for Watonwan County to recover $5000 for personal injuries. The case was tried before Lorin Cray, J., who, at the conclusion of plaintiff’s testimony, dismissed the action. 138From an order denying a motion for a new trial, plaintiff appealed. Reversed.

Brown, J. The facts in this somewhat unusual case are as follows: Plaintiff was a cattle buyer, and accustomed to drive through the country in the pursuit of his business, buying cattle, hides, and furs from the farmers. On the evening of January 23, 1905, about five or 5.30 o’clock, after having been out a day or two in the country, he called at the house of defendants, about seven miles from Madelia, where he resided. His object was to inspect some cattle which Flatau, Sr., had for sale, and if arrangements could be made to purchase the same. It was dark at the time of his arrival, but he inspected the cattle in the barn, and suggested to defendant that, being unable to determine their value by reason of the darkness, he was not prepared to make an offer for the cattle, and requested the privilege of remaining over night, to the end that a bargain might be made understandingly in the morning. His request was not granted. Plaintiff then bought some furs from other members of defendants’ family, and Flatau, Sr., invited him to remain for supper. Under this invitation plaintiff entered the house, paid for the furs, and was given supper with the family. After the evening meal, plaintiff and both defendants repaired to the sitting-room of the house, and plaintiff made preparation to depart for his home. His team had not been unhitched from the cutter, but was tied to a hitching post near the house. The testimony from this point leaves the facts in some doubt. Plaintiff testified that soon after reaching the sitting-room he was taken with a fainting spell and fell to the floor. He remembers very little of what occurred after that, though he does recall that, after fainting, he again requested permission to remain at defendants’ over night, and that his request was refused. Defendants both deny that this request was made, and testified, when called for cross-examination on the trial, that plaintiff put on his overshoes and buffalo coat unaided, and that, while adjusting a shawl about his neck, he stumbled against a partition between the dining-room and the sitting-room, but that he did not fall to the floor. Defendant Flatau, Jr., assisted him in arranging his shawl, and the evidence tends to show that he conducted him from the house out of doors and assisted him into his cutter, adjusting the robes about him and attending to other details preparatory to starting the team on its journey. Though the evidence is somewhat in doubt as to the cause of plaintiff’s condition while in defendants’ home, it is clear that he was seriously ill and too weak to take care of himself. He was in this condition when Flatau, Jr., assisted him into the cutter. He was unable to hold the reins to guide his team, 139and young Flatau threw them over his shoulders and started the team towards home, going a short distance, as he testified, for the purpose of seeing that the horses took the right road to Madelia. Plaintiff was found early next morning by the roadside, about three quarters of a mile from defendants’ home, nearly frozen to death. He had been taken with another fainting spell soon after leaving defendants’ premises, and had fallen from his cutter, where he remained the entire night. He was discovered by a passing farmer, taken to his home, and revived. The result of his experience necessitated the amputation of several of his fingers, and he was otherwise physically injured and his health impaired. Plaintiff thereafter brought this action against defendants, father and son, on the theory that his injuries were occasioned solely by their negligent and wrongful conduct in refusing him accommodations for the night, and, knowing his weak physical condition, or at least having reasonable grounds for knowing it, by reason of which he was unable to care for himself, in sending him out unattended to make his way to Madelia the best he could. At the conclusion of plaintiff’s case, the trial court dismissed the action, on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to justify a recovery. Plaintiff appealed from an order denying a new trial.

Two questions are presented for consideration: (1) Whether, under the facts stated, defendants owed any duty to plaintiff which they negligently violated; and (2) whether the evidence is sufficient to take the case to the jury upon the question whether defendants knew, or under the circumstances disclosed ought to have known, of his weak physical condition, and that it would endanger his life to send him home unattended.

The case is an unusual one on its facts, and “all-four” precedents are difficult to find in the books. In fact, after considerable research, we have found no case whose facts are identical with those at bar. It is insisted by defendants that they owed plaintiff no duty to entertain him during the night in question, and were not guilty of any negligent misconduct in refusing him accommodations, or in sending him home under the circumstances disclosed. Reliance is had for support of this contention upon the general rule as stated in note to Union Pacific v. Cappier, [66 Kan. 649, 72 Pac. 281] 69 L. R. A. 513, where it is said: “Those duties which are dictated merely by good morals or by humane considerations are not within the domain of the law. Feelings of kindliness and sympathy may move the Good Samaritan to minister to the needs of the sick and wounded at the roadside, but the law imposes no such obligation; and suffering humanity has no legal complaint against those who pass by on the other side.... Unless, therefore, the relation existing between the sick, helpless, or injured and those who witness their distress is such that the law imposes the duty of providing the necessary relief, there is neither obligation 140to minister on the one hand, nor cause for legal complaint on the other.” This is no doubt a correct statement of the general rule applicable to the Good Samaritan, but it by no means controls a case like that at bar.

The facts of this case bring it within the more comprehensive principle that whenever a person is placed in such a position with regard to another that it is obvious that, if he does not use due care in his own conduct, he will cause injury to that person, the duty at once arises to exercise care commensurate with the situation in which he thus finds himself, and with which he is confronted, to avoid such danger; and a negligent failure to perform the duty renders him liable for the consequences of his neglect.

This principle applies to varied situations arising from non-contract relations. It protects the trespasser from wanton or wilful injury. Its extends to the licensee, and requires the exercise of reasonable care to avoid an unnecessary injury to him. It imposes upon the owner of premises, which he expressly or impliedly invites persons to visit, whether for the transaction of business or otherwise, the obligation to keep the same in reasonably safe condition for use, though it does not embrace those sentimental or social duties often prompting human action. 21 Am. & Eng. Enc. (2d ed.) 471; Barrows, Neg. 3. Those entering the premises of another by invitation are entitled to a higher degree of care than those who are present by mere sufferance. Barrows, Neg. 304. The rule stated is supported by a long list of authorities both in England and this country, and is expressed in the familiar maxim, “Sic utere tuo,” etc. They will be found collected in the works above cited, and also in 1 Thompson, Neg. (2d ed.), § 694. It is thus stated in Heaven v. Pender, L. R. 11 Q. B. Div. 503: “The proposition which these recognized cases suggest, and which is, therefore, to be deduced from them, is that, whenever one person is by circumstances placed in such a position with regard to another that every one of ordinary sense who did think would at once recognize that if he did not use ordinary care and skill in his own conduct with regard to those circumstances he would cause danger of injury to the person or property of the other, a duty arises to use ordinary care and skill to avoid such danger.” It applies with greater strictness to conduct towards persons under disability, and imposes the obligation as a matter of law, not mere sentiment, at least to refrain from any affirmative action that might result in injury to them. A valuable note to Union Pacific v. Cappier, 69 L. R. A. 513, discusses at length the character of the duty and obligation of those coming into relation with sick and disabled persons, and numerous analogous cases are collected and analyzed.

In the case at bar defendants were under no contract obligation to minister to plaintiff in his distress; but humanity demanded that they do so, if they understood and appreciated his condition. And, though 141those acts which humanity demands are not always legal obligations, the rule to which we have adverted applied to the relation existing between these parties on this occasion and protected plaintiff from acts at their hands that would expose him to personal harm. He was not a trespasser upon their premises, but, on the contrary, was there by the express invitation of Flatau, Sr. He was taken suddenly ill while their guest, and the law, as well as humanity, required that he be not exposed in his helpless condition to the merciless elements.

The case, in its substantial facts, is not unlike that of Cincinnati v. Marrs’ Adm’x, 27 Ky. Law, 388, 85 S. W. 188, 70 L. R. A. 291. In that case it appears that one Marrs was found asleep in the yards of the railway company in an intoxicated condition. The yard employees discovered him, aroused him from his stupor, and ordered him off the tracks. They knew that he was intoxicated, and that he had left a train recently arrived at the station, and he appeared to them dazed and lost. About forty minutes later, while the yard employees were engaged in switching, they ran over him and killed him. He had again fallen asleep on one of the tracks. The court held the railway company liable; that, under the circumstances disclosed, it was the duty of the yard employees to see that Marrs was safely out of the yards, or, in default of that, to exercise ordinary care to avoid injuring him; and that it was reasonable to require them to anticipate his probable continued presence in the yards. The case at bar is much stronger, for here plaintiff was not intoxicated, nor a trespasser, but, on the contrary, was in defendants’ house as their guest, and was there taken suddenly ill in their presence, and, if his physical condition was known and appreciated, they must have known that to compel him to leave their home unattended would expose him to serious danger.

We understand from the record that the learned trial court held in harmony with the view of the law here expressed, but dismissed the action for the reason, as stated in the memorandum denying a new trial, that there was no evidence that either of the defendants knew, or in the exercise of ordinary care should have known, plaintiff’s physical condition, or that allowing him to proceed on his journey would expose him to danger. Of course, to make the act of defendants a violation of their duty in the premises, it should appear that they knew and appreciated his serious condition. The evidence on this feature of the case is not so clear as might be desired, but a majority of the court are of opinion that it is sufficient to charge both defendants with knowledge of plaintiff’s condition—at least, that the question should have been submitted to the jury.

Defendant Flatau, Sr., testified that he was in the room at all times while plaintiff was in the house and observed his demeanor, and, though he denied that plaintiff fell to the floor in a faint or otherwise, yet the fact that plaintiff was seriously ill cannot be questioned. 142Flatau, Jr., conducted him to his cutter, assisted him in, observed that he was incapable of holding the reins to guide his team, and for that reason threw them over his shoulders. If defendants knew and appreciated his condition, their act in sending him out to make his way to Madelia the best he could was wrongful and rendered them liable in damages. We do not wish to be understood as holding that defendants were under absolute duty to entertain plaintiff during the night. Whether they could conveniently do so does not appear. What they should or could have done in the premises can only be determined from a full view of the evidence disclosing their situation, and their facilities for communicating his condition to his friends, or near neighbors, if any there were. All these facts will enable the jury to determine whether, within the rules of negligence applicable to the case, defendants neglected any duty they owed plaintiff.

Dutch Penal Code, Art. 450. One who, witnessing the danger of death with which another is suddenly threatened, neglects to give or furnish him such assistance as he can give or procure without reasonable fear of danger to himself or to others, is to be punished, if the death of the person in distress follows, by a detention of three months at most and an amende of three hundred florins at most.

German Civil Code, section 826. One who wilfully brings about damage to another in a manner running counter to good morals is bound to make reparation to the other for the damage.

Stammler, Lehre von dem richtigen Rechte, 489–490. “I am walking along the bank of a river,” says Liszt in his stimulating discussion of this subject, “and I see a man fall in the water and struggle with the waves. I am able to rescue him without any peril to myself; I neglect to do so although other help is not at hand and I foresee that he must drown. In my opinion, liability under section 826 cannot be denied.” [Liszt, Die Deliktsobligationen des B. G. B., 72.] Surely not.

Planck, Bürgerliches GesetzbucH (3d ed.), II, 995 (§ 826, note e). The duty to make reparation for damage under section 826 may also be grounded upon an omission. But it is presupposed that the act which was omitted must be regarded, under the circumstances of the case, as commanded by good morals and that the omission took place with the purpose of bringing about injury to the other. If one holds fast to this, the consequences which result from the foregoing principle are not as doubtful as Liszt (p. 72) seems to assume.

Bentham, Complete Works (Bowring’s ed.) I, 164.

There is simple corporal injury, when, without lawful cause, an individual, seeing another in danger, abstains from helping him, and the evil happens in consequence.

143Explanations:—Abstains from helping him.

Every man is bound to assist those who have need of assistance, if he can do it without exposing himself to sensible inconvenience. This obligation is stronger in proportion as the danger is the greater for the one, and the trouble of preserving him the less for the other. Such would be the case of a man sleeping near the fire, and an individual seeing the clothes of the first catch fire, and doing nothing towards extinguishing them: the crime would be greater if he refrained from acting not simply from idleness, but from malice or some pecuniary interest.

Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation, chap. xix, sec. 1, Par. xix (Clarendon Press reprint, pp. 322–323).

As to the rules of beneficence, these, as far as concerns matters of detail, must necessarily be abandoned in great measure to the jurisdiction of private ethics....

The limits of the law on this head seem, however, to be capable of being extended a good deal farther than they seem ever to have been extended hitherto. In particular, in cases where the person is in danger, why should it not be made the duty of every man to save another from mischief, when it can be done without prejudicing himself, as well as to abstain from bringing it on him. This accordingly is the idea pursued in the body of the work.^[119]

Bentham, Theory of Legislation, transl. by Hildreth (5th ed.), pp. 65–66.

As to beneficence, some distinctions are necessary. The law may be extended to general objects, such as the care of the poor; but, for details, it is necessary to depend upon private morality....

However, instead of having done too much in this respect, legislators have not done enough. They ought to erect into an offence the refusal or the omission of a service of humanity when it would be easy to render it, and when some distinct ill clearly results from the refusal; such, for example, as abandoning a wounded man in a solitary road without seeking any assistance for him; not giving information to a man who is negligently meddling with poisons; not reaching out the hand to one who has fallen into a ditch from which he cannot extricate himself; in these, and other similar cases, could any fault be found with a punishment, exposing the delinquent to a certain degree of shame, or subjecting him to a pecuniary responsibility for the evil which he might have prevented?

Livingston, Draft Code of Crimes and Punishments for the State Of Louisiana. Livingston, Complete Works on Criminal Jurisprudence, II, 126–127.

Article 484. Homicide by omission only, is committed by voluntarily permitting another to do an act that must, in the natural course of things, cause his death, without apprising him of his danger, if the act be involuntary, or endeavoring to prevent it if it be voluntary. He shall be presumed to have permitted it voluntarily who omits the necessary means of preventing the death, when he knows the danger, and can cause it to be avoided, without danger 144of personal injury or pecuniary loss. This rule may be illustrated by the examples put in the last preceding article: if the blind man is seen walking to the precipice by one who knows the danger, can easily apprise him of it, but does not; or if one who knows that a glass contains poison, sees him about to drink it, either by mistake or with intent to destroy himself, and makes no attempt to prevent him: in these cases the omission amounts to homicide.^[120]

Macaulay, Notes to Draft of Indian Penal Code. Penal Code Prepared by the Indian Law Commissioners.^[121] Chapter xviii [page 76]. Of Offences Affecting the Human Body. Of Offences Affecting Life.

294. Whoever does any act or omits what he is legally bound to do, with the intention of thereby causing, or with the knowledge that he is likely thereby to cause, the death of any person, and does by such act or omission cause the death of any person, is said to commit the offence of “voluntary culpable homicide.”

Note M.^[122] On Offences Against the Body. Notes to Draft of Penal Code, 53–56; Macaulay’s Complete Works (English ed., 1875), vol. VII, pp. 493–497; Morgan and McPherson, Indian Penal Code, 225, 226, notes.

The first class of offences against the body consists of those offences which affect human life; and highest in this first class stand those offences which fall under the definition of voluntary culpable homicide.

This important part of the law appears to us to require fuller explanation than almost any other.

The first point to which we wish to call the attention of his Lordship in Council is the expression “omits what he is legally bound to do,” in the definition of voluntary culpable homicide. These words, or other words tantamount in effect, frequently recur in the Code. We think this the most convenient place for explaining the reason which has led us so often to employ them. For if that reason shall appear to be sufficient in cases in which human life is concerned, it will a fortiori be sufficient in other cases.

Early in the progress of the Code it became necessary for us to consider the following question: When acts are made punishable on the ground that those acts produce, or are intended to produce, or are known to be likely to produce certain evil effects, to what extent ought omissions which produce, which are intended to produce, or which are known to be likely to produce the same evil effects to be made punishable?

Two things we take to be evident: first, that some of these omissions ought to be punished in exactly the same manner in which acts are punished: secondly, that all these omissions ought not to be punished. It will hardly be disputed that a jailer who voluntarily causes the death of a prisoner by omitting to supply that prisoner with food, or a nurse who voluntarily causes the death of an infant intrusted to her care by omitting to take it out of a tub of water into which it has fallen, ought to be treated as guilty of murder. On the other hand, it will hardly be maintained that a man should be punished as a murderer because he omitted to relieve a beggar, even though there might be the clearest proof that the death of the beggar was the result of the omission, and that the man who omitted to give the alms knew that the death of the beggar 145was likely to be the effect of the omission. It will hardly be maintained that a surgeon ought to be treated as a murderer for refusing to go from Calcutta to Meerut to perform an operation, although it should be absolutely certain that this surgeon was the only person in India who could perform it, and that if it were not performed the person who required it would die. It is difficult to say whether a Penal Code which should put no omissions on the same footing with acts, or a Penal Code which should put all omissions on the same footing with acts would produce consequences more absurd and revolting. There is no country in which either of these principles is adopted. Indeed, it is hard to conceive how, if either were adopted, society could be held together.

It is plain, therefore, that a middle course must be taken. But it is not easy to determine what that middle course ought to be. The absurdity of the two extremes is obvious. But there are innumerable intermediate points; and wherever the line of demarcation may be drawn it will, we fear, include some cases which we might wish to exempt, and will exempt some which we might wish to include.

Mr. Livingston’s Code provides that a person shall be considered as guilty of homicide who omits to save life, which he could save “without personal danger or pecuniary loss.” This rule appears to us to be open to serious objection. There may be extreme inconvenience without the smallest personal danger, or the smallest risk of pecuniary loss; as in the case which we lately put of a surgeon summoned from Calcutta to Meerut to perform an operation. He may be offered such a fee that he would be a gainer by going. He may have no ground to apprehend that he should run any greater personal risk by journeying to the Upper Provinces than by continuing to reside in Bengal. But he is about to proceed to Europe immediately, or he expects some members of his family by the next ship, and wishes to be at the presidency to receive them. He, therefore, refuses to go. Surely, he ought not, for so refusing, to be treated as a murderer. It would be somewhat inconsistent to punish one man for not staying three months in India to save the life of another, and to leave wholly unpunished a man who, enjoying ample wealth, should refuse to disburse an anna to save the life of another. Again, it appears to us that it may be fit to punish a person as a murderer for causing death by omitting an act which cannot be performed without personal danger or pecuniary loss. A parent may be unable to procure food for an infant without money. Yet the parent, if he has the means, is bound to furnish the infant with food, and if by omitting to do so he voluntarily causes its death, he may with propriety be treated as a murderer. A nurse hired to attend a person suffering from an infectious disease cannot perform her duty without running some risk of infection. Yet if she deserts the sick person, and thus voluntarily causes his death, we should be disposed to treat her as a murderer.

We pronounce with confidence, therefore, that the line ought not to be drawn where Mr. Livingston has drawn it. But it is with great diffidence that we bring forward our own proposition. It is open to objections: cases may be put in which it will operate too severely, and cases in which it will operate too leniently; but we are unable to devise a better.

What we propose is this, that where acts are made punishable on the ground that they have caused, or have been intended to cause, or have been known to be likely to cause a certain evil effect, omissions which have caused, which have been intended to cause, or which have been known to be likely to cause the same effect shall be punishable in the same manner; provided that such 146omissions were, on other grounds, illegal. An omission is illegal (see clause 28) if it be an offence, if it be a breach of some direction of law, or if it be such a wrong as would be a good ground for a civil action.

We cannot defend this rule better than by giving a few illustrations of the way in which it will operate. A omits to give Z food, and by that omission voluntarily causes Z’s death. Is this murder? Under our rule it is murder if A was Z’s jailer, directed by the law to furnish Z with food. It is murder if Z was the infant child of A, and had therefore a legal right to sustenance, which right a civil court would enforce against A. It is murder if Z was a bedridden invalid, and A a nurse hired to feed Z. It is murder if A was detaining Z in unlawful confinement, and had thus contracted (see clause 338) a legal obligation to furnish Z, during the continuance of the confinement, with necessaries. It is not murder if Z is a beggar who has no other claim on A than that of humanity.

A omits to tell Z that a river is swollen so high that Z cannot safely attempt to ford it, and by this omission voluntarily causes Z’s death. This is murder if A is a peon stationed by authority to warn travellers from attempting to ford the river. It is murder if A is a guide who had contracted to conduct Z. It is not murder if A is a person on whom Z has no other claim than that of humanity.

A savage dog fastens on Z; A omits to call off the dog, knowing that if the dog be not called off it is likely that Z will be killed. Z is killed. This is murder in A, if the dog belonged to A, inasmuch as his omission to take proper order with the dog is illegal (clause 273). But if A be a mere passer-by it is not murder.

We are sensible that in some of the cases which we have put, our rule may appear too lenient. But we do not think that it can be made more severe, without disturbing the whole order of society. It is true that the man who, having abundance of wealth, suffers a fellow creature to die of hunger at his feet, is a bad man,—a worse man, probably, than many of those for whom we have provided very severe punishment. But we are unable to see where, if we make such a man legally punishable, we can draw the line. If the rich man who refuses to save a beggar’s life at the cost of a little copper is a murderer, is the poor man just one degree above beggary also to be a murderer if he omits to invite the beggar to partake his hard-earned rice? Again, if the rich man is a murderer for refusing to save the beggar’s life at the cost of a little copper, is he also to be a murderer if he refuses to save the beggar’s life at the cost of a thousand rupees? Suppose A to be fully convinced that nothing can save Z’s life, unless Z leave Bengal and reside a year at the Cape, is A, however wealthy he may be, to be punished as a murderer because he will not, at his own expense, send Z to the Cape? Surely not. Yet it will be difficult to say on what principle we can punish A for not spending an anna to save Z’s life, and leave him unpunished for not spending a thousand rupees to save Z’s life. The distinction between a legal and an illegal omission is perfectly plain and intelligible. But the distinction between a large and a small sum of money is very far from being so; not to say that a sum which is small to one man is large to another.

The same argument holds good in the case of the ford. It is true that none but a very depraved man would suffer another to be drowned when he might prevent it by a word. But if we punish such a man, where are we to stop? How much exertion are we to require? Is a person to be a murderer if he does 147not go fifty yards through the sun of Bengal at noon in May in order to caution a traveller against a swollen river? Is he to be a murderer if he does not go a hundred yards?—if he does not go a mile?—if he does not go ten? What is the precise amount of trouble and inconvenience which he is to endure? The distinction between the guide who is bound to conduct the traveller as safely as he can, and a mere stranger, is a clear distinction. But the distinction between a stranger who will not give a halloo to save a man’s life, and a stranger who will not run a mile to save a man’s life, is very far from being equally clear.

It is, indeed, most highly desirable that men should not merely abstain from doing harm to their neighbours, but should render active services to their neighbours. In general, however, the penal law must content itself with keeping men from doing positive harm, and must leave to public opinion, and to the teachers of morality and religion, the office of furnishing men with motives for doing positive good. It is evident that to attempt to punish men by law for not rendering to others all the service which it is their duty to render to others would be preposterous. We must grant impunity to the vast majority of those omissions which a benevolent morality would pronounce reprehensible, and must content ourselves with punishing such omissions only when they are distinguished from the rest by some circumstance which marks them out as peculiarly fit objects of penal legislation. Now, no circumstance appears to us so well fitted to be the mark as the circumstance which we have selected. It will generally be found in the most atrocious cases of omission; it will scarcely ever be found in a venial case of omission; and it is more clear and certain than any other mark that has occurred to us. That there are objections to the line which we propose to draw, we have admitted. But there are objections to every line which can be drawn, and some line must be drawn.

Section VI
Liability of Occupiers of Premises

MAYNARD v. BOSTON AND MAINE RAILROAD
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, September 4, 1874.
Reported in 115 Massachusetts Reports, 458.

Tort for the killing of a horse on a railroad by a locomotive engine.

Upon the trial, the plaintiff admitted that the horse must be considered as trespassing upon the railroad, but contended and offered evidence tending to show that by an exercise of proper care the injury to the horse might have been avoided. The defendants offered evidence to control this, and tending to show that they did all they reasonably could do to stop their train before striking the horse. There was no evidence of any wanton misconduct on their part.

The counsel for the defendants contended and asked the presiding judge to rule, that the defendants would not be liable, unless the plaintiff 148proved a reckless and wanton misconduct of their employees in the management of the train when the horse was killed. The presiding judge declined so to rule; but did rule that though the horse was trespassing upon the defendants’ land at the time, the managers of the train could not carelessly run over him, but were bound to use reasonable care to avoid injuring him, and that if the jury found that by the exercise of reasonable care they might have avoided injuring the horse, they would be liable. The jury found for the plaintiff, and the defendants alleged exceptions.^[123]

Gray, C. J. If the horse had been rightfully upon the defendants’ land, it would have been their duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid injuring the horse. But it being admitted by the plaintiff that his horse was trespassing upon the railroad, they did not owe him that duty, and were not liable to him for anything short of a reckless and wanton misconduct of those employed in the management of their train. The defendants were therefore entitled to the instruction which they requested. Tonawanda Railroad v. Munger, 5 Denio, 255; S. C. 4 Comst. 349; Vandegrift v. Rediker, 2 Zab. 185; Railroad Co. v. Skinner, 19 Penn. St. 298; Tower v. Providence & Worcester Railroad, 2 R. I. 404; Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad v. Waterson, 4 Ohio St. 424; Louisville & Frankfort Railroad v. Ballard, 2 Met. (Ky.) 177.

The instruction given to the jury held the defendants to the same obligation to the plaintiff as if his horse had been rightfully on their land; and made their paramount duty to the public of running the train with proper speed and safety, and their use of the land set apart and fitted for the performance of that duty, subordinate to the care of private interests in property which was upon their track without right.

Some passages in the opinion in Eames v. Salem & Lowell Railroad, 98 Mass. 560, 563, were relied on by the plaintiff’s counsel at the argument, and apparently formed the basis of the rulings of the learned judge in the Court below. But in that case there was no evidence of any negligence or misconduct in the management of the train, and an exact definition of the defendants’ liability, by reason of such negligence or misconduct, was not required. In the present case such a definition was requested by the defendants in appropriate terms, and was refused, and for that refusal their

Trespass on the Case for personal injuries.

Defendant was the possessor and manager of a tent show or circus. On the afternoon of an exhibition plaintiff went inside the tent and took a seat. There was a conflict of testimony as to whether plaintiff was invited into the tent by an authorized agent of defendant, or whether he entered without any invitation or other justification. A feature of the entertainment consisted in the ignition and explosion of a giant firecracker, attached to a pipe set in an upright position in one of the show rings. Plaintiff sat thirty or forty feet from the place where the cracker was exploded. At the explosion, part of the firecracker flew and struck plaintiff in the eye, whereby he lost the sight of his eye.

The judge left to the jury the question whether it was negligent in defendant to explode this firecracker in the inside of the tent and in the presence of the audience.

Then he gave, among others, the following instruction:—

“Now you must further find, in order that the plaintiff recover, that the plaintiff was in the tent, where he was injured, by the invitation of some person having authority to allow him to go in there. If he was a mere trespasser, who forced his way in, then the defendant owed him no duty that would enable him to recover under the declaration and proofs in this case.”...

150Verdict of no cause of action. Judgment for defendant. Plaintiff brought error.^[125]

Montgomery, J. [After stating the case.] We think this instruction faulty, in so far as it was intended to preclude recovery in any event if the plaintiff was found to be a trespasser. It is true that a trespasser who suffers an injury because of a dangerous condition of premises is without remedy. But, where a trespasser is discovered upon the premises by the owner or occupant, he is not beyond the pale of the law, and any negligence resulting in injury will render the person guilty of negligence liable to respond in damages. Beach, Contrib. Neg. § 50; Whart. Neg. § 346; Marble v. Ross, 124 Mass. 44; Houston, etc., R. Co. v. Sympkins, 54 Tex. 615 (38 Am. Rep. 632); Brown v. Lynn, 31 Pa. St. 510 (72 Am. Dec. 768); Needham v. Railroad Co., 37 Cal. 409; Davies v. Mann, 10 Mees. & W. 546; 1 Shear. & R. Neg. § 99. In this case the negligent act of the defendant’s servant was committed after the audience was made up. The presence of plaintiff was known, and the danger to him from a negligent act was also known. The question of whether a dangerous experiment should be attempted in his presence, or whether an experiment should be conducted with due care and regard to his safety, cannot be made to depend upon whether he had forced himself into the tent. Every instinct of humanity revolts at such a suggestion.

For this error the judgment will be reversed, and a new trial ordered.^[126]

CINCINNATI & ZANESVILLE R. CO. v. SMITH
Supreme Court, Ohio, December Term, 1871.
Reported in 22 Ohio State Reports, 227.

Error to the Court of Common Pleas of Fayette County, reserved in the District Court.^[127]

The plaintiff below, Richard Smith, sued the defendant below, the Cincinnati & Zanesville Railroad Company, to recover the value of 151two horses alleged to have been killed through the negligence of the servants of the defendant in operating one of its trains. The inclosure of the plaintiff adjoined the railroad of the defendant; and from this inclosure, on the night on which the horses were killed, they escaped on to the railroad.

The Court, among other things, charged the jury as follows:—

The defendant’s servants in this case were not bound to use extraordinary care or extraordinary means to save the plaintiff’s horses. But they were bound to use what, in that peculiar business, is ordinary care and diligence; and if the loss of the horses was the result of a want of that ordinary care and diligence, the defendant is liable.

The defendant had the right to the free and unobstructed use of its railroad track. And the paramount duty of the employees is the protection of the passengers and property in the train, and the train itself.

But this being their paramount duty, they are bound to use ordinary care and diligence, so as not unnecessarily to injure the property of others.

Under the circumstances of the case, could and would reasonably prudent men, skilled in that kind of business, keeping in view as their paramount duty the protection and safety of the train, its passengers, and the property on and about it intrusted to their care, in the exercise of ordinary care have stopped the train and saved the horses? If so, and the defendant’s servants did not so act, the defendant is liable in this case; otherwise the defendant is not liable.

In considering the paramount duty of the employees in the proper management of the train for the safety of passengers and property of its train, you have a right to determine whether they have other duties to perform. It is claimed the engineer had other duties than watching the track to perform, which were necessary for the safety of the passengers and property of the train,—such as gauging his steam, watching time-table, regulating his supply of water, examining his machinery, watching for the station-signal, etc. If such were the case, he had a lawful right to perform these duties, and was not bound to neglect them to save the plaintiff’s horses, nor bound to watch the track while performing these duties. They were only bound, under the circumstances of the case, to use ordinary care and diligence to save the horses,—the safety of the passengers and property of the train being their paramount duty; and if the jury find from the evidence that the persons in charge of the engine were attending to the duties of the train approaching the station at the time of the accident, these duties were paramount to watching the track for trespassing animals; and if the horses were not, on that account, discovered in time to save them by using ordinary means to stop the train, the defendant is not liable.

152It is claimed by the defendant’s counsel that off the crossings of the railroad the servants of the railroad company have a right to presume that there are no trespassers on the roadway; that they are not bound to look out for trespassers except for the safety of passengers or property in charge. It is also claimed that inasmuch as the road at the place where the plaintiff’s horses got on the track and were killed was fenced, on that account the defendant’s servants in charge of the train were not bound to look out for trespassing stock. Upon this question I only can charge you this: That if the railroad was fenced at the place where the horses got on and were killed, and this was known to the defendant’s employees, you have a right to look to that circumstance as reflecting upon and in determining whether the employees exercised ordinary care in the management of the train. But if they might, in the exercise of ordinary care, have discovered the animals, although they were trespassers on the roadway, other than at a crossing, in time to have prevented their destruction, it was their duty to do so; and if from such want of ordinary care they were not discovered in time to prevent their destruction, the defendant is liable for their loss to the plaintiff.^[128]

White, J. The whole charge is set out in the bill of exceptions. Considering its several parts in connection, and giving to the whole a fair construction, we deem it necessary only to notice two particulars in which it is objected to.

These are: 1. Whether the fact that the horses were trespassing on the track excused the servants of the defendant from the exercise of ordinary care; and, 2. Whether that fact, and the additional one that the road was fenced, excused the engineer, as respects the owner of stray animals, from looking ahead to see whether such animals were on the track or not.

In regard to the first of these particulars, it is contended on behalf of the railroad company that, as the horses were trespassing on the railroad, the company was exempt from using ordinary care to save them, and that it was only liable for what is called gross negligence.

The Court instructed the jury that the defendant had the right to the free and unobstructed use of its railroad track, and that the paramount duty of its employees was the protection of the passengers and property in the train, and the train itself. But this being their paramount duty, they were bound to use ordinary care and diligence so as not unnecessarily to injure the property of others.

We think the charge stated the law correctly. We see no good reason, in principle, why a party, so far as may be consistent with the full enjoyment of his own rights, ought not to use ordinary care so as not unnecessarily to injure the property of others.

153It is true, the rule contended for by the counsel of the plaintiff in error is sustained by a number of authorities. But the later and better considered cases are to the contrary. Illinois Central R. R. Co. v. Middlesworth, 46 Ill. 494; Bemis v. Conn., &c. R. R., 42 Vt. 375; Isbell v. N. Y. R. R. Co., 27 Conn. 393; Redfield’s American Railway Cases, 355, 356.

The rule contended for has never been adopted in this State. It is, moreover, as respects railroad companies, inconsistent with our statute law on the subject. S. & C. 331.

The facts in the case of the C. H. & D. R. R. Co. v. Waterson & Kirk, 4 Ohio St. 424, cited and relied upon by the counsel of the plaintiff in error, were different from those in the case now before us, and we do not regard the rule there laid down as to the liability of the company in that case as applicable to this.

From what has been said of the charge in the first particular named, it would seem to follow that it is unobjectionable as respects the second. If it was the duty of the servants of the company, so far as was consistent with their other and paramount duties, to use ordinary care to avoid injuring animals on the track, they were, of course, bound to adopt the ordinary precautions to discover danger, as well as to avoid its consequences after it became known.

The fact that the road was fenced at the place of collision with the horses, was a circumstance to be considered in connection with the other circumstances of the case in determining whether the engineer was guilty of negligence in not looking ahead and discovering the danger in time to avoid it. The fact that the road was fenced rendered it less probable that wandering animals would be on the track; but it cannot be said that the engineer, as a matter of law, by reason of the fences, was wholly excused from keeping a lookout ahead of the train.

If the servants of the company in charge of the train, having due regard to their duties for the safety of the persons and property in their charge, could, by the exercise of ordinary care, have seen and saved the horses, we think they were bound to have done so. Bemis v. Conn., &c. R. R., supra, 381; Louis. & Nash. R. R. Co. v. Wainscott, 3 Bush, 149.^[129]

Seaman, J.^[130] The plaintiff at the time of his injury was neither in the relation of passenger nor of one in a public crossing or place in which the public were licensed to travel, but upon the undisputed facts was a mere intruder on the tracks of the defendant, technically a trespasser; and this record excludes any of the elements of implied license or invitation to such use which have given rise to much discussion and diversity of views in the courts. Therefore the inquiry is here squarely presented, What is the duty which a railway company owes to a trespasser on its tracks, and how and when does the duty arise? The decisions upon this subject uniformly recognize that the trespasser cannot be treated as an outlaw; and at the least that, if wantonly injured in the operation of the railroad, the company is answerable in damages. Clearly, then, an obligation is placed upon the company to exercise some degree of care when the danger becomes apparent. Is it, however, bound to foresee or assume that rational beings will thus enter as trespassers in a place of danger, and to exercise in the running of its trains the constant vigilance in view of that probability which is imposed for public crossings? There are cases which would seem to hold this strict requirement (see note, 1 Thompson on Negligence (1880), 448; East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Co. v. St. John, 5 Sneed, 524); but by the great preponderance of authority, in this country and in England, the more reasonable doctrine is pronounced, in effect, as follows: That the railroad company has the right to a free track in such places; that it is not bound to any act or service in anticipation of trespassers thereon; and that the trespasser who ventures to enter upon a track for any purpose of his own assumes all risks of the conditions which may be found there, including the operation of engines and cars. Wright v. Boston and Maine Railroad, 129 Mass. 440; Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company v. Hummell, 44 Penn. St. 375. The decision by this court, in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company v. Philips’ Administrator (1), 24 U. S. Appeals, 489, adopts the view held in this line of cases, citing the authorities of which repetition here is unnecessary. The same doctrine prevails in Minnesota, where the injury in question arose. Johnson v. Truesdale, 46 Minnesota, 345; Studley v. St. Paul & Duluth R. Co., 48 Minnesota, 249. In the latter case it was held that there could be no recovery “unless the engineer saw the girl in time to avoid the accident, and then was guilty of such gross negligence in not trying to avoid it as to evince a reckless disregard of 155human life;” and the opinion gives this further exposition of the rule: “The defendant’s engineer was under no obligation to anticipate a trespasser, or to look out for persons walking upon the track; but, upon discovering plaintiff’s intestate across the cattle-guard, as he claims she was when he noticed that she was in danger, it became the engineer’s duty to use proper care to avoid running her down. If he failed to exercise proper care, he would necessarily be grossly negligent and evince a reckless disregard of human life.” So in Wisconsin, in Anderson v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railway Company, 87 Wisconsin, 195, 204, it is said: “The use of a railroad is exclusively for its owners or those acting under its authority, and the company is not bound to the exercise of any active duty of care or diligence towards mere trespassers upon its track, to keep a lookout to discover or protect them from injury, except that, when discovered in a position of danger or peril, it is its duty to use all reasonable and proper effort to save and protect them from the probable consequences of their indiscretion or negligence.”

The well-established and just rule which holds the railroad company to the exercise of constant and strict care against injury through its means is applicable only to the relation on which it is founded, of an existing duty or obligation. This active or positive duty arises in favor of the public at a street crossing or other place at which it is presumable that persons or teams may be met. It is not material, so far as concerns this inquiry, whether the place is one for which a lawful right of passage exists, as it is the fact of notice to the company arising out of its existence and the probability of its use which imposes the positive duty to exercise care; the requirement of an extreme degree of care being superadded because of the hazards which attend the operations of the company. The case of a trespasser on the track in a place not open to travel is clearly distinguishable in the absence of this notice to the company. There is no constructive notice upon which to base the obligation of constant lookout for his presence there, and no actual notice up to the moment the trainmen have discovered the fact of his peril. As that peril comes wholly from his unauthorized act and temerity, the risk and all positive duty of care for his safety rest with the trespasser. The obligation of the company and its operatives is not then preëxisting, but arises at the moment of discovery, and is negative in its nature,—a duty which is common to human conduct to make all reasonable effort to avert injury to others from means which can be controlled.

This is the issue presented here. It excludes all inquiry respecting the character of the roadbed, cattle-guard, locomotive, brake appliances or other means of operation, or of the speed or manner of running the train up to the moment of notice, because no breach of positive duty is involved. It is confined to the evidence relating to the discovery by the engineer and fireman of the plaintiff’s peril and 156to the efforts then made to avert the injury; and out of that to ascertain whether, in any view which may justly be taken, it is shown that these men or the engineer in disregard of the duty which then confronted them neglected to employ with reasonable promptness the means at hand for stopping the train.^[131]

Brett, M. R., in HEAVEN v. PENDER
(1883) 11 Queen’s Bench Division, 503, 506, 507.

Brett, M. R.... The action is in form and substance an action for negligence. That the stage was, through want of attention of the defendant’s servants, supplied in a state unsafe for use is not denied. But want of attention amounting to a want of ordinary care is not a good cause of action, although injury ensue from such want, unless the person charged with such want of ordinary care had a duty to the person complaining to use ordinary care in respect of the matter called in question. Actionable negligence consists in the neglect of the use of ordinary care or skill towards a person to whom the defendant owes the duty of observing ordinary care and skill, by which neglect the plaintiff, without contributory negligence on his part, has suffered injury to his person or property. The question in this case is whether the defendant owed such a duty to the plaintiff.

Mitchell, J., in AKERS v. CHICAGO, &c. R. CO.
(1894) 58 Minnesota, 540, 544.

Mitchell, J. Actionable negligence is the failure to discharge a legal duty to the person injured. If there is no duty, there is no negligence. Even if a defendant owes a duty to some one else, but does not owe it to the person injured, no action will lie. The duty must be due 157to the person injured. These principles are elementary, and are equally applicable, whether the duty is imposed by positive statute or is founded on general common-law principles.^[132]

LARY v. CLEVELAND R. CO.
Supreme Court, Indiana, November Term, 1881.
Reported in 78 Indiana Reports, 323.

Lary sued the railroad company for damage alleged to have been sustained by him, through the negligent failure of the company to repair a building standing on its grounds, and formerly used by it as a freight house. Answer, a general denial. Upon the trial, the plaintiff introduced his evidence; the defendant demurred to it, and the plaintiff joined in demurrer. The Court sustained the demurrer, and the plaintiff excepted.

The facts which the plaintiff’s evidence tended to prove are substantially as follows:—

The railroad company owned half an acre of land between the railroad track and a highway. On this land was a building erected several years before for a freight house. It was no longer used as the general freight house, though still used for storing the company’s wood. A part of the roof of the building was off, and had been so for some months. The plaintiff, who was twenty years of age, was in the habit of passing the building almost daily, and had noticed that part of the roof was off. In a rain storm, the plaintiff went under the platform of the old freight house, and played there with other young people. A piece of the roof was torn off by the wind. The plaintiff, being frightened at the noise, ran out, saw the piece of the roof in the air, and ran towards the highway; but before or as he reached the edge of it, this fragment of the roof fell upon him.^[133]

Morris, C. [After stating the case.] Upon the facts thus stated, can the appellant maintain this action?

There is no testimony tending to show that the appellant was at the freight house by the invitation of the appellee, nor that he was there for the purpose of transacting any business with the appellee. The appellant intruded upon the premises of the appellee, and is not, therefore, entitled to that protection which one, expressly or by implication, invited into the house or place of business of another, is entitled to. The appellant was a trespasser, and as such he entered upon the appellee’s premises, taking the risks of all the mere omissions of the 158appellee as to the condition of the grounds and buildings thus invaded without leave. We do not wish to be understood as holding or implying that if, on the part of the appellee, there had been any act done implying a willingness to inflict the injury upon the appellant, it would not be liable. But we think there is nothing in the evidence from which such an inference can be reasonably drawn. The building could be seen by all; its condition was open to the inspection of every one; it had been abandoned as a place for the transaction of public business; it was in a state of palpable and visible decay, and no one was authorized, impliedly or otherwise, to go into or under it. Under such circumstances, the law says to him who intrudes into such a place, that he must proceed at his own risk.

In the case of The Pittsburgh, &c. R. W. Co. v. Bingham, 29 Ohio St. 364, the question was: “Is a railroad company bound to exercise ordinary care and skill in the erection, structure, or maintenance of its station house or houses, as to persons who enter or are at the same, not on any business with the company or its agents, nor on any business connected with the operation of its road; but are there without objection by the company, and therefore by its mere sufferance or permission?” The Court answered this question in the negative.

In the case of Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. N. S. 731, the plaintiff fell into a quarry, left open and unguarded on the unenclosed lands of the defendant, over which the public were permitted to travel; it was held that the owner was under no legal obligation to fence or guard the excavation unless it was so near the public road as to render travel thereon dangerous. That the person so travelling over such waste lands must take the permission with its concomitant conditions, and, it may be, perils. Hardcastle v. The South Yorkshire R. W. Co., 4 H. & N. 67; Sweeny v. Old Colony, &c. R. R. Co., 10 Allen, 368; Knight v. Abert, 6 Barr, 472.

After reviewing the above and other cases, Judge Boynton, in the case of The Pittsburgh, &c. R. W. Co. v. Bingham, supra, says:—

“The principle underlying the cases above cited recognizes the right of the owner of real property to the exclusive use and enjoyment of the same without liability to others for injuries occasioned by its unsafe condition, where the person receiving the injury was not in or near the place of danger by lawful right; and where such owner assumed no responsibility for his safety by inviting him there, without giving him notice of the existence or imminence of the peril to be avoided.”

In the case from which we have quoted, the intestate of the plaintiff was at the defendant’s station house, not on any business with it, but merely to pass away his time, when, by a severe and sudden blast of wind, a portion of the roof of the station house was blown off the building and against the intestate, with such force as to kill him. The case, in its circumstances, was not unlike the one before us. Nicholson v. Erie R. W. Co., 41 N. Y. 525; Murray v. McLean, 57 Ill. 378; Durham v. Musselman, 2 Blackf. 96 (18 Am. Dec. 133).

159In the case of Sweeny v. Old Colony, &c. R. R. Co., 10 Allen, 368, the Court say:—

“A licensee, who enters on premises by permission only, without any enticement, allurement, or inducement being held out to him by the owner or occupant, cannot recover damages for injuries caused by obstructions or pitfalls. He goes there at his own risk, and enjoys the license subject to its concomitant perils.” Carleton v. Franconia Iron and Steel Co., 99 Mass. 216; Harris v. Stevens, 31 Vt. 79, 90; Wood v. Leadbitter, 13 M. & W. 838.

The evidence in this case brings it, we think, within the principles settled by the above cases.

The appellant contends that the evidence shows that the appellee was guilty of gross negligence in not repairing its freight house, and that such negligence renders it liable, though he entered upon its premises without invitation or license, as a mere intruder, and was, while such intruder, injured; and, in support of this proposition, we are referred to the following cases: Lafayette, &c. R. R. Co. v. Adams, 26 Ind. 76; Indianapolis, &c. R. R. Co. v. McClure, 26 Ind. 370; Gray v. Harris, 107 Mass. 492; Isabel v. Hannibal, &c. R. R. Co., 60 Mo. 475.

In the first of the above cases, the Court held that, where the negligence of the company was so gross as to imply a disregard of consequences or a willingness to inflict the injury, it was liable, though the party injured was not free from fault. In the second case, it was held that a railroad company, not required to fence its road, would not be liable for animals killed on its road, unless guilty of gross negligence. The phrase “gross negligence,” as used in these cases, means something more than the mere omission of duty; it meant, as shown by the evidence in the cases, reckless and aggressive conduct on the part of the company’s servants. “Something more than negligence, however gross, must be shown, to enable a party to recover for an injury, when he has been guilty of contributory negligence.” The Pennsylvania Co. v. Sinclair, 62 Ind. 301. There was, in the cases referred to in 26 Ind., something more than negligence. As in the case of The Indianapolis, &c. R. W. Co. v. McBrown, 46 Ind. 229, where the animal was driven through a deep cut, eighty rods long, into and upon a trestle work of the company, there was aggressive malfeasance. In the Massachusetts case, the Court held that a party building a dam across a stream must provide against unusual floods. We do not think these cases applicable to the one before us.

There could be no negligence on the part of the appellee, of which the appellant can be heard to complain, unless at the time he received the injury, the appellee was under some obligation or duty to him to repair its freight house. “Actionable negligence exists only where the one whose act causes or occasions the injury owes to the injured person a duty, created either by contract or by operation of law, which 160he has failed to discharge.” Pittsburgh, &c. R. W. Co. v. Bingham, supra; Burdeck v. Cheadle, 26 Ohio St. 393; Town of Salem v. Goller, 76 Ind. 291. We have shown that the appellee owed the appellant no such duty.

The judgment below should be affirmed.

Per Curiam. It is ordered, upon the foregoing opinion, that the judgment below be affirmed, at the costs of the appellant.^[134]

BUCH v. AMORY MANUFACTURING CO.
Supreme Court, New Hampshire, December, 1897.
Reported in 69 New Hampshire Reports, 257.

Case. Trial by jury and verdict for the plaintiff. March 30, 1886, the plaintiff, then eight years of age and unable to speak or understand English, was injured by the machinery in operation in the defendants’ mill. The evidence tended to show that the plaintiff’s brother, who was thirteen years of age, was employed as a back-boy in the mule-spinning room, and that at his request the plaintiff went into the room for the purpose of learning the work of a back-boy. The elder brother had no authority to request or permit the plaintiff to go into the mill or to instruct him, unless it could be inferred from the fact testified to by him that “he saw other boys taking their brothers to learn, as he understood from their motions.” The plaintiff was in the mill for a day and a half until the accident, openly assisting more or less in the work of the back-boys. He testified that he was directed by a person not the overseer of the room, whom he saw “bossing” the other boys, to pick up some bobbins and put some waste in a box. There was evidence tending to show that Fulton, the overseer, who was in charge of and hired the back-boys and other operatives in the room, passed in the alleys near the plaintiff, and that he was well acquainted with his help. He testified that he had no knowledge of the plaintiff’s presence in the room until about two 161hours before the accident, when, aware that the boy was not an employee, he directed him to go out, and thinking he might not understand English, took him to an operative who spoke the plaintiff’s language, whom he told to send the plaintiff out. The plaintiff testified that Fulton spoke to him and, as he understood, directed him to remove his vest, but that he did not understand he was ordered to leave. There was no evidence except Fulton’s that the order was communicated to the plaintiff or understood by him. There was no evidence or claim that the machinery was improperly constructed or operated, or that it was out of repair. The plaintiff’s hand was caught in a gearing which the back-boys were instructed to avoid, but there was no evidence that the plaintiff was given any instruction or warning whatever. There was evidence tending to prove that boys under thirteen years of age were not employed in the room, and that the place and machinery were dangerous for a child of the plaintiff’s age. Subject to exception, a motion that a verdict be directed for the defendants was denied.

Carpenter, C. J. On the evidence, the jury could not properly find that the plaintiff was upon the premises of the defendants with their consent or permission. Although there was evidence tending to show that other back-boys had taken their brothers into the room for the purpose of instructing them in the business, there was no sufficient evidence that the fact that they did so was known to the defendants, and there was evidence that on the first occasion brought to their knowledge they objected. Upon this state of the evidence, a license by the defendants—whether material or immaterial—for the plaintiff’s presence in the room could not legitimately be inferred. The plaintiff was a trespasser.

The defendant’s machinery was in perfect order and properly managed. They were conducting their lawful business in a lawful way and in the usual and ordinary manner. During the plaintiff’s presence they made no change in the operation of their works or in their method of doing business. No immediate or active intervention on their part caused the injury. It resulted from the joint operation of the plaintiff’s conduct and the ordinary and usual condition of the premises. Under these circumstances, an adult in full possession of his faculties, or an infant capable of exercising the measure of care necessary to protect himself from the dangers of the situation, whether he was on the premises by permission or as a trespasser, could not recover.

The plaintiff was an infant of eight years. The particular circumstances of the accident—how or in what manner it happened that the plaintiff caught his hand in the gearing—are not disclosed by the case. It does not appear that any evidence was offered tending to show that he was incapable of knowing the danger from putting his hand in contact with the gearing, or of exercising a measure of care 162sufficient to avoid the danger. Such an incapacity cannot be presumed. Stone v. Railroad, 115 N. Y. 104, 109–111; Hayes v. Norcross, 162 Mass. 546, 548; Mulligan v. Curtis, 100 Mass. 512, 514; Cosgrove v. Ogden, 49 N. Y. 255, 258; Kunz v. Troy, 104 N. Y. 344, 351; Lovett v. Railroad, 9 Allen, 557, 563.

An infant is bound to use the reason he possesses and to exercise the degree of care and caution of which he is capable. If the plaintiff could by the due exercise of his intellectual and physical powers have avoided the injury, he is no more entitled to recover than an adult would be under the same circumstances. The burden was upon him, and the case might be disposed of upon the ground that he adduced no evidence tending to show that he had not sufficient reason and discretion to appreciate the particular risk of injury that he incurred and to avoid it. But it may be that evidence tending to show the plaintiff’s incapacity was adduced, and that the case is silent on the subject because this particular question was not made by the defendants.

Assuming, then, that the plaintiff was incapable either of appreciating the danger or of exercising the care necessary to avoid it, is he, upon the facts stated, entitled to recover? He was a trespasser in a place dangerous to children of his age. In the conduct of their business and management of their machinery the defendants were without fault. The only negligence charged upon or attributed to them is that, inasmuch as they could not make the plaintiff understand a command to leave the premises and ought to have known that they could not, they did not forcibly eject him.

Actionable negligence is the neglect of a legal duty. The defendants are not liable unless they owed to the plaintiff a legal duty which they neglected to perform. With purely moral obligations the law does not deal. For example, the priest and Levite who passed by on the other side were not, it is supposed, liable at law for the continued suffering of the man who fell among thieves, which they might and morally ought to have prevented or relieved. Suppose A, standing close by a railroad, sees a two-year-old babe on the track and a car approaching. He can easily rescue the child with entire safety to himself, and the instincts of humanity require him to do so. If he does not, he may, perhaps, justly be styled a ruthless savage and a moral monster; but he is not liable in damages for the child’s injury, or indictable under the statute for its death. P. S., c. 278, s. 8.

“In dealing with cases which involve injuries to children, courts ... have sometimes strangely confounded legal obligation with sentiments that are independent of law.” Indianapolis v. Emmelman, 108 Ind. 530. “It is important to bear in mind, in actions for injuries to children, a very simple and fundamental fact, which in this class of cases is sometimes strangely lost sight of, viz., that no action arises without a breach of duty.” 2 Thomp. Neg. 1183, note 3. “No action will lie against a spiteful man, who, seeing another running into danger, 163merely omits to warn him. To bring the case within the category of actionable negligence some wrongful act must be shown, or a breach of some positive duty; otherwise, a man who allows strangers to roam over his property would be held answerable for not protecting them against any danger they might encounter whilst using the license.” Gautret v. Egerton, L. R. 2 C. P. 371, 375.

What duties do the owners owe to a trespasser upon their premises? They may eject him, using such force and such only as is necessary for the purpose. They are bound to abstain from any other or further intentional or negligent acts of personal violence,—bound to inflict upon him by means of their own active intervention no injury which by due care they can avoid. They are not bound to warn him against hidden or secret dangers arising from the condition of the premises (Redigan v. Railroad, 155 Mass. 44, 47, 48), or to protect him against any injury that may arise from his own acts or those of other persons. In short, if they do nothing, let him entirely alone, in no manner interfere with him, he can have no cause of action against them for any injury that he may receive. On the contrary, he is liable to them for any damage that he by his unlawful meddling may cause them or their property. What greater or other legal obligation was cast on these defendants by the circumstance that the plaintiff was (as is assumed) an irresponsible infant?

If landowners are not bound to warn an adult trespasser of hidden dangers,—dangers which he by ordinary care cannot discover and, therefore, cannot avoid,—on what ground can it be claimed that they must warn an infant of open and visible dangers which he is unable to appreciate? No legal distinction is perceived between the duties of the owners in one case and the other. The situation of the adult in front of secret dangers which by no degree of care he can discover, and that of the infant incapable of comprehending danger, is in a legal aspect exactly the same. There is no apparent reason for holding that any greater or other duty rests upon the owners in one case than in the other.

There is a wide difference—a broad gulf—both in reason and in law, between causing and preventing an injury; between doing by negligence or otherwise a wrong to one’s neighbor, and preventing him from injuring himself; between protecting him against injury by another and guarding him from injury that may accrue to him from the condition of the premises which he has unlawfully invaded. The duty to do no wrong is a legal duty. The duty to protect against wrong is, generally speaking and excepting certain intimate relations in the nature of a trust, a moral obligation only, not recognized or enforced by law. Is a spectator liable if he sees an intelligent man or an unintelligent infant running into danger and does not warn or forcibly restrain him? What difference does it make whether the danger is on another’s land, or upon his own, in case the man or infant 164is not there by his express or implied invitation? If A sees an eight-year-old boy beginning to climb into his garden over a wall stuck with spikes and does not warn him or drive him off, is he liable in damages if the boy meets with injury from the spikes? Degg v. Railway, 1 H. & N. 773, 777. I see my neighbor’s two-year-old babe in dangerous proximity to the machinery of his windmill in his yard, and easily might, but do not, rescue him. I am not liable in damages to the child for his injuries, nor, if the child is killed, punishable for manslaughter by the common law or under the statute (P. S., c. 278, s. 8), because the child and I are strangers, and I am under no legal duty to protect him. Now suppose I see the same child trespassing in my own yard and meddling in like manner with the dangerous machinery of my own windmill. What additional obligation is cast upon me by reason of the child’s trespass? The mere fact that the child is unable to take care of himself does not impose on me the legal duty of protecting him in the one case more than in the other. Upon what principle of law can an infant by coming unlawfully upon my premises impose upon me the legal duty of a guardian? None has been suggested, and we know of none.

An infant, no matter of how tender years, is liable in law for his trespasses. 1 Ch. Pl. 86; 2 Kent, 241; Cool. Torts, 103; Poll. Torts, 46; 2 Add. Torts, 1126, 1153; 10 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, 668, et seq.; Humphrey v. Douglass, 10 Vt. 71; School District v. Bragdon, 23 N. H. 507; Eaton v. Hill, 50 N. H. 235; Bullock v. Babcock, 3 Wend. 391; Williams v. Hays, 143 N. Y. 442, 446–451; Conklin v. Thompson, 29 Barb. 218; Neal v. Gillett, 23 Conn. 437; Huchting v. Engel, 17 Wis. 237. If, then, the defendants’ machinery was injured by the plaintiff’s act in putting his hand in the gearing, he is liable to them for the damages in an action of trespass and to nominal damages for the wrongful entry. It would be no answer to such an action that the defendants might by force have prevented the trespass. It is impossible to hold that while the plaintiff is liable to the defendants in trespass, they are liable to him in case for neglecting to prevent the act which caused the injury both to him and them. Cases of enticement, allurement, or invitation of infants to their injury, or setting traps for them, and cases relating to the sufficiency of public ways, or to the exposure upon them of machinery attractive and dangerous to children have no application here.

Danger from machinery in motion in the ordinary course of business cannot be distinguished from that arising from a well, pit, open scuttle, or other stationary object. The movement of the works is a part of the regular and normal condition of the premises. Sullivan v. Railroad, 156 Mass. 378; Holbrook v. Aldrich, 168 Mass. 15; Rodgers v. Lees, 140 Pa. St. 475. The law no more compels the owners to shut down their gates and stop their business for the protection of a trespasser than it requires them to maintain a railing about an open 165scuttle or to fence in their machinery for the same purpose. Benson v. Company, 77 Md. 535; Mergenthaler v. Kirby, 79 Md. 182. There was no evidence tending to show that the defendants neglected to perform any legal duty to the plaintiff. McGuiness v. Butler, 159 Mass. 233, 236, 238; Grindley v. McKechnie, 163 Mass. 494; Holbrook v. Aldrich, 168 Mass. 15, 17, and cases cited.

Parsons, J., did not sit: the others concurred.

KEFFE v. MILWAUKEE AND ST. PAUL RAILWAY CO.
Supreme Court, Minnesota, January 11, 1875.
Reported in 21 Minnesota Reports, 207.

The plaintiff, an infant, brought this action in the Court of Common Pleas for Ramsey County to recover damages for injuries sustained while playing upon a turn-table of defendant. The circumstances under which plaintiff was injured are thus stated in the complaint: “That in connection with said railroad” [of defendant] “defendant, before and up to the month of October, 1867, used and operated a certain turn-table, located on the lands of said defendant in said town of Northfield, which said turn-table was so constructed and arranged as to be easily turned around and made to revolve in a horizontal direction.”

After minutely describing the turn-table, the complaint proceeds: “That said turn-table was situated in a public place, near to a passenger depot of the defendant, and within 120 feet from the residence and home of plaintiff. That said turn-table was unfastened and in no way protected, fenced, guarded, or enclosed, to prevent it from being turned around at the pleasure of small children, although the same could at all times be readily locked and securely fastened.

“That said turn-table ... was in the possession and under the control of defendant, and not necessary in operating said railroad and it was the duty of said defendant to keep said turn-table fastened or in some way protected, so that children could not readily have access thereto and revolve the same. That the same was not so protected or fastened, and that said turn-table, when left unfastened, was very attractive to young children, and that while the same was being 166moved by children, and at all times when left unfastened, it was dangerous to persons upon or near it.

“That defendant had notice of all the aforesaid facts before and at the time the injury herein named occurred to the plaintiff.

“That plaintiff, on September 11, 1867, was a child of tender years, without judgment or discretion, he being at that date seven years old, and that in consequence of the carelessness, negligence, and improper conduct of said defendant, in not locking, enclosing, or otherwise fastening said turn-table, and by the negligence, carelessness, and improper conduct of said defendant, its agents, and servants, in allowing said turn-table to be and remain unfastened, insecure, and improperly put in motion, it was, at the date last aforesaid, revolved by other children, over whom the parents and guardians of plaintiff had no control, and without their knowledge, and, while being so revolved, the plaintiff, being on said turn-table, had his right leg caught near the knee, between the surface of said turn-table and said abutment or wall, and between the iron rail on said turn-table and the iron rail on said abutment or wall, and said leg was thereby so bruised, broken, mangled, and fractured, as to render amputation necessary.”

The complaint further alleges that the injury was caused by defendant’s negligence, and without any fault or negligence on the part of the plaintiff, or his parents or guardians, etc.

The defendant having answered the complaint, and the action having been called for trial, the defendant moved for judgment on the pleadings. The motion was granted by Hall, J., and judgment entered accordingly, from which plaintiff appealed.

Bigelow, Flandrau & Clark, for respondent, relied on the opinion of Hall, J., and the cases therein cited.^[136]

Young, J. In the elaborate opinion of the Court below, which formed the basis of the argument for the defendant in this Court, the case is treated as if the plaintiff was a mere trespasser, whose tender years and childish instincts were no excuse for the commission of the trespass, and who had no more right than any other trespasser to require the defendant to exercise care to protect him from receiving injury while upon its turn-table. But we are of opinion that, upon the facts stated in the complaint, the plaintiff occupied a very different position from that of a mere voluntary trespasser upon the defendant’s property, and it is therefore unnecessary to consider whether the proposition advanced by the defendant’s counsel, viz., that a landowner owes no duty of care to trespassers, is not too broad a statement of a rule which is true in many instances.

To treat the plaintiff as a voluntary trespasser is to ignore the averments of the complaint, that the turn-table, which was situate in a public (by which we understand an open, frequented) place, was, 167when left unfastened, very attractive, and, when put in motion by them, was dangerous to young children, by whom it could be easily put in motion, and many of whom were in the habit of going upon it to play. The turn-table, being thus attractive, presented to the natural instincts of young children a strong temptation; and such children, following, as they must be expected to follow, those natural instincts, were thus allured into a danger whose nature and extent they, being without judgment or discretion, could neither apprehend nor appreciate, and against which they could not protect themselves. The difference between the plaintiff’s position and that of a voluntary trespasser, capable of using care, consists in this, that the plaintiff was induced to come upon the defendant’s turn-table by the defendant’s own conduct, and that, as to him, the turn-table was a hidden danger,—a trap.

While it is held that a mere licensee “must take the permission with its concomitant conditions,—it may be perils,” Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. (N. S.) 731; Bolch v. Smith, 7 H. & N. 836, yet even such licensee has a right to require that the owner of the land shall not knowingly and carelessly put concealed dangers in his way. Bolch v. Smith, per Channell and Wilde, BB.; Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. (N. S.) 556, per Willes, J.

And where one goes upon the land of another, not by mere license, but by invitation from the owner, the latter owes him a larger duty. “The general rule or principle applicable to this class of cases is that an owner or occupant is bound to keep his premises in a safe and suitable condition for those who come upon and pass over them, using due care, if he has held out any inducement, invitation, or allurement, either express or implied, by which they have been led to enter thereon.” Per Bigelow, C. J., in Sweeny v. Old Colony & Newport R. Co., 10 Allen, 368, reviewing many cases. And see Indermaur v. Dames, L. R. 1 C. P. 274; L. R. 2 C. P. 311.

Now, what an express invitation would be to an adult, the temptation of an attractive plaything is to a child of tender years. If the defendant had left this turn-table unfastened for the purpose of attracting young children to play upon it, knowing the danger into which it was thus alluring them, it certainly would be no defence to an action by the plaintiff, who had been attracted upon the turn-table and injured, to say that the plaintiff was a trespasser, and that his childish instincts were no excuse for his trespass. In Townsend v. Wathen, 9 East, 277, it was held to be unlawful for a man to tempt even his neighbor’s dogs into danger, by setting traps on his own land, baited with strong-scented meat, by which the dogs were allured to come upon his land and into his traps. In that case, Lord Ellenborough asks, “What is the difference between drawing the animal into the trap by his natural instinct, which he cannot resist, and putting him there by manual force?” And Grose, J. says “A man 168must not set traps of this dangerous description in a situation to invite his neighbor’s dogs, and, as it were, to compel them by their instinct to come into the traps.”

It is true that the defendant did not leave the turn-table unfastened for the purpose of injuring young children; and if the defendant had no reason to believe that the unfastened turn-table was likely to attract and to injure young children, then the defendant would not be bound to use care to protect from injury the children that it had no good reason to suppose were in any danger. But the complaint states that the defendant knew that the turn-table, when left unfastened, was easily revolved; that, when left unfastened, it was very attractive, and when put in motion by them, dangerous, to young children; and knew also that many children were in the habit of going upon it to play. The defendant therefore knew that by leaving this turn-table unfastened and unguarded, it was not merely inviting young children to come upon the turn-table, but was holding out an allurement, which, acting upon the natural instincts by which such children are controlled, drew them by those instincts into a hidden danger; and having thus knowingly allured them into a place of danger, without their fault (for it cannot blame them for not resisting the temptation it has set before them), it was bound to use care to protect them from the danger into which they were thus led, and from which they could not be expected to protect themselves.

We agree with the defendant’s counsel that a railroad company is not required to make its land a safe playground for children. It has the same right to maintain and use its turn-table that any landowner has to use his property. It is not an insurer of the lives or limbs of young children who play upon its premises. We merely decide that when it sets before young children a temptation which it has reason to believe will lead them into danger, it must use ordinary care to protect them from harm. What would be proper care in any case must, in general, be a question for the jury, upon all the circumstances of the case.

The position we have taken is fully sustained by the following cases, some of which go much farther in imposing upon the owner of dangerous articles the duty of using care to protect from injury children who may be tempted to play near or meddle with them, than it is necessary to go in this case. Lynch v. Nurdin, 1 Q. B. 29; Birge v. Gardiner, 19 Conn. 507; Whirley v. Whiteman, 1 Head, 610.

It is true that, in the cases cited, the principal question discussed is not whether the defendant owed the plaintiff the duty of care, but whether the defendant was absolved from liability for breach of duty by reason of the fact that the plaintiff was a trespasser, who, by his own act, contributed to the injury; and the distinction is not sharply drawn between the effect of the plaintiff’s trespass, as a bar to his right to require care, and the plaintiff’s contributory negligence, as a 169bar to his right to recover for the defendant’s failure to exercise such care as it was his duty to use. But as a young child, whom the defendant knowingly tempts to come upon his land, if anything more than a technical trespasser, is led into the commission of the trespass by the defendant himself, and thus occupies a position widely different from that of an ordinary trespasser, the fact that the Courts, in the cases referred to, assumed, instead of proving, that the defendant owed to a young child, under such circumstances, a duty he would not owe to an ordinary trespasser, for whose trespass he was not in any way responsible, does not weaken the authority of those cases. And in Railroad Co. v. Stout, 17 Wall. 657 (a case in all respects similar to the present), the distinction insisted on by counsel is taken by Mr. Justice Hunt, and the circumstance that the plaintiff was in some sense a trespasser is held not to exempt the defendant from the duty of care. In the charge of the learned circuit judge at the trial of the last named case (reported under the title of Stout v. Sioux City & Pacific R. Co., 2 Dillon, 294), the elements which must concur to render the defendant liable, in a case like the present, are clearly stated.

In Hughes v. Macfie, 2 Hurlst. & Coltm. 744, and Mangan v. Atterton, L. R. 1 Exch. 239, cited by defendant’s counsel, there was nothing to show that the defendants knew or had reason to apprehend that the cellar lid in the one case, or the crushing machine in the other, would be likely to attract young children into danger. It must be conceded that Hughes v. Macfie is not easily to be reconciled with Birge v. Gardiner, and that Mangan v. Atterton seems to conflict with Lynch v. Nurdin; but whether correctly decided or otherwise, they do not necessarily conflict with our decision in this case.

Much reliance is placed by defendant on Phila. & Reading R. Co. v. Hummell, 44 Penn. St. 375 and Gillis v. Penn. R. Co., 59 Penn. St. 129. In the first of these cases, the plaintiff, a young child, was injured by coming upon the track while the cars were in motion. The only negligence charged upon the defendant was the omission to give any signal at or after the starting of the train. If the plaintiff had been crossing the track, through one of the openings which the company had suffered the people in the neighborhood to make in the train while standing on the track, and the cars had then been run together upon him, without any warning, the case would more nearly resemble the present; but the facts, as they appear, show that the company used abundant care, and that it had no reason to suppose that the plaintiff was exposed to danger; and the decision is put upon the latter ground, although Strong, J., delivering the opinion of the Court, uses language which lends some support to the defendant’s contention in this case. Gillis v. Penn. R. Co. was properly decided, on the ground that the company did nothing to invite the plaintiff upon the platform, by the fall of which he was injured, and that the platform was strong enough to bear the weight of any crowd of people which the company might 170reasonably expect would come upon it. Neither of these cases is an authority against, while a later case in the same court, Kay v. Penn. R. Co., 65 Penn. St. 269, tends strongly to support, the plaintiff’s right of action in this case; and the recent case of Pittsburg, A. & M. Passenger R. Co. v. Caldwell, 74 Penn. St. 421, points in the same direction.

It was not urged upon the argument that the plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence, and we have assumed that the plaintiff exercised, as he was bound to do, such reasonable care as a child of his age and understanding was capable of using, and that there was no negligence on the part of his parents or guardians, contributing to his injury.

FROST v. EASTERN RAILROAD
Supreme Court, New Hampshire, December, 1886.
Reported in 64 New Hampshire Reports, 220.

Case, for personal injuries from the alleged negligence of the defendants in not properly guarding and securing a turn-table. The plaintiff, who sues by his father and next friend, was seven years old when the accident occurred, June 23, 1877, and the action was commenced June 7, 1884. Plea, the general issue and statute of limitations. A motion for a nonsuit was denied, and the defendants excepted. Verdict for the plaintiff. The facts are sufficiently stated in the opinion.

Clark, J. The action is not barred by the statute of limitations. “Any infant, married woman, or insane person may bring any personal actions within two years after such disability is removed.” G. L., c. 221, s. 7.

As a general rule, in cases where a disability exists when the right of action accrues, the statute does not run during the continuance of the disability, and it has not commenced to run against the plaintiff. 171Pierce v. Dustin, 24 N. H. 417; Little v. Downing, 37 N. H. 356. It is said that the plaintiff’s next friend was under no disability, that he could have brought the action at any time within six years after the right of action accrued, and therefore the statute should apply to this case. It is an answer to this suggestion that it is the infant’s action, and the failure of the next friend to bring suit within six years is no bar to the plaintiff’s right of action. Wood Lim. of Act. 476.

The motion for a nonsuit raises the question whether there was evidence upon which the jury could properly find a verdict for the plaintiff. Paine v. Railway, 58 N. H. 611. The ground of the action is, that the defendants were guilty of negligence in maintaining a turn-table insecurely guarded, which, being wrongfully set in motion by older boys, caused an injury to the plaintiff, who was at that time seven years old, and was attracted to the turn-table by the noise of the older and larger boys turning and playing upon it. The turn-table was situated on the defendants’ land, about sixty feet from the public street, in a cut with high, steep embankments on each side; and the land on each side was private property and fenced. It was fastened by a toggle, which prevented its being set in motion unless the toggle was drawn by a lever, to which was attached a switch padlock, which being locked prevented the lever from being used unless the staple was drawn. At the time of the accident the turn-table was fastened by the toggle, but it was a controverted point whether the padlock was then locked. When secured by the toggle and not locked with the padlock, the turn-table could not be set in motion by boys of the age and strength of the plaintiff.

Upon these facts we think the action cannot be maintained. The alleged negligence complained of relates to the construction and condition of the turn-table, and it is not claimed that the defendants were guilty of any active misconduct towards the plaintiff. The right of a landowner in the use of his own land is not limited or qualified like 172the enjoyment of a right or privilege in which others have an interest, as the use of a street for highway purposes under the general law, or for other purposes under special license (Moynihan v. Whidden, 143 Mass. 287), where care must be taken not to infringe upon the lawful rights of others. At the time of his injury the plaintiff was using the defendants’ premises as a playground without right. The turn-table was required in operating the defendants’ railroad. It was located on its own land so far removed from the highway as not to interfere with the convenience and safety of the public travel, and it was not a trap set for the purpose of injuring trespassers. Aldrich v. Wright, 53 N. H. 404. Under these circumstances, the defendants owed no duty to the plaintiff; and there can be no negligence or breach of duty where there is no act or service which the party is bound to perform or fulfil. A landowner is not required to take active measures to insure the safety of intruders, nor is he liable for an injury resulting from the lawful use of his premises to one entering upon them without right. A trespasser ordinarily assumes all risk of danger from the condition of the premises; and to recover for an injury happening to him he must show that it was wantonly inflicted, or that the owner or occupant, being present and acting, might have prevented the injury by the exercise of reasonable care after discovering the danger. Clark v. Manchester, 62 N. H. 577; State v. Railroad, 52 N. H. 528; Sweeny v. Railroad, 10 Allen, 368; Morrissey v. Railroad, 126 Mass. 377; Severy v. Nickerson, 120 Mass. 306; Morgan v. Hallowell, 57 Me. 375; Pierce v. Whitcomb, 48 Vt. 127; McAlpin v. Powell, 70 N. Y. 126; St. L., V. & T. H. R. R. Co. v. Bell, 81 Ill. 76; Gavin v. Chicago, 97 Ill. 66; Wood v. School District, 44 Iowa, 27; Gramlich v. Wurst, 86 Pa. St. 74; Cauley v. P. C., & St. Louis Railway Co., 95 Pa. St. 398; Gillespie v. McGowan, 100 Pa. St. 144; Mangan v. Atterton, L. R. 1 Ex. 239. The maxim that a man must use his property so as not to incommode his neighbor, only applies to neighbors who do not interfere with it or enter upon it. Knight v. Abert, 6 Pa. St. 472. To hold the owner liable for consequential damages happening to trespassers from the lawful and beneficial use of his own land would be an unreasonable restriction of his enjoyment of it.

We are not prepared to adopt the doctrine of Railroad Co. v. Stout, 17 Wall. 657, and cases following it, that the owner of machinery or other property attractive to children is liable for injuries happening to children wrongfully interfering with it on his own premises. The owner is not an insurer of the safety of infant trespassers. One having in his possession agricultural or mechanical tools is not responsible for injuries caused to trespassers by careless handling, nor is the owner of a fruit-tree bound to cut it down or enclose it, or to exercise care in securing the staple and lock with which his ladder is fastened, for the protection of trespassing boys who may be attracted by the 173fruit. Neither is the owner or occupant of premises upon which there is a natural or artificial pond, or a blueberry pasture, legally required to exercise care in securing his gates and bars to guard against accidents to straying and trespassing children. The owner is under no duty to a mere trespasser to keep his premises safe; and the fact that the trespasser is an infant cannot have the effect to raise a duty where none otherwise exists. “The supposed duty has regard to the public at large, and cannot well exist as to one portion of the public and not to another, under the same circumstances. In this respect children, women, and men are upon the same footing. In cases where certain duties exist, infants may require greater care than adults, or a different kind of care; but precautionary measures having for their object the protection of the public must as a rule have reference to all classes alike.” Nolan v. N. Y. N. H. & H. Railroad Co., 53 Conn. 461.

There being no evidence to charge the defendants with negligence, the motion for a nonsuit should have been granted.

COOKE v. MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY OF IRELAND
In the House of Lords, March 1, 1909.
Reported in [1909] Appeal Cases, 229.

The appellant by his father brought an action against the respondents for an injury sustained on the company’s land in Meath under the circumstances stated in the head-note, the details of which are fully discussed in the judgments in this House. At the trial before Lord O’Brien, C. J., the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for £550, and judgment was entered accordingly. The jury found that the fence was in a defective condition through the negligence of the defendants; that the plaintiff was allured through the hedge and up to the turn-table by the negligence of the defendants; and that it was by reason of the defendants’ negligence and as the effective cause of it that the misfortune occurred. That judgment was affirmed by the King’s Bench Division in Ireland (Palles, C. B., and Johnson, J., Kenny, J., dissenting) and was afterwards set aside by the Court of Appeal in Ireland (Sir S. Walker, L. C., FitzGibbon and Holmes, L.JJ.). Hence this appeal by the plaintiff.^[139]

174Lord Macnaghten. My Lords, the only question before your Lordships is this: Was there evidence of negligence on the part of the company fit to be submitted to the jury? If there was, the verdict must stand, although your Lordships might have come to a different conclusion on the same materials.

I cannot help thinking that the issue has been somewhat obscured by the extravagant importance attached to the gap in the hedge, both in the arguments of counsel and in the judgments of some of the learned judges who have had the case under consideration. That there was a gap there, that it was a good broad gap some three feet wide, is, I think, proved beyond question. But of all the circumstances attending the case it seems to me that this gap taken by itself is the least important. I have some difficulty in believing that a gap in a roadside fence is a strange and unusual spectacle in any part of Ireland. But however that may be, I quite agree that the insufficiency of the fence, though the company were bound by Act of Parliament to maintain it, cannot be regarded as the effective cause of the accident.

The question for the consideration of the jury may, I think, be stated thus: Would not a private individual of common sense and ordinary intelligence, placed in the position in which the company were placed, and possessing the knowledge which must be attributed to them, have seen that there was a likelihood of some injury happening to children resorting to the place and playing with the turn-table, and would he not have thought it his plain duty either to put a stop to the practice altogether, or at least to take ordinary precautions to prevent such an accident as that which occurred?

This, I think, was substantially the question which the Lord Chief Justice presented to the jury. It seems to me to be in accordance with the view of the Court of Queen’s Bench in Lynch v. Nurdin, 1 Q. B. 29, and the opinion expressed by Romer and Stirling, L.JJ., in McDowall v. Great Western Ry. Co., [1903] 2 K. B. 331.

The Lord Chancellor of Ireland puts Lynch v. Nurdin, 1 Q. B. 29, aside. He holds that it bears no analogy to the present case, because the thing that did the mischief there was a “cart in the public street—a nuisance.” But no question of nuisance was considered in Lynch v. Nurdin. That point was not suggested. The ground of the decision is a very simple proposition. “If,” says Lord Denman, “I am guilty of negligence in leaving anything dangerous in a place where I know it to be extremely probable that some other person will unjustifiably set it in motion to the injury of a third, and if that injury should be so brought about, I presume that the sufferer might have redress by action against both or either of the two, but unquestionably against the first.” If that proposition be sound, surely the character of the place, though, of course, an element proper to be considered, is not a matter of vital importance. It cannot make very 175much difference whether the place is dedicated to the use of the public or left open by a careless owner to the invasion of children who make it their playground.

I think the jury were entitled and bound to take into consideration all the circumstances of the case—the mode in which the turn-table was constructed; its close proximity to the wall by which the plaintiff’s leg was crushed; the way in which it was left, unfenced, unlocked, and unfastened; the history of this bit of ground and its position, shut off as it was by an embankment from the view of the company’s servants at the station, and lying half derelict. After the construction of the embankment it served no purpose in connection with the company’s undertaking, except that at one time a corner of it was used as a receptacle for some timber belonging to the company, and afterwards as a site for this turn-table. In other respects, and apart from these uses, it seems to have been devoted or abandoned to the sustenance of the railway inspector’s goat and the diversion of the youth of Navan. It is proved that in spite of a notice board idly forbidding trespass it was a place of habitual resort for children, and that children were frequently playing with the timber, and afterwards with the turn-table. At the date of the trial, twelve months after the accident, a beaten path leading from the gap bore witness both to the numbers that flocked to the spot and to the special attraction that drew children to it. It is remarkable that not a single word of cross-examination as to either of these points was addressed to the principal witnesses for the plaintiff, Tully, the herd, and Gertrude Cooke, the plaintiff’s sister; nor was any explanation or evidence offered on the part of the company. Now the company knew, or must be deemed to have known, all the circumstances of the case and what was going on. Yet no precaution was taken to prevent an accident of a sort that might well have been foreseen and very easily prevented. They did not close up the gap until after the accident. Then it was the first thing thought of. But it was too late. They did not summon any of the children who played there, or bring them before the magistrates, as a warning to trespassers and a proof that they were really in earnest in desiring to stop an objectionable practice which had gone on so long and so openly. They did not have their turn-table locked automatically in the way in which Mr. Barnes, C. E., whose evidence is uncontradicted, says it is usual to lock such machines. The table, it seems, was not even fastened. There was a bolt; but if Cooke, the father of the plaintiff, is to be believed, the bolt was rusty and unworkable. The jury were not bound to believe Fowler, a ganger in the service of the company, in preference to Cooke. Fowler, after some incautious admissions which the jury probably accepted as true, turned round and showed himself, as the Chief Justice says, to be hostile to the plaintiff. He prevaricated to such an extent that the jury were justified in disregarding everything 176said by him with the view of shielding his employers or saving himself from blame, whether it came out of his own head, as the nonsense he talked about rat-holes, or was suggested by counsel, as the expression of “hunting” children off the ground.

It seems to me that the Chief Justice would have been wrong if he had withdrawn the case from the jury. I think the jury were entitled, in view of all the circumstances, on the evidence before them, uncontradicted as it was, to find that the company were guilty of negligence. I am therefore of opinion that the finding of the jury should be upheld and the judgment under appeal reversed, with pauper costs here and costs below; and I move your Lordships accordingly.

I will only add that I do not think that this verdict will be followed by the disastrous consequences to railway companies and landowners which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland seems to apprehend. Persons may not think it worth their while to take ordinary care of their own property, and may not be compellable to do so; but it does not seem unreasonable to hold that, if they allow their property to be open to all comers, infants as well as children of maturer age, and place upon it a machine attractive to children and dangerous as a plaything, they may be responsible in damages to those who resort to it with their tacit permission, and who are unable, in consequence of their tender age, to take care of themselves.^[140]

Action to recover for damage occurring as hereinafter stated. Pleas: first, not guilty; second, various special pleas. Issues thereon.^[141]

At the trial, before Channell, B., at the last Hampshire Summer Assizes, the following facts appeared: The plaintiff was a millwright employed in the Government dock-yard at Portsmouth. The defendant was a contractor, and had been engaged for some time in enlarging one of the docks. The men employed in the dock-yard were not allowed to leave it during the day, and water-closets had been built for their use. For the purpose of going to these water-closets, they had permission to use certain paths which crossed the dock-yard. The defendant had been permitted to erect a mortar-mill for the purpose of his work, and he built an engine-house on one side of one of these paths and the mortar-mill on the other side of the path. A revolving shaft which connected the engine with the mill was placed across the path about six inches above the level of the ground. This shaft was partly covered with a few planks not joined together, and forming an incline upwards from the ground, so that a barrow could be wheeled over it. The shaft had been on that spot covered or uncovered for five years. The plaintiff had gone along this path to one of the water-closets, and whilst returning he accidentally stumbled when near the shaft, which was in rapid motion, and on reaching out his hand to save himself his left arm was caught by the shaft, and so much lacerated that it was necessary to amputate it. There were two other paths by which the plaintiff might have reached the water-closet; but the one he used was the shortest and most convenient.

In the course of the defendant’s case it appeared that the shaft had been fenced to some extent but not sufficiently.

At the close of the defendant’s case, the learned judge proposed to leave it to the jury to assess the damages, supposing the plaintiff had a right of action, and then to nonsuit the plaintiff, reserving leave for him to move to set aside the nonsuit, and enter the verdict for the amount assessed by the jury. The plaintiff’s counsel declined to accede to this course; whereupon the learned judge left it to the jury to say: first, whether the plaintiff was lawfully using the way in question on the day of the accident; secondly, whether the defendant was guilty of negligence in leaving the shaft in the state it was on that day. The jury answered both questions in the affirmative, and they added that they found “that the shaft was not sufficiently fenced;” and they assessed the damages at 230l. A verdict having been entered for the plaintiff for that amount.

178Coleridge, in last Michaelmas Term, obtained a rule nisi for a new trial, on the ground that the learned judge misdirected the jury in not telling them that there was no obligation on the part of the defendant to fence the shaft; and also that the verdict was against the evidence.

Channell, B. I am of opinion that the rule must be absolute for a new trial. [Remainder of opinion omitted.]

Martin, B. I am of the same opinion. The real objection to this action is that the plaintiff has failed to establish that there was any obligation or duty on the part of the defendant to have this path in any other condition than it was at the time of the accident. That should have been established in some way. If the plaintiff could have shown any such obligation on the part of the defendant he would have made out a case, but that was a condition precedent, and the plaintiff has wholly failed to do so. The defendant had a right to erect the machinery, to erect it in the place he did, and to work it in the manner he was doing.

Then what is the true condition of the plaintiff? It is said that he had a right to go along the path across which the machinery was erected, for he was a workman employed in the dock-yard, and had liberty to use the water-closet. But that is a fallacious argument. It is true the plaintiff had permission to use the path. Permission involves leave and license, but it gives no right. If I avail myself of permission to cross a man’s land, I do so by virtue of a license, not of a right. It is an abuse of language to call it a right: it is an excuse or license, so that the party cannot be treated as a trespasser. Inasmuch as there was another way by which the plaintiff might have gone, but voluntarily chose the one which was out of order, I think he has no right of action against the defendant, and that he ought to have been nonsuited at the trial.

Wilde, B. I am of the same opinion. It is of importance in all these cases that the facts upon which the decisions are based should be made plain. The plaintiff was one of a number of persons who obtained leave and license from the dock-yard authorities to cross the yard from one place to another. The defendant had permission from the same authorities to put up certain machinery in the yard. The plaintiff while walking along the usual track fell down, not by reason of any obstruction, but in consequence of stumbling, and in trying to save himself, his arm came in contact with a revolving shaft and was lacerated.

I will decide the case as if it were a question between the plaintiff and the owners of the yard, because if they are not responsible for putting up the shaft, a fortiori the defendant is not. Then, was there any obligation on the owners of the yard not to put up machinery that might be dangerous to persons crossing it? None of the facts tend to show that any such obligation existed. If what was put up was an 179obstruction to any person who used that way, the only consequence would be that he would have to go another way. That being so, it appears to me that this action cannot lie, because I agree that it is founded upon a duty, and none exists.

That disposes of the case; but I will add that I do not mean to say that if the defendant had made a hole in the yard, and had covered it in a way that was insufficient, but which appeared to be sufficient, he would not have been liable. But here there was nothing of that character. The danger was open and visible. There was nothing which could be called a “trap.”

Pollock, C. B., concurred.

GAUTRET v. EGERTON
In the Common Pleas, February 11, 1867.
Reported in Law Reports, 2 Common Pleas, 371.

The declaration in the first of these actions stated that the defendants were possessed of a close of land, and of a certain canal and cuttings intersecting the same, and of certain bridges across the said canal and cuttings, communicating with and leading to certain docks of the defendants, which said land and bridges had been and were from time to time used with the consent and permission of the defendants by persons proceeding towards and coming from the said docks; that the defendants, well knowing the premises, wrongfully, negligently, and improperly kept and maintained the said land, canal, cuttings, and bridges, and suffered them to continue and be in so improper a state and condition as to render them dangerous and unsafe for persons lawfully passing along and over the said land and bridges towards the said docks, and using the same as aforesaid; and that Leon Gautret, whilst he was lawfully in and passing and walking along the said close and over the said bridge, and using the same in the manner and for the purpose aforesaid, by and through the said wrongful, negligent, and improper conduct of the defendants as aforesaid, fell into one of the said cuttings of the defendants, intersecting the said close as aforesaid, and thereby lost his life within twelve calendar months next before the suit: and the plaintiff, as administratrix, for the benefit of herself, the widow of the said Leon Gautret, and A. Gautret, &c., according to the statute in such case made and provided, claimed 2,500l.

180The defendants demurred to the declaration, on the ground that “it does not appear that there was any legal duty or obligation on the part of the defendants to take means for preventing the said land, &c., being dangerous and unsafe.” Joinder.

Crompton (Mellish, Q. C., with him), in support of the demurrer.—To maintain this action, the declarations ought to show a duty in the defendants to keep the canal, cuttings, and bridges in a safe condition, and also that some invitation had been held out to the deceased to come there, and that the thing complained of constituted a sort of trap. Seymour v. Maddox, 16 Q. B. 326 (E. C. L. R. vol. 71), 19 L. J. Q. B. 525; Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. N. S. 556 (E. C. L. R. vol. 93), 27 L. J. C. P. 318. The declaration is entirely wanting in all these particulars. It is not enough to show that the defendants were aware that the place in question was in an unsafe condition, and that the public were in the habit of passing along it. Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. N. S. 731, 29 L. J. C. P. 203.

[Willes, J. The declaration does not even state that the deceased persons were unacquainted with the state of the place.]

Herschell, for the plaintiff Gautret.—The question raised upon this declaration is, whether there is any duty on the part of the defendants toward persons using their land as the deceased here did. That may be negligence in the case of a licensee, which would not be negligence as against a mere trespasser: and, if there can be any case in which the law would imply a duty, it is sufficiently alleged here.

[Willes, J. It may be the duty of the defendants to abstain from doing any act which may be dangerous to persons coming upon the land by their invitation or permission, as in Indermaur v. Dames, Law Rep. 1 C. P. 274.^[143] So, if I employ one to carry an article which is of a peculiarly dangerous nature, without cautioning him, I may be responsible for any injury he sustains through the absence of such caution. That was the case of Farrant v. Barnes, 11 C. B. N. S. 553, 31 L. J. C. P. 137. But, what duty does the law impose upon these defendants to keep their bridges in repair? If I dedicate a way to the public which is full of ruts and holes, the public must take it as it is. If I dig a pit in it, I may be liable for the consequences: but, if I do nothing, I am not.]

It was not necessary to specify the nature of the negligence which is charged: it was enough to allege generally a duty and a breach of it. Knowing the bridge to be unsafe, it was the duty of the defendants not to permit the public to use it. In Bolch v. Smith, 7 H. & N. 736, 31 L. J. Ex. 201, the defect in the fencing of the shaft was apparent: but the judgments of Channell and Wilde, BB., seem to concede that, if there had been a concealed defect, the action would have been maintainable. That shows that there is some duty in such a case as this.

181Potter, for the plaintiff Jones, submitted that the implied request on the part of the defendants to persons having occasion to go to the docks to pass by the way in question, raised a duty in them to keep it in a safe condition.

Willes, J. I am of opinion that our judgment must be for the defendants in each of these cases. The argument urged on behalf of the plaintiffs, when analyzed, amounts to this, that we ought to construe the general words of the declaration as describing whatever sort of negligence the plaintiffs can prove at the trial. The authorities, however, and reason and good sense, are the other way. The plaintiff must, in his declaration, give the defendant notice of what his complaint is. He must recover secundum allegata et probata. What is it that a declaration of this sort should state in order to fulfil those conditions? It ought to state the facts upon which the supposed duty is founded, and the duty to the plaintiff with the breach of which the defendant is charged. It is not enough to show that the defendant has been guilty of negligence, without showing in what respect he was negligent, and how he became bound to use care to prevent injury to others. All that these declarations allege is, that the defendants were possessed of land, and of a canal and cuttings intersecting the same, and of certain bridges across the canal and cuttings communicating with and leading to certain docks of theirs; that they allowed persons going to and from the docks, whether upon the business or for the profit of the defendants or not, to pass over the land; and that the deceased persons, in pursuance of and using that permission, fell into one of the cuttings, and so met their deaths. The consequences of these accidents are sought to be visited upon these defendants, because they have allowed persons to go over their land, not alleging it to have been upon the business or for the benefit of the defendants, or as the servants or agents of the defendants; nor alleging that the defendants have been guilty of any wrongful act, such as digging a trench on the land, or misrepresenting its condition, or anything equivalent to laying a trap for the unwary passengers; but simply because they permitted these persons to use a way with the condition of which, for anything that appears, those who suffered the injury were perfectly well acquainted. That is the whole sum and substance of these declarations. If the docks to which the way in question led were public docks, the way would be a public way, and the township or parish would be bound to repair it, and no such liability as this could be cast upon the defendants merely by reason of the soil of the way being theirs. That is so not only in reason but also upon authority. It was so held in Robbins v. Jones, 15 C. B. N. S. 221, 33 L. J. C. P. 1, where a way having been for a number of years dedicated to the public, we held that the owner of the adjoining house was not responsible for death resulting to a person from the giving way of the pavement, partly in consequence of its being over-weighted 182by a number of persons crowding upon it, and partly from its having been weakened by user. Assuming that these were private docks, the private property of the defendants, and that they permitted persons going to or coming from the docks, whether for their own benefit or that of the defendants, to use the way, the dedication of a permission to use the way must be taken to be in the character of a gift. The principle of law as to gifts is, that the giver is not responsible for damage resulting from the insecurity of the thing, unless he knew its evil character at the time, and omitted to caution the donee. There must be something like fraud on the part of the giver before he can be made answerable. It is quite consistent with the declarations in these cases that this land was in the same state at the time of the accident that it was in at the time the permission to use it was originally given. To create a cause of action, something like fraud must be shown. No action will lie against a spiteful man who, seeing another running into a position of danger, merely omits to warn him. To bring the case within the category of actionable negligence, some wrongful act must be shown, or a breach of some positive duty: otherwise, a man who allows strangers to roam over his property would be held to be answerable for not protecting them against any danger which they might encounter whilst using the license. Every man is bound not wilfully to deceive others, or do any act which may place them in danger. It may be, as in Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. N. S. 556, 27 L. J. C. P. 318, that he is responsible if he puts an obstruction on the way which is likely to cause injury to those who by his permission use the way; but I cannot conceive that he could incur any responsibility merely by reason of his allowing the way to be out of repair. For these reasons, I think these declarations disclose no cause of action against the defendants, and that the latter are therefore entitled to judgment.

Keating, J. I am of the same opinion. It is not denied that a declaration of this sort must show a duty and a breach of that duty. But it is said that these declarations are so framed that it would be necessary for the plaintiffs at the trial to prove a duty. I am, however, utterly unable to discover any duty which the defendants have contracted towards the persons whom the plaintiffs represent, or what particular breach of duty is charged. It is said that the condition of the land and bridges was such as to constitute them a kind of trap. I cannot accede to that. The persons who used the way took it with all its imperfections.

Herschell asked and obtained leave to amend within ten days, on payment of costs; otherwise judgment for the defendants.

Civil action tried at Fall Term, 1882, of Beaufort Superior Court, before Gilliam, J.

The defendant appealed.

Smith, C. J. The defendant owns and operates a mill, that has been built and used for one hundred years, at the head of Pungo creek. A few yards below its site the creek divides, and its waters flow in two separate streams. Along its course on either side run parallel public roads each two miles distant, and from them have been constructed private ways leading up to and meeting at the mill, and affording convenient access from the roads to it. One of these ways was opened by former proprietors, and the other in the year 1867, by the defendant.

In 1875 or 1876, the defendant, with other owners of the intervening land, united in opening a connecting way, between those leading from the public roads, from near points in each, so as to form a direct passway across the two divergent streams from one road to the other, 184without going up to the mill. Over these waters they also constructed bridges. While this direct route was opened mainly for the convenience of the defendant and his associates, whose lands were traversed, it was also used as well by the public with full knowledge of the defendant, and without objection from any one in passing between the roads.

In February, 1882, the plaintiff, with his horse, while in the use of this connecting way and passing one of the bridges, broke through, and both were precipitated into the creek, and the damage sustained for the redress of which the suit is brought.

The flooring of the bridge was sound, and there was no visible indication of weakness or decay to put a person passing over it on his guard. But the timbers underneath, and hidden by the floor, were in a rotten and unsound condition, and of this the defendant had full knowledge before the disaster.

He was at his mill and saw what occurred, and going up to the place remarked to the plaintiff that when he saw him about to enter the bridge he thought of calling him to stop, but did not do so; that the bridge was unsafe, and he regretted he did not stop the plaintiff from crossing.

These are the material facts found by the judge, under the consent of parties that he should pass upon the evidence and ascertain the facts of the case, and our only inquiry is upon the correctness of his ruling that the defendant is liable in damages to the plaintiff, and from which the defendant appeals.

The only case in our reports bearing upon the point is that of Mulholland v. Brownrigg, 2 Hawks, 349. There, the defendant’s millpond overflowed parts of the public road, and hollow bridges had been erected, but by whom, did not appear; nor was it shown that they were built at the expense of the public. This condition of things had existed for twenty years, and the mill had been owned and operated by the defendant for the space of five years. The successive mill 185proprietors had kept the overflowed bed of the road and the bridges in repair. The plaintiff’s wagon, loaded with goods, passing a bridge, broke through, in consequence of its decayed state, and the goods were injured by the water. The action was for this injury. It was declared by the Court that as a nuisance was created by the flooding of the road, and the defendant had undertaken to remedy it in constructing the bridges, it was his duty, as that of preceding proprietors of the mill, to maintain them in a proper condition of repair, and ensure the safety of those persons who in using the road had to pass over them, and that the damage having resulted from his negligence he was liable to the plaintiff. The proposition is asserted, that inasmuch as the defendant has undertaken to remedy a nuisance of his own creating, by constructing the bridge, he undertakes also and is bound to keep it in sufficient repair, and is answerable for the consequences of his neglect to do so.

The principle of law, in more general terms and with a wider scope, is thus expressed by Hoar, J., in Combs v. New Bed. Con. Co., 102 Mass. 584. “There is another class of cases in which it has been held that, if a person allows a dangerous place to exist in premises occupied by him, he will be responsible for injury caused thereby, to any other person entering upon the premises by his invitation and procurement, express or implied, and not notified of the danger, if the person injured is in the use of due care.”

“The principle is well settled,” remarks Appleton, C. J., “that a person injured, without neglect on his part, by a defect or obstruction in a way or passage over which he has been induced to pass for a lawful purpose, by an invitation express or implied, can recover damages for the injury sustained, against the individual so inviting, and being in default for the neglect.” Tobin v. P. S. & P. R. R., 59 Maine, 188.

Several illustrations of the principle in its different applications will be found in Wharton on Negligence, § 826, and following.

The facts of the present case bring it within the rule thus enunciated. The way was opened by the defendant and his associates; primarily, though it was for his and their accommodation, yet, permissively, to the general travelling public. It has, in fact, been thus used, and known to the defendant to be thus used, with the acquiescence of himself and the others; and under these circumstances it may fairly be assumed to be an invitation to all who have occasion thus to use it; and hence a voluntary obligation is incurred to keep the bridges in a safe condition, so that no detriment may come to travellers.

Reparation is an inseparable incident of its construction, and, as the obligation to repair rests on no other, the liability for neglect must rest on those who put the bridges there and invited the public to use them.

186It is true the way might have been closed, or the public prohibited by proper notices from passing over it, and no one could complain of the exercise of the right to do so; but as long as the way is left open and the bridges remain for the public to use, it is incumbent on those who constructed and maintain them to see that they are safe for all.

The law does not tolerate the presence over and along a way in common use, of structures apparently sound, but in fact ruinous, like man-traps, inviting travellers to needless disaster and injury. The duty of reparation should rest on some one, and it can rest on none others but those who built and used the bridges, and impliedly at least invite the public to use them also. For neglect of this duty they must abide the consequences.

We hold, therefore, that there is no error, and the judgment must be affirmed.

No error.

GALLAGHER v. HUMPHREY
In the Queen’s Bench, June 14, 1862.
Reported in 6 Law Times Reports, New Series, 684; S. C. 10 Weekly Reporter, 664.^[145]

Declaration. That the defendant was possessed of a crane fixed upon the New Hibernia Wharf, in a certain passage called Montague Close, Southwark, along which passage the plaintiff and others were permitted to pass, repass, and use the same as a way to certain wharves; that the crane was used by the defendant and his servants to raise and lower goods over the passage; that the plaintiff was, with the permission of the proprietors of the passage, lawfully passing along the said passage to the said wharves; yet the defendant, by himself and his servants, so negligently, &c. managed, directed, and conducted themselves that by and through such neglect, &c., a part of said crane broke, whilst the defendant, by his servants, was using the same, and certain goods fell upon the plaintiff whilst he was passing along, &c. and broke both his legs, &c.

Pleas: 1. Not guilty. 2. That the plaintiff and others were not permitted by the proprietors of the said passage to pass, repass, and use the said passage as a way from a highway to certain wharves, as in the declaration charged. 3. That the plaintiff was not, with the permission of the proprietors of the said passage, lawfully passing along the 187said passage from the said highway to the said wharves, as in the declaration alleged.

Issue on the said pleas.

At the trial before Blackburn, J., at the Croydon Summer Assizes, 1861, it was proved that the plaintiff, the son of a laborer employed in the erection of West Kent Wharf, under a contractor for the defendant’s father, had, on the day when the accident happened, taken his father’s dinner, according to his usual custom, to West Kent Wharf, and on his return was obliged to pass under a crane erected on the defendant’s (Hibernia) wharf, and there employed in lowering barrels of sugar. As he was passing the chain broke, and 12 cwt. of sugar fell upon him, inflicting the injuries complained of. The breakage of the chain was caused by negligence in the mode of applying the breaks, for, after the sugar had been attached the chain of the crane was allowed to run, and then the man suddenly put on the break and the jerk caused the weight to rise and fall and the chain to break. Montague Close is approached by steps from London Bridge, the gate to which was usually opened very early in the morning, and numbers of persons, to the knowledge of the defendant, used to pass along the passage, and no objection was made to persons using the way if on legitimate business. The judge left the following questions to the jury: 1st, Was the accident caused by the negligence of the defendant, or was it a pure accident over which no one could have any control? 2d, Could the boy by reasonable care have avoided the accident? 3d, Were the plaintiff and others permitted to go up Montague Close by the owners? 4th, Did the defendant on the evidence as disclosed tacitly give permission to the plaintiff to pass that way? 5th, Was the boy going to the wharf for a legitimate purpose? The jury having answered all the questions in favor of the plaintiff, a verdict was entered for him, with leave for the defendant to move to set it aside and enter a verdict on the second and third issues. The damages were assessed at £100.

A rule nisi having been obtained calling on the plaintiff to show cause why the verdict should not be entered for the defendant on the second and third issues,—

Shee, Serjt., (Grady with him,) showed cause. On the form of the rule as obtained the plaintiff is clearly entitled to succeed, as there was evidence that the defendant did by his acts tacitly give permission to the boy to pass along the close for a lawful purpose, and the jury have so found. But the plaintiff is also entitled to succeed on the broader ground. In Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. N. S. 556, it was held that the defendant was liable for the negligence of his servant in placing materials in a dangerous position, and without notice, on a private road along which persons were accustomed to pass by leave of the owners; and in Southcote v. Stanley, 25 L. J. 339, Ex.,^[146] a visitor to a person’s house 188was held entitled to recover for injuries caused by opening a glass door which was insecure, and which it was necessary for him to open. (He was then stopped by the Court.)

Petersdorff, Serjt., (Bridge with him,) in support of the rule. Montague Close was the defendant’s private property, and no one had any right to be there without his express or implied permission. The lowering heavy goods from the warehouses by cranes is a manifestly dangerous business, and persons using the way took upon themselves whatever risks might be incidental to that business. In Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. N. S. 743, where the defendant was held not to be liable for leaving a quarry unfenced on waste land across which the public were allowed to pass, Williams, J., said: “No right is averred, but merely that the owners allowed persons, for diversion or business, to go across the waste without complaint; that is, that they were not so churlish as to interfere with any one who went across. But a person so using the waste has no right to complain of any excavation he may find there; he must accept the permission with its concomitant conditions, and it may be its perils.” [Blackburn, J. Have you any authority that persons so using the way take upon themselves the negligence of the servants about the place?] In Bolch v. Smith, 31 L. J. 201, Ex., where workmen employed in a dock-yard were permitted to use a place as a way on which revolving machinery had been erected, it was held that the right so to use the place was only the right not to be treated as a trespasser, and that there was no obligation to fence the machinery, and no liability for insufficiently fencing it. [Cockburn, C. J. There was the ordinary state of things in that case, and no superadded negligence.]

Cockburn, C. J. I doubt whether on the pleadings and this rule it is competent to enter into the question of negligence, and whether the whole matter does not turn upon the question whether permission was or was not given to the plaintiff to pass along the way. But I should be sorry to decide this case upon that narrow ground. I quite agree that a person who merely gives permission to pass and repass along his close is not bound to do more than allow the enjoyment of such permissive right under the circumstances in which the way exists; that he is not bound, for instance, if the way passes along the side of a dangerous ditch or along the edge of a precipice, to fence off the ditch or precipice. The grantee must use the permission as the thing exists. It is a different question, however, where negligence on the part of the person granting the permission is superadded. It cannot be that, having granted permission to use a way subject to existing dangers, he is to be allowed to do any further act to endanger the safety of the person using the way. The plaintiff took the permission to use the way subject to a certain amount of risk and danger, but the case assumes a different aspect when the negligence of the defendant—for the negligence of his servants is his—is added to that risk and danger. The 189way in question was a private one leading to different wharves. On part of the way a wharf was being constructed or repaired, and the plaintiff’s father was employed upon that work. It was the father’s habit not to go home to his meals, and the boy used to take them to him at the wharf, and on this occasion was passing along carrying his father’s dinner. The plaintiff was therefore passing along on a perfectly legitimate purpose, and the evidence is that the defendant permitted the way to be used by persons having legitimate business upon the premises. That being so, the defendant places himself by such permission under the obligation of not doing anything by himself or his servants from which injury may arise, and if by any act of negligence on the part of himself or his servants injury does arise, he is liable to an action. That is the whole question. The plaintiff is passing along the passage by permission of the defendant, and though he could only enjoy that permission under certain contingencies, yet when injury arises not from any of those contingencies, but from the superadded negligence of the defendant, the defendant is liable for that negligence as much as if it had been upon a public highway.

Wightman, J. The rule in this case was obtained on a very narrow ground. The declaration having alleged that the plaintiff and others were permitted to pass, repass, and use the way in question, and that the plaintiff was there with the permission of the proprietors of the passage lawfully passing along the passage, the defendant took issue on the fact whether such right to pass along the passage was permitted by the defendant. I think that there was evidence to show that the plaintiff had the permission of the defendant to use the way, and that he was lawfully there at the time of the accident. I entirely agree with my Lord Chief Justice that the plaintiff is also entitled to succeed on the larger ground. It appears to me that such a permission as is here alleged may be subject to the qualification that the person giving it shall not be liable for injuries to persons using the way arising from the ordinary state of things, or of the ordinary nature of the business carried on; but that is distinguishable from the case of injuries wholly arising from the negligence of that person’s servants.

Crompton, J. I am of the same opinion. I think we should look not only to the grounds upon which this rule was granted, but to the real defence set up by my brother Petersdorff. That defence is, in effect, that the plaintiff was using the way only under the qualified permission that he should be subject to any negligence of the plaintiff or his servants. If that defence be sustainable upon the general issue, or otherwise, we should see whether it is made out, and I am of opinion that it is not made out. I quite agree with what has fallen from my Lord and my brother Wightman. There may be a public dedication of a way, or a private permission to use it subject to a qualification; for example, subject to the danger arising from a stone step or a projecting house; and in such a case the public, or the persons using the way, 190take the right to use it subject to such qualification; but they are not thereby to be made subject to risks from what may be called active negligence. Whenever a party has a right to pass over certain ground, if injury occurs to him while so passing from negligence, he has a right to compensation. The argument of my brother Petersdorff fails therefore upon this ground. I think, too, that it is doubtful whether even the fact that the injured person was present unlawfully would excuse negligence, though it would be an element in determining what is negligence, and what is not. In the present case, however, that question does not arise, as there is no doubt the plaintiff was there upon a legitimate errand.

Blackburn, J. I am of the same opinion. If the substantial defence raised existed I am not sure but what it could be raised under the present pleadings, and the leave reserved; but at any rate I think we could amend the pleadings, if necessary, to raise it. But I do not think that any such defence exists here. The plaintiff seeks to recover for the negligence of the defendant. Now, the existence of negligence depends upon the duty of the party charged with it. I concur with the judgment of the Court of Exchequer in Bolch v. Smith that, when permission is given to a person to pass through a yard where dangerous machinery is at work, no duty is cast upon the person giving such permission to fence the machinery against the person permitted so to pass. That decision does not touch the present case, which falls rather within the remark then made by my brother Wilde: “If persons in the condition of the defendant had left anything like a trap in route used on the premises, I am far from saying they would not be liable.” This is more like the case of Corby v. Hill, where the matter placed upon the road is called a trap set for persons using it; and it is clear that when one gives another permission to pass over his land, it is his duty not to set a trap for him. Here the boy was passing upon a legitimate errand while the defendant’s servants were employed in lowering weights. If he had sustained any injury by a weight descending, without any negligence of the defendant’s servants, there is no doubt that he could not recover, but he suffered through the negligence of the persons lowering the bags, who were well aware that people were in the habit of passing below, and that danger would arise if the chain broke. I think, therefore, that it was the duty of the defendant and his servants to use ordinary care that the chain should not break. The jury have found that they neglected that duty, and I do not disagree with their finding. Our decision does not conflict with the judgment of the Court of Exchequer in Bolch v. Smith, or of the Common Pleas in Hounsell v. Smyth.

Action for damage to plaintiff’s horse.^[148] Trial by the court. The case made by plaintiff’s evidence was in substance as follows:—

Defendant purchased a lot of land in October, 1890. Across this lot ran a road leading from one street to another, having a well-defined track made by wagons, horses, etc. The road was not a public highway, but had been used by the travelling public generally for a period of from five to fifteen years. Defendant’s lot was not fenced on the front and rear, the direction in which the road ran, but was fenced on the sides. After building a house on the lot, defendant “informed” the people travelling over this roadway not to use it any longer for such purpose; but no heed was paid to this. In the latter part of December, 1890, in order the more effectually to stop the travel over the lot, the defendant stretched a strand of barbed wire across the rear end of the lot, about three feet above the ground and at right angles, or nearly so, with said road. The entire fence was upon the appellee’s lot. No notice of any kind was given of this obstruction otherwise than as it advertised itself. The wire could not be seen in the dark of night and only a short distance—twenty to twenty-five feet—in daylight. There were no posts that could be seen from the road in the night when the accident hereinafter alluded to occurred. The appellant, who lived in that community, had frequently travelled over the road leading across this lot, and had no notice or knowledge of its being closed up with the wire. The last time before the accident when he passed over the lot was in September or October, 1890. At about 6 o’clock on the evening of January 1, 1891, after it had become too dark to see this wire, the appellant attempted to drive across this lot, in the road, to perform some legitimate errand on the other side. Not knowing of the presence of the wire, he drove his horse briskly ahead of him until the animal came up suddenly against the barbs, cutting a gash in its front leg four to five inches in length and two inches deep, severing the frontal muscle, from which the horse was injured, to the damage of the appellant.

192When the appellant had closed his evidence, the learned judge observed that he had examined the law of the case, and saw no reason why a man could not fence in his own land, on his own ground, and that, [if] “a travelling man over such property taking the license into his own hand, without invitation or inducement, because others do so, suffers injury, he must put up with it.”

The judge ruled that plaintiff’s evidence did not make out a prima facie right to recover; and found for defendant; denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial. Plaintiff appealed.

Reinhard, C. J. [The learned judge said that a license may be created either by parol or by acquiescence in the use of the property for the purpose in question without objection. He held that plaintiff was prima facie a licensee, and not a trespasser.]

A mere license, however, to travel over the land of another may be revoked at any time at the pleasure of the licensor. Parish v. Kaspar, 109 Ind. 586; Simpson v. Wright, 21 Ill. App. 67; 13 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 555.

Where the license is once proved, however, or a prima facie case of such license has been made out, it then devolves upon the party asserting a revocation to prove it. Blunt v. Barrett, 54 N. Y. Sup. 548.

Consequently if the license in the present case was claimed to have been discontinued or revoked, the burden was upon appellees to show that fact.

Was such revocation established, or was there any evidence from which the court could infer the same?

The transfer of the property, or the fencing of the same, may, under ordinary circumstances, be sufficient to amount to a revocation. Ordinarily a man has a right to use his own property as he pleases, but at the same time this gives him no right to use it to the detriment or injury of his neighbor. We think the erection of an ordinary fence around the lot, one that was not calculated to inflict injury, was proper and right, and it was the privilege of the appellees to thus close up their premises without asking of any one the permission to do so. But whenever they undertook to inclose their property under circumstances that made it dangerous to those likely to pass over it, and which the appellees must anticipate would incur injury by it, it became their duty, if such dangerous means must be employed to accomplish the purpose, to give some sort of warning.

Thus it was held in Houston, etc., R. W. Co. v. Boozer, 70 Tex. 530, that if the owner of the land has been accustomed to permit others to use his property to travel over to such an extent as to produce a confident belief that the use will not be objected to, he must not mislead them by failing to give a proper warning of his intention to recall the permission. See, also, Cornish v. Stubbs, 5 L. R. C. P. 334; Mellor v. Watkins, L. R. 9 Q. B. 400.

193While we grant the clear right of the appellees to revoke the license, we assert as emphatically that they must do so in a manner not calculated under ordinary circumstances to inflict injury unnecessarily. Although a licensee acquires no interest, as the term is usually employed, nor property right in the real estate over which he is allowed to travel, he yet has the right not to be wilfully or even recklessly injured by the acts of the owner. It cannot be said truthfully that the owner does not owe some duty to a licensee.

At the time of the stretching of the wire the appellees must have known that the public would continue to travel over this lot until in some way prevented from doing so. They must have known further that a single strand of wire, without posts at the roadside, or other means calculated to attract the attention of passers-by, could not be seen in the dark, and was a dangerous obstruction, liable to injure those coming in contact with it. They must, therefore, have anticipated just such results as the one that happened to the appellant. It was their clear duty, consequently, in case they desired to make use of the dangerous wire, to shut out the public from going over their lot, to give some warning by which the presence of the wire might be detected. Had they used an ordinary fence, one constructed out of material not necessarily dangerous to life and limb even if encountered in the dark, the case might be otherwise, and notice might not have been necessary. But the stretching of the barbed wire, without notice, under the circumstances was, we think, a plain violation of duty.

The case made by the evidence is one of more than mere passive negligence. In that class of cases it is well enough settled that there is no liability to a mere licensee. Thus where the owner of premises inadvertently leaves unguarded a pit, hatchway, trap-door, cistern, or other dangerous opening, and one who is present merely by permission and not by invitation, express or implied, falls into the opening and is injured, he cannot recover, as, in such case, he enjoys the license subject to the risks. Thiele v. McManus, 3 Ind. App. 132. But while an owner may not be liable to one who is thus injured by mere inattention and neglect of the owner, there could be no doubt of his liability if it were shown that the obstruction was placed there purposely to keep the licensee from entering the premises, or for the very purpose of inflicting injury if an attempt be made to cross. As well might an owner give permission to his neighbor to travel over his field and then set a trap to hurt him.

Where the owner of ground digs a pit or erects other dangerous obstructions at a place where it is probable that persons or animals may go and become injured, without using proper care to guard the same, it is well settled in this state that there is a liability, and that the owner must respond in damages for any injury incurred by such negligence. Young v. Harvey, 16 Ind. 314; Graves v. Thomas, 95 Ind. 194361; Mayhew v. Burns, 103 Ind. 328; Penso v. McCormick, 125 Ind. 116.

A barbed wire fence is not of itself an unlawful one, and the building of such along a public highway is not necessarily a negligent act; but yet, even in such case as that, there may be circumstances under which a person building such a fence, in a negligent manner, will be held liable for damages caused thereby. Sisk v. Crump, 112 Ind. 504. All these cases proceed upon the assumption that the party whose negligence caused the injury owed the other some duty which he failed to perform, for, after all, negligence is nothing more nor less than the failure to discharge some legal duty or obligation.

Even trespassers have some rights an owner is bound to respect. If a person, without permission, should attempt to cross the field of another, and tramp down his growing grain, it would not be contended, we apprehend, that this gave the owner any right to kill the trespasser, or even to seriously injure him unnecessarily. The use of spring guns, traps, and other devices to catch and injure trespassing persons or animals has been condemned both in this country and in England. Hooker v. Miller, 37 Iowa, 613; Deane v. Clayton, 7 Taunt. 489. If such means may not be employed against trespassers, we do not see upon what principle it can be held that it is proper to use them against one who has a permissive right to go upon the property where they are placed.

While in the case at bar there may be no proof of intentional injury, the facts, we think, bring the case within the principle declared in Young v. Harvey, supra; Graves v. Thomas, supra; Penso v. McCormick, supra; and Sisk v. Crump, supra.

The court should have sustained the motion for a new trial.

INDERMAUR v. DAMES
In the Common Pleas, February 26, 1866.
Reported in Law Reports, 1 Common Pleas, 274.

The judgment of the Court (Erle, C. J., Willes, Keating, and Montague Smith, JJ.) was delivered by^[150]

Willes, J. This was an action to recover damages for hurt sustained by the plaintiff’s falling down a shaft at the defendant’s place of business, through the actionable negligence, as it was alleged, of the defendant and his servants.

195At the trial before the Lord Chief Justice at the sittings here after Michaelmas Term, the plaintiff had a verdict for 400l. damages, subject to leave reserved.

A rule was obtained by the defendant in last term to enter a nonsuit, or to arrest the judgment, or for a new trial because of the verdict being against the evidence.

The rule was argued during the last term, before Erle, C. J., Keating and Montague Smith, JJ., and myself, when we took time to consider. We are now of opinion that the rule ought to be discharged.

It appears that the defendant was a sugar-refiner, at whose place of business there was a shaft four feet three inches square, and twenty-nine feet three inches deep, used for moving sugar. The shaft was necessary, usual, and proper in the way of the defendant’s business. Whilst it was in use, it was necessary and proper that it should be open and unfenced. When it was not in use, it was sometimes necessary, with reference to ventilation, that it should be open. It was not necessary that it should, when not in use, be unfenced; and it might then without injury to the business have been fenced by a rail. Whether it was usual to fence similar shafts when not in use did not distinctly appear; nor is it very material, because such protection was unquestionably proper, in the sense of reasonable, with reference to the safety of persons having a right to move about upon the floor where the shaft in fact was, because in its nature it formed a pitfall there. At the time of the accident it was not in use, and it was open and unfenced.

The plaintiff was a journeyman gas-fitter in the employ of a patentee who had supplied the defendant with his patent gas-regulator, to be paid for upon the terms that it effected a certain saving: and, for the purpose of ascertaining whether such a saving had been effected, the plaintiff’s employer required to test the action of the regulator. He accordingly sent the plaintiff to the defendant’s place of business for that purpose; and, whilst the plaintiff was engaged upon the floor where the shaft was, he (under circumstances as to which the evidence was conflicting, but) accidentally, and, as the jury found, without any fault or negligence on his part, fell down the shaft, and was seriously hurt.

It was argued, that, as the defendant had objected to the plaintiff’s working at the place upon a former occasion, he (the plaintiff) could not be considered as having been in the place with the defendant’s leave at the time of the accident: but the evidence did not establish a peremptory or absolute objection to the plaintiff’s being employed, so as to make the sending of him upon the occasion of the accident any more against the defendant’s will than the sending of any other workman: and the employment, and the implied authority resulting therefrom to test the apparatus were not of a character involving personal preference (dilectus personæ), so as to make it necessary that 196the patentee should himself attend. It was not suggested that the work was not journeyman’s work.

It was also argued that the plaintiff was at best in the condition of a bare licensee or guest who, it was urged, is only entitled to use the place as he finds it, and whose complaint may be said to wear the color of ingratitude, so long as there is no design to injure him: see Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. N. S. 371, 29 L. J. (C. P.) 203.

We think this argument fails, because the capacity in which the plaintiff was there was that of a person on lawful business, in the course of fulfilling a contract in which both the plaintiff and the defendant had an interest, and not upon bare permission. No sound distinction was suggested between the case of the servant and the case of the employer, if the latter had thought proper to go in person; nor between the case of a person engaged in doing the work for the defendant pursuant to his employment, and that of a person testing the work which he had stipulated with the defendant to be paid for if it stood the test; whereby impliedly the workman was to be allowed an on-stand to apply that test, and a reasonable opportunity of doing so. Any duty to enable the workman to do the work in safety, seems equally to exist during the accessory employment of testing: and any duty to provide for the safety of the master workman, seems equally owing to the servant workman whom he may lawfully send in his place.

It is observable, that, in the case of Southcote v. Stanley, 1 H. & N. 247, 25 L. J. (Ex.) 339, upon which much reliance was properly placed for the defendant, Alderson, B., drew the distinction between a bare licensee and a person coming on business, and Bramwell, B., between active negligence in respect of unusual danger known to the host and not to the guest, and a bare defect of construction or repair, which the host was only negligent in not finding out or anticipating the consequence of.

There is considerable resemblance, though not a strict analogy, between this class of cases and those founded upon the rule as to voluntary loans and gifts, that there is no remedy against the lender or giver for damage sustained from the loan or gift, except in case of unusual danger known to and concealed by the lender or giver. Macarthy v. Younge, 6 H. & N. 329, 30 L. J. (Ex.) 227. The case of the carboy of vitriol^[151] was one in which this Court held answerable the bailor of an unusually dangerous chattel, the quality of which he knew, but did not tell the bailee, who did not know it, and, who as a proximate consequence of his not knowing, and without any fault on his part, suffered damage.

The cases referred to as to the liability for accidents to servants and persons employed in other capacities in a business or profession which necessarily and obviously exposes them to danger, as in Seymour v. 197Maddox, 16 Q. B. 326, also have their special reasons. The servant or other person so employed is supposed to undertake not only all the ordinary risks of the employment into which he enters, but also all extraordinary risks which he knows of and thinks proper to incur, including those caused by the misconduct of his fellow-servants, not however including those which can be traced to mere breach of duty on the part of the master. In the case of a statutory duty to fence, even the knowledge and reluctant submission of the servant who has sustained an injury, are held to be only elements in determining whether there has been contributory negligence: how far this is the law between master and servant, where there is danger known to the servant, and no statute for his protection, we need not now consider, because the plaintiff in this case was not a servant of the defendant, but the servant of the patentee. The question was adverted to, but not decided, in Clarke v. Holmes, 7 H. & N. 937, 31 L. J. (Ex.) 356.^[152]

The authorities respecting guests and other bare licensees, and those respecting servants and others who consent to incur a risk, being therefore inapplicable, we are to consider what is the law as to the duty of the occupier of a building with reference to persons resorting thereto in the course of business, upon his invitation, express or implied. The common case is that of a customer in a shop: but it is obvious that this is only one of a class; for, whether the customer is actually chaffering at the time, or actually buys or not, he is, according to an undoubted course of authority and practice, entitled to the exercise of reasonable care by the occupier to prevent damage from unusual danger, of which the occupier knows or ought to know, such as a trap-door left open, unfenced, and unlighted: Lancaster Canal Company v. Parnaby, 11 Ad. & E. 223, 3 P. & D. 162; per cur. Chapman v. Rothwell, E. B. & E. 168, 27 L. J. (Q. B.) 315, where Southcote v. Stanley, 1 H. & N. 247, 25 L. J. (Ex.) 339, was cited, and the Lord Chief Justice, then Erle, J., said: “The distinction is between the case of a visitor (as the plaintiff was in Southcote v. Stanley), who must take care of himself, and a customer, who, as one of the public, is invited for the purposes of business carried on by the defendant.” This protection does not depend upon the fact of a contract being entered into in the way of the shopkeeper’s business during the stay of the customer, but upon the fact that the customer has come into the shop in pursuance of a tacit invitation given by the shopkeeper, with a view to business which concerns himself. And, if a customer were, after buying goods, to go back to the shop in order to complain of the quality, or that the change was not right, he would be just as much there upon business which concerned the shopkeeper, and as much entitled to protection during this accessory visit, though it might not be for the shopkeeper’s benefit, as during the principal visit, 198which was. And if, instead of going himself, the customer were to send his servant, the servant would be entitled to the same consideration as the master.

The class to which the customer belongs includes persons who go not as mere volunteers, or licensees, or guests, or servants, or persons whose employment is such that danger may be considered as bargained for, but who go upon business which concerns the occupier, and upon his invitation, express or implied.

And, with respect to such a visitor at least, we consider it settled law, that he, using reasonable care on his part for his own safety, is entitled to expect that the occupier shall on his part use reasonable care to prevent damage from unusual danger which he knows or ought to know; and that, where there is evidence of neglect, the question whether such reasonable care has been taken, by notice, lighting, guarding or otherwise, and whether there was contributory negligence in the sufferer, must be determined by a jury as matter of fact.

In the case of Wilkinson v. Fairrie, 1 H. & C. 633, 32 L. J. (Ex.) 73, relied upon for the defendant, the distinction was pointed out between ordinary accidents, such as falling down stairs, which ought to be imputed to the carelessness or misfortune of the sufferer, and accidents from unusual, covert danger, such as that of falling down into a pit.

It was ably insisted for the defendant that he could only be bound to keep his place of business in the same condition as other places of business of the like kind, according to the best known mode of construction. And this argument seems conclusive to prove that there was no absolute duty to prevent danger, but only a duty to make the place as little dangerous as such a place could reasonably be, having regard to the contrivances necessarily used in carrying on the business. But we think the argument is inapplicable to the facts of this case: first, because it was not shown, and probably could not be, that there was any usage never to fence shafts; secondly, because it was proved, that, when the shaft was not in use, a fence might be resorted to without inconvenience; and no usage could establish that what was in fact unnecessarily dangerous was in law reasonably safe, as against persons towards whom there was a duty to be careful.

Having fully considered the notes of the Lord Chief Justice, we think there was evidence for the jury that the plaintiff was in the place by the tacit invitation of the defendant, upon business in which he was concerned; that there was by reason of the shaft unusual danger known to the defendant; and that the plaintiff sustained damage by reason of that danger, and of the neglect of the defendant and his servants to use reasonably sufficient means to avert or warn him of it: and we cannot say that the proof of contributory negligence was so clear that we ought on this ground to set aside the verdict of the jury.

199As for the argument that the plaintiff contributed to the accident by not following his guide, the answer may be that the guide, knowing the place, ought rather to have waited for him; and this point, as matter of fact, is set at rest by the verdict.

For these reasons, we think there was evidence of a cause of action in respect of which the jury were properly directed; and, as every reservation of leave to enter a nonsuit carries with it an implied condition that the Court may amend, if necessary, in such a manner as to raise the real question, leave ought to be given to the plaintiff, in the event of the defendant desiring to appeal or to bring a writ of error, to amend the declaration by stating the facts as proved,—in effect, that the defendant was the occupier of and carried on business at the place; that there was a shaft, very dangerous to persons in the place, which the defendant knew and the plaintiff did not know; that the plaintiff, by invitation and permission of the defendant, was near the shaft, upon business of the defendant, in the way of his own craft as a gas-fitter, for hire, &c., stating the circumstances, the negligence, and that by reason thereof the plaintiff was injured. The details of the amendment can, if necessary, be settled at chambers.

As to the motion to arrest the judgment, for the reasons already given, and upon condition that an amendment is to be made if and when required by the defendant, it will follow the fate of the motion to enter a nonsuit.

The other arguments for the defendant, to which we have not particularly adverted, were no more than objections to the verdict as being against the evidence: but it would be wrong to grant a new trial without a reasonable expectation that another jury might take a different view of the facts; and, as the Lord Chief Justice does not express any dissatisfaction with the verdict, the rule upon this, the only remaining ground, must also be discharged.

Affirmed in Exchequer Chamber, L. R. 2 C. P. 311.

Tort, for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by the fall of an elevator upon which he was riding while in the defendant’s employ. Trial in the Superior Court, before Mason, C. J., who directed the jury to return a verdict for the defendant; and reported the case for the determination of this court. If the case should have been submitted to the jury, judgment was to be entered for the plaintiff in a sum named; otherwise, judgment on the verdict. The facts sufficiently appear in the opinion.

201The case was submitted on briefs to all the justices.

Allen, J. The general condition of the elevator was such that a jury might find that the defendant would be negligent in continuing its use for carrying workmen up and down while engaged in their work, if this was done without warning them of the risk. It is true that the particular defect which caused the accident was not open to observation or easy to discover. But there was evidence tending to show that the accident was caused by the use of the elevator while it was in a condition which rendered it unsuitable for use, and that the defendant was fairly put upon inquiry as to its safety; and that the defendant’s duty in this respect was different from and greater than that of the workmen themselves.

The question then remains whether the posting of the notices in the elevator^[154] showed such a performance by the defendant of its duty of warning or cautioning the workmen, or such contributory negligence or assumption of the risk on the part of the plaintiff, as to entitle the defendant to have the case withdrawn from the jury. While upon the evidence reported a verdict for the defendant would be more satisfactory, we are unable to hold that the defendant was entitled to such verdict as a matter of law. As a general rule, the sufficiency of such warning or caution is a question of fact for the jury. Indermaur v. Dames, L. R. 1 C. P. 274; S. C. L. R. 2 C. P. 311. It is true that the plaintiff was not at liberty to shut his eyes in order to avoid reading a plain notice of warning. If it be assumed that the plaintiff must be held chargeable with a knowledge of the contents of the notice, or at least that the defendant performed its duty of cautioning the workmen by posting the notices in the elevator, we think the plaintiff still had the right to go to the jury upon the question whether the notices remained in force at the time of the accident, or had become a dead letter. There was evidence tending to show that the notices were put in the elevator a long time before the accident by a former treasurer whose connection with the company had then ceased, that they had become soiled and somewhat indistinct and torn, and that all of the defendant’s workmen, including the general superintendent of the building, were in the regular habit of using the elevator to carry them up and down, and had been so for some months prior to the accident. There was room for a legitimate argument that the defendant could not have intended to keep such a rule in force forever, and to furnish an elevator for permanent use by the men at their own sole risk; and that the defendant expected the men to use it while they were engaged in its work, and that it was for the defendant’s advantage that they should do so, from the saving of time thereby secured. It might be found that the plaintiff, even if he knew of the terms of the notice, might nevertheless assume that its force had ceased.

202If one who has posted a notice of entire prohibition permits it to be habitually disregarded, as, for instance, a notice not to ride on the platform of a street railway car, or in the baggage car of a train, a practical invitation to violate it may be inferred from habitual usage which is known to him. Long continued practice to the contrary may have the effect to supersede or show a waiver of the rule. O’Donnell v. Allegheny Valley Railroad, 59 Penn. St. 239; Pennsylvania Railroad v. Langdon, 92 Penn. St. 21; Waterbury v. New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 17 Fed. Rep. 671. The notice in the present case was not one of entire prohibition, but, in the opinion of a majority of the court, the plaintiff upon the evidence had a right to go to the jury upon the question whether it still remained in force; and, according to the terms of the report, there must be

GARFIELD COAL CO. v. ROCKLAND LIME CO.
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, June 23, 1903.
Reported in 184 Massachusetts Reports, 60.

Tort, by the owner of the coal barge Western Belle, for injury to that vessel by grounding on a ledge of rock embedded in the mud at the bottom of the defendant’s dock at Rockland, Maine.

In the Superior Court the case was tried by a judge without a jury.

“It appeared at the trial that defendant was part owner of a dock, and used it for the discharge of cargoes of coal consigned to it. Plaintiff had sold coal to the defendant, and sent it a barge loaded therewith.”^[156]

The plaintiff requested the judge to make certain rulings, including the following:—

“4. It is not necessary for the plaintiff to show that the defendant knew of the ledge; it is sufficient if its existence could have been discovered by reasonable diligence.”

The judge refused to make any of the rulings, and found for the defendant. The plaintiff excepted.

Lathrop, J.... The general rules of law which are applicable in cases of this character are the same in England and in this country, and are the same at common law and in admiralty. They are as well stated in the case of Nickerson v. Tirrell, 127 Mass. 236, 239, as perhaps in any case: “The owner or occupant of a dock is liable in damages 203to a person who, by his invitation express or implied, makes use of it, for an injury caused by any defect or unsafe condition of the dock which the occupant negligently causes or permits to exist, if such person was himself in the exercise of due care. Such occupant is not an insurer of the safety of his dock,^[157] but he is required to use reasonable care to keep his dock in such a state as to be reasonably safe for use by vessels which he invites to enter it, or for which he holds it out as fit and ready. If he fails to use such due care, if there is a defect which is known to him, or which by the use of ordinary care and diligence should be known to him, he is guilty of negligence and liable to the person who, using due care, is injured thereby. Wendell v. Baxter, 12 Gray, 494; Carleton v. Franconia Iron & Steel Co., 99 Mass. 216; Thompson v. Northeastern Railway, 2 B. & S. 106; Mersey Docks v. Gibbs, L. R. 1 H. L. 93.” Other cases bearing upon this point are: Smith v. Burnett, 173 U. S. 430; Barber v. Abendroth, 102 N. Y. 406; Barrett v. Black, 56 Maine, 498; Sawyer v. Oakman, 1 Lowell, 134, s. c. 7 Blatchf. 290; The John A. Berkman, 6 Fed. Rep. 535; Pennsylvania Railroad v. Atha, 22 Fed. Rep. 920; Smith v. Havemeyer, 36 Fed. Rep. 927; Manhattan Transportation Co. v. Mayor, 37 Fed. Rep. 160; Union Ice Co. v. Crowell, 55 Fed. Rep. 87. The rule is the same in England. Gibbs v. Liverpool Docks, 3 H. & N. 164; s. c. nom. Mersey Docks v. Gibbs, 11 H. L. Cas. 686, and L. R. 1 H. L. 93; The Moorcock, 13 P. D. 157, and 14 P. D. 64.

It is clear that the vessel was in the defendant’s dock on business, and was, therefore, there by invitation. The judge has found, and the evidence shows, that the injury was caused by a ledge of rocks embedded in the mud at the bottom of the dock. The questions of fact which he did not pass upon are whether the master was in the exercise of due care, and whether the defendant knew of the defect or could by the exercise of reasonable care and diligence have ascertained its existence.

The fourth request should have been given. See cases cited above.

From Superior Court of Marion County; Vincent G. Clifford, Special Judge.

Action by George J. Dawson against the Indianapolis Street Railway Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.

Roby, J. Action by appellee. Verdict and judgment for $500. Demurrers to first and second paragraphs of complaint overruled. Motion for a new trial overruled.

It is averred in the first paragraph of complaint, in substance, as extracted from a multitude of words, that appellant was on August 25, 1901, a corporation operating a street railway system in Indianapolis and was a common carrier for hire; that it owned a park near said city, and maintained certain attractions therein to induce persons to ride on its cars, inviting them to said park; that on the day named it gave a free band concert therein, the same having been extensively advertised prior thereto; that on said day appellee, accompanied by a lady, took passage upon one of its regular cars, and was conveyed to said park; that a large number of persons were daily transported thereto, among them a large number of lawless persons who were hostile to colored people, of whom appellee was one, their names being unknown to plaintiff, and who had long before said day entered into a conspiracy “to suppress, molest, assault, and insult colored people generally who might visit said park;” that in pursuance of such conspiracy said persons assaulted and beat appellee, and drove him from the park; that he and his companion demeaned themselves in a ladylike and gentlemanly manner, but upon arriving at the park were set upon by a large number of white boys and young men, appellee being assaulted and beaten by them; that appellant had, and had had for a long time prior to said day, full notice and knowledge of said conditions, and of the unlawful purposes aforesaid, and of acts of violence committed thereunder, but took no steps to prevent such conduct; that early in the afternoon of said day said lawless men and boys began marching and drilling openly in said park preparatory to an attack upon any colored male person who should be found there later, appellant taking no steps to prevent such conduct or to notify colored people of the danger, although it had knowledge thereof; that neither appellant nor its officers made any objection to the open and notorious gathering of white men and boys for the unlawful purpose stated; that it was negligent and indifferent in not employing and using a sufficient number of guards and policemen to maintain the peace; that two of its guards or policemen aided and abetted the wrong done appellee by standing by when he was 205being unmercifully beaten by said crowd of lawless white men and boys, and offering him no assistance, although they were able to do so, and could have prevented injury to him. “Wherefore, by reason of the matters therein stated, the plaintiff has been damaged,” etc. The second paragraph of complaint is somewhat more extended than the first one, but for the purpose of this opinion the statement made is sufficient.

The pleading charges appellant with notice of the alleged conspiracy, with acquiescence therein, and, by its guards or policemen, with passive participation in the actual assault made upon appellee. “When one expressly or by implication invites others to come upon his premises, whether for business or any other purpose, it is his duty to be reasonably sure that he is not inviting them into danger, and to that end he must exercise ordinary care and prudence to render the place reasonably safe for the visit.” Cooley, Torts (2d ed.), 718; Howe v. Ohmart, 7 Ind. App. 32, 38; Richmond, etc., R. Co. v. Moore, 94 Va. 493, 37 L. R. A. 258; North Manchester, etc., Assn. v. Wilcox, 4 Ind. App. 141; Penso v. McCormick, 125 Ind. 116, 21 Am. St. 211.

No case has been cited or found where the premises upon which the injury complained of occurred, and to which the complainant came by invitation, were made unsafe through a conspiracy of the nature set up herein. Danger usually has been attributed to some defect in the premises themselves. But as a matter of principle it is quite as reprehensible to invite one knowing an enemy is awaiting him with the intent to assault and beat him as it would be to invite him without having made the floor or the stairway secure. One attending an agricultural fair in response to a general invitation extended to the public has been awarded damages against the association where his horse was killed by target shooting upon a part of the ground allowed for such purpose. Conradt v. Clauve, 93 Ind. 476, 47 Am. Rep. 388.

Recoveries have also been sustained: When spectators rushed upon a race-track, causing a collision between horses being driven thereon. North Manchester, etc., Assn. v. Wilcox, 4 Ind. App. 141. When an opening was left in a fence surrounding a race-track through which one of the horses, running, went among the spectators. Windeler v. Rush County Fair Assn., 27 Ind. App. 92. Where horses were started on a race-track in opposite directions at the same time, causing collision. Fairmount, etc., Assn. v. Downey, 146 Ind. 503. Where a horse with a vicious habit of track bolting was permitted to run in a race, such horse bolting the track, causing injury. Lane v. Minnesota, etc., Soc., 62 Minn. 175, 29 L. R. A. 708. Recognizing the rule of reasonable care to make the premises safe, a recovery was denied in the absence of any evidence of the immediate cause of a horse running through the crowds. Hart v. Washington Park Club, 157 Ill. 9, 29 L. R. A. 492. Where a street car company maintained a park as a 206place of attraction for passengers over its line, the falling of a pole used by one making a balloon ascension, under a contract, injuring a bystander, recovery was allowed, the rule being announced that the company must use proper care to protect its patrons from danger while on its grounds. Richmond, etc., R. Co. v. Moore, 94 Va. 493, 37 L. R. A. 258. Where a street car company maintained a large stage for exhibitions, in a pleasure resort owned by it, and made a written contract with a manager, by which the latter furnished various entertainments, among which was target shooting, one injured by a split bullet was allowed to recover, it being held that he might safely rely on those who provided the exhibition and invited his attendance to take due care to make the place safe from such injury as he received, the question of due care being one for the jury. Thompson v. Lowell, etc., St. R. Co., 170 Mass. 577, 40 L. R. A. 345; Curtis v. Kiley, 153 Mass. 123.

The duty of common carriers to protect their passengers from injury on account of unlawful violence by persons not connected with their service has frequently furnished material for judicial consideration. The New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals approved an exhaustive and carefully considered opinion delivered by the Supreme Court of that State to the effect that a passenger who, while attempting to have her baggage checked, was knocked down and injured by cabmen, in no sense servants of the carrier, scuffling on a passageway under its control, might recover against it. Exton v. Central R. Co., 63 N. J. L. 356, 56 L. R. A. 508. In what seems to have been a pioneer case, it was held by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1866, that it was the duty of the trainmen on a passenger-train to exert the forces at their disposal to prevent injury to passengers by others fighting in the car. Pittsburgh, etc., R. Co. v. Hinds, 53 Pa. St. 512. Ten years later the Supreme Court of Mississippi, after very exhaustive arguments by eminent counsel of national reputation, reached the same conclusion. New Orleans, etc., R. Co. v. Burke, 53 Miss. 200.

Without further elaboration it may safely be said that the unusual character of an alleged peril, from which it is averred the appellant did not use due care to protect its visitors, does not affect the right of recovery, it being otherwise justified. The demurrers were therefore correctly overruled.

Evidence was introduced of other prior assaults at said park upon colored persons, and articles previously published by daily newspapers in the city describing such occurrences were also admitted. In order to determine whether appellant used due care, it was essential to show its knowledge or means of information relative to the conditions alleged to exist, rendering it dangerous for appellee to visit the park. The evidence of similar occurrences was competent as tending to show notice of the conditions. Toledo, etc., R. Co. v. Milligan, 2 207Ind. App. 578; City of Delphi v. Lowery, 74 Ind. 520, 39 Am. Rep. 98; City of Goshen v. England, 119 Ind. 368, 375.

The facts upon which appellant’s liability depends otherwise than heretofore considered were questions for the determination of the jury. There was evidence tending to establish, and from which the jury might properly find, the existence of such facts.

Appellant and its officers appear to have displayed indifference to the conditions existing which it and they could not well help knowing. This may have been due to the idea, sometimes entertained, that as to acts of lawlessness it is a sufficient duty of citizenship to be indifferent. Such idea is entirely erroneous.

SWEENY v. OLD COLONY RAILROAD COMPANY
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, January Term, 1865.
Reported in 10 Allen, 368.

Tort to recover damages for a personal injury sustained by being run over by the defendants’ cars, while the plaintiff was crossing their railroad by license, on a private way leading from South Street to Federal Street, in Boston.

At the trial in this Court, before Chapman, J., it appeared that this private way, which is called Lehigh Street, was made by the South Cove Corporation for their own benefit, and that they own the fee of it; that it is wrought as a way, and buildings are erected on each side of it, belonging to the owners of the way, and there has been much crossing there by the public for several years. The defendants, having rightfully taken the land under their charter, not subject to any right of way, made a convenient plank-crossing and kept a flagman at the end of it on South Street, partly to protect their own property, and partly to protect the public. They have never made any objection to such crossing, so far as it did not interfere with their cars and engines. There are several tracks at the crossing. The only right of the public to use the crossing is under the license implied by the facts stated above.

On the day of the accident, the defendants had a car at their depot which they had occasion to run over to their car house. It was attached to an engine and taken over the crossing, and to a proper distance beyond the switch. The coupling-pin was then taken out, the engine reversed, and it was moved towards the car house by the side track. The engine was provided with a good engineer and fireman, and the car with a brakeman; the bell was constantly rung, and the 208defendants were not guilty of any negligence in respect to the management of the car or engine.

As the engine and car were coming from the depot, the plaintiff, with a horse and a wagon loaded with empty beer barrels, was coming down South Street from the same direction. There was evidence tending to show that, as he approached the crossing, the flagman, who was at his post, made a signal to him with his flag to stop, which he did; that, in answer to an inquiry by the plaintiff whether he could then cross, he then made another signal with his flag, indicating that it was safe to cross; that the plaintiff started and attempted to cross, looking straight forward; that he saw the car coming near him as it went towards the car house; and that he jumped forward from his wagon, and the car knocked him down and ran over him and broke both his legs. It struck the fore-wheel of his wagon and also his horse. If he had remained in his wagon, or had not jumped forwards, or had kept about the middle of the crossing, the evidence showed that he would not have been injured personally. His wagon was near the left-hand side of the plank-crossing as he went.

The defendants contended that, even if the plaintiff used ordinary care, and if the flagman carelessly and negligently gave the signal that he might cross, when in fact it was unsafe to do so on account of the approaching car, the plaintiff was not entitled to recover, because the license to people to use the crossing was not a license to use it at the risk of the defendants, but to use it as they best could when not forbidden, taking care of their own safety, and going at their own risk; and also, that if the flagman made a signal to the plaintiff that he might cross, he exceeded his authority.

But the evidence being very contradictory as to the care used by the plaintiff, and also as to the care used by the flagman, the judge ruled, for the purpose of taking a verdict upon these two facts, that the defendants had a right to use the crossing as they did on this occasion, and that they were not bound to keep a flagman there; yet, since they did habitually keep one there, they would be responsible to the plaintiff for the injury done to him by the car, provided he used due care, if he was induced to cross by the signal made to him by the flagman, and if that signal was carelessly or negligently made at a time when it was unsafe to cross on account of the movement of the car.

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for $7500; and the case was reserved for the consideration of the whole Court.

J. G. Abbott and P. H. Sears, for the defendants. The defendants had, for all purposes incident to the complete enjoyment of their franchise, the right of exclusive possession and use of the place where the accident happened, against the owners of the fee, and still more against all other persons. Hazen v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 2 Gray, 574; Brainard v. Clapp, 10 Cush. 6; Gen. Stat. c. 63, §§ 102, 103. The defendants were not bound to keep a flagman there, or exercise the 209other precautions prescribed for the crossing of highways or travelled places. Gen. Stat. c. 63, §§ 64–66, 83–91; Boston & Worcester Railroad v. Old Colony Railroad, 12 Cush. 608. The license or permission, if any, to the plaintiff to pass over the premises did not impose any duty on the defendants, but he took the permission, with its concomitant perils, at his own risk. Howland v. Vincent, 10 Met. 371, 374; Scott v. London Docks Co., 11 Law Times (N. S.), 383; Chapman v. Rothwell, El. Bl. & El. 168; Southcote v. Stanley, 1 Hurlst. & Norm. 247; Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. (N. S.) 729, 735, 742; Binks v. South Yorkshire Railway, &c., 32 Law Journ. (N. S.) Q. B. 26; Blithe v. Topham, 1 Rol. Ab. 88; S. C. 1 Vin. Ab. 555, pl. 4; Cro. Jac. 158. The defendants did not hold out to the plaintiff an invitation to pass over. Hounsell v. Smyth and Binks v. South Yorkshire Railway, above cited. The allowing or making of such private crossing was not in itself such an invitation, and did not involve the duty of such precautions. The keeping of a flagman there was wholly for the purpose of preventing persons from crossing, not for the purpose of holding out invitations at any time. The signal that the plaintiff might cross was in answer to his inquiry, and was, at most, only revoking the prohibition, or granting permission; it was not holding out an invitation. The duty of the flagman was simply to warn persons against crossing; and if the flagman held out an invitation or even gave permission to the plaintiff to cross, he went beyond the scope of his employment, and the defendants are not liable on account thereof. Lygo v. Newbold, 9 Exch. 203; Middleton v. Fowle, 1 Salk. 282. Even if the defendants had carelessly held out an invitation to the plaintiff to cross, still they would not be liable; for the report shows that after such supposed invitation the plaintiff might, by the exercise of ordinary care, have avoided the injury; that the plaintiff was himself at the time in the wrong; and that his own negligence and fault contributed to the accident. Todd v. Old Colony & Fall River Railroad, 7 Allen, 207; S. C. 3 Allen, 18, and cases cited; Denny v. Williams, 5 Allen, 1, and cases cited; Spofford v. Harlow, 3 Allen, 177, and cases cited.

Bigelow, C. J. This case has been presented with great care on the part of the learned counsel for the defendants, who have produced before us all the leading authorities bearing on the question of law which was reserved at the trial. We have not found it easy to decide on which side of the line which marks the limit of the defendant’s liability for damages caused by the acts of their agents, the case at bar falls. But on careful consideration we have been brought to the conclusion that the rulings at the trial were right, and that we cannot set aside the verdict for the plaintiff on the ground that it was based on erroneous instructions in matter of law.

In order to maintain an action for an injury to person or property by reason of negligence or want of due care, there must be shown to exist 210some obligation or duty towards the plaintiff, which the defendant has left undischarged or unfulfilled. This is the basis on which the cause of action rests. There can be no fault, or negligence, or breach of duty, where there is no act, or service, or contract, which a party is bound to perform or fulfil. All the cases in the books, in which a party is sought to be charged on the ground that he has caused a way or other place to be incumbered or suffered it to be in a dangerous condition, whereby accident and injury have been occasioned to another, turn on the principle that negligence consists in doing or omitting to do an act by which a legal duty or obligation has been violated. Thus a trespasser who comes on the land of another without right cannot maintain an action, if he runs against a barrier or falls into an excavation there situated. The owner of the land is not bound to protect or provide safeguards for wrong-doers. So a licensee, who enters on premises by permission only, without an enticement, allurement, or inducement being held out to him by the owner or occupant, cannot recover damages for injuries caused by obstructions or pitfalls. He goes there at his own risk, and enjoys the license subject to its concomitant perils. No duty is imposed by law on the owner or occupant to keep his premises in a suitable condition for those who come there solely for their own convenience or pleasure, and who are not either expressly invited to enter or induced to come upon them by the purpose for which the premises are appropriated and occupied, or by some preparation or adaptation of the place for use by customers or passengers, which might naturally and reasonably lead them to suppose that they might properly and safely enter thereon.

On the other hand, there are cases where houses or lands are so situated, or their mode of occupation and use is such, that the owner or occupant is not absolved from all care for the safety of those who come on the premises, but where the law imposes on him an obligation or duty to provide for their security against accident and injury. Thus the keeper of a shop or store is bound to provide means of safe ingress and egress to and from his premises for those having occasion to enter thereon, and is liable in damages for any injury which may happen by reason of any negligence in the mode of constructing or managing the place of entrance and exit. So the keeper of an inn or other place of public resort would be liable to an action in favor of a person who suffered an injury in consequence of an obstruction or defect in the way or passage which was held out and used as the common and proper place of access to the premises. The general rule or principle applicable to this class of cases is, that an owner or occupant is bound to keep his premises in a safe and suitable condition for those who come upon and pass over them, using due care, if he has held out any invitation, allurement, or inducement, either express or implied, by which they have been led to enter thereon. A mere naked license or permission to enter or pass over an estate will not create a duty or impose an obligation 211on the part of the owner or person in possession to provide against the danger of accident. The gist of the liability consists in the fact that the person injured did not act merely for his own convenience and pleasure, and from motives to which no act or sign of the owner or occupant contributed, but that he entered the premises because he was led to believe that they were intended to be used by visitors or passengers, and that such use was not only acquiesced in by the owner or person in possession and control of the premises, but that it was in accordance with the intention and design with which the way or place was adapted and prepared or allowed to be so used. The true distinction is this: A mere passive acquiescence by an owner or occupier in a certain use of his land by others involves no liability; but if he directly or by implication induces persons to enter on and pass over his premises, he thereby assumes an obligation that they are in a safe condition, suitable for such use, and for a breach of this obligation he is liable in damages to a person injured thereby.

This distinction is fully recognized in the most recent and best considered cases in the English Courts, and may be deemed to be the pivot on which all cases like the one at bar are made to turn. In Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. (N. S.) 556, the owner of land, having a private road for the use of persons coming to his house, gave permission to a builder engaged in erecting a house on the land to place materials on the road; the plaintiff, having occasion to use the road for the purpose of going to the owner’s residence, ran against the materials and sustained damage, for which the owner was held liable. Cockburn, C. J., says: “The proprietors of the soil held out an allurement whereby the plaintiff was induced to come on the place in question; they held this road out to all persons having occasion to proceed to the house as the means of access thereto.” In Chapman v. Rothwell, El. Bl. & El. 168, the proprietor of a brewery was held liable in damages for injury and loss of life caused by permitting a trap-door to be open without sufficient light or proper safeguards, in a passageway through which access was had from the street to his office. This decision was put on the ground that the defendant, by holding out the passageway as the proper mode of approach to his office and brewery, invited the party injured to go there, and was bound to use due care in providing for his safety. This is the point on which the decision turned, as stated by Keating, J., in Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. (N. S.) 738. In the last-named case the distinction is clearly drawn between the liability of a person who holds out an inducement or invitation to others to enter on his premises by preparing a way or path by means of which they can gain access to his house or store, or pass into or over the land, and in a case where nothing is shown but a bare license or permission tacitly given to go upon or through an estate, and the responsibility of finding a safe and secure passage is thrown on the passenger and not on the owner. The same distinction is stated in Barnes v. Ward, 9 C. B. 392; Hardcastle v. 212South Yorkshire Railway, &c., 4 Hurlst. & Norm. 67; and Binks v. South Yorkshire Railway, &c., 32 Law Journ. (N. S.) Q. B. 26. In the last cited case the language of Blackburn, J., is peculiarly applicable to the case at bar. He says, “There might be a case where permission to use land as a path may amount to such an inducement as to lead the persons using it to suppose it a highway, and thus induce them to use it as such.” See also, for a clear statement of the difference between cases where an invitation or allurement is held out by the defendant, and those where nothing appears but a mere license or permission to enter on premises, Bolch v. Smith, 7 Hurlst. & Norm. 741, and Scott v. London Docks Co., 11 Law Times (N. S.), 383.

The facts disclosed at the trial of the case now before us, carefully weighed and considered, bring it within that class in which parties have been held liable in damages by reason of having held out an invitation or inducement to persons to enter upon and pass over their premises. It cannot in any just view of the evidence be said that the defendants were passive only, and gave merely a tacit license or assent to the use of the place in question as a public crossing. On the contrary, the place or crossing was situated between two streets of the city (which are much frequented thoroughfares), and was used by great numbers of people who had occasion to pass from one street to the other, and it was fitted and prepared by the defendants with a convenient plank-crossing, such as is usually constructed in highways, where they are crossed by the tracks of a railroad, in order to facilitate the passage of animals and vehicles over the rails. It had been so maintained by the defendants for a number of years. These facts would seem to bring the case within the principle already stated, that the license to use the crossing had been used and enjoyed under such circumstances as to amount to an inducement, held out by the defendants to persons having occasion to pass, to believe that it was a highway, and to use it as such. But the case does not rest on these facts only. The defendants had not only constructed and fitted the crossing in the same manner as if it had been a highway, but they had employed a person to stand there with a flag, and to warn persons who were about to pass over the railroad when it was safe for them to attempt to cross with the vehicles and animals, without interference or collision with the engines and cars of the defendants. And it was also shown that when the plaintiff started to go over the tracks with his wagon, it was in obedience to a signal from this agent of the defendants that there was no obstruction or hindrance to his safe passage over the railroad. These facts well warranted the jury in finding, as they must have done in rendering a verdict for the plaintiff under the instructions of the Court, that the defendants induced the plaintiff to cross at the time when he attempted to do so, and met with the injury for which he now seeks compensation.

213It was suggested that the person employed by the defendants to stand near the crossing with a flag exceeded his authority in giving a signal to the plaintiff that it was safe for him to pass over the crossing just previously to the accident, and that no such act was within the scope of his employment, which was limited to the duty of preventing persons from passing at times when it was dangerous to do so. But it seems to us that this is a refinement and distinction which the facts do not justify. It is stated in the report that the flagman was stationed at the place in question, charged among other things with the duty of protecting the public. This general statement of the object for which the agent was employed, taken in connection with the fact that he was stationed at a place constructed and used as a public way by great numbers of people, clearly included the duty of indicating to persons when it was safe for them to pass, as well as when it was prudent or necessary for them to refrain from passing.

Nor do we think it can be justly said that the flagman in fact held out no inducement to the plaintiff to pass. No express invitation need have been shown. It would have been only necessary for the plaintiff to prove that the agent did some act to indicate that there was no risk of accident in attempting to pass over the crossing. The evidence at the trial was clearly sufficient to show that the agent of the defendants induced the plaintiff to pass, and that he acted in so doing within the scope of the authority conferred on him. The question whether the plaintiff was so induced was distinctly submitted to the jury by the Court; nor do we see any reason for supposing that the instructions on this point were misunderstood or misapplied by the jury. If they lacked fulness, the defendants should have asked for more explicit instructions. Certainly the evidence as reported well warranted the finding of the jury on this point.

It was also urged that, if the defendants were held liable in this action, they would be made to suffer by reason of the fact that they had taken precautions to guard against accident at the place in question, which they were not bound to use, and that the case would present the singular aspect of holding a party liable for neglect in the performance of a duty voluntarily assumed, and which was not imposed by the rules of law. But this is by no means an anomaly. If a person undertakes to do an act or discharge a duty by which the conduct of others may properly be regulated and governed, he is bound to perform it in such manner that those who rightfully are led to a course of conduct or action on the faith that the act or duty will be duly and properly performed shall not suffer loss or injury by reason of his negligence. The liability in such cases does not depend on the motives or considerations which induced a party to take on himself a particular task or duty, but on the question whether the legal rights of others have been violated by the mode in which the charge assumed has been performed.

214The Court were not requested at the trial to withdraw the case from the jury on the ground that the plaintiff had failed to show he was in the exercise of due care at the time the accident happened. Upon the evidence, as stated in the report, we cannot say, as matter of law, that the plaintiff did not establish this part of his case.

After the above decision was rendered, the verdict was set aside, by Chapman, J., as against the evidence.^[160]

STEVENS v. NICHOLS
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, February 23, 1892.
Reported in 155 Massachusetts Reports, 472.

Tort, to recover for injuries occasioned to the plaintiff by driving over a curbstone covered with snow in a private way controlled by the defendants. At the trial in the Superior Court, Mason, C. J., at the defendants’ request, ruled that, upon the pleadings and the plaintiff’s opening, he could not maintain the action, and ordered a verdict for the defendants; and the plaintiff alleged exceptions. The facts, so far as material to the points decided, appear in the opinion.

John L. Thorndike, for the defendants.^[161]

This case bears no resemblance to Holmes v. Drew, 151 Mass. 578, where the defendant had constructed a brick sidewalk by the side of a public street, partly on her own land and partly in the street, without any line of separation, and so that the whole was apparently part of the street, and the defendant clearly intended that it should be used 215as part of the street. There is no similarity between such an addition to the apparent width of a public street and the opening of a private avenue or way out of a public street. The private way could not have been, or intended to be, part of the public street, and the separation between them was plain....

The absence of similarity between this case and Holmes v. Drew, 151 Mass. 578, has already been pointed out; but it is also submitted that that case is the first in which it has ever been held that the owner of land was under any obligation to make it safe for a person that was allowed to come upon the land for his own convenience, and for a purpose in which the owner had no interest, whether the owner gave his consent in the form of a permission or in the form of what might, in common language, be called an invitation. Such persons were called licensees, and must take the land as they found it, subject only to this, that the owner must not lead them into danger by “something like fraud.” Gautret v. Egerton, L. R. 2 C. P. 371, 374–375; Reardon v. Thompson, 149 Mass. 267, 268; Pollock on Torts, 424–426....

But as regards persons coming upon land at the request, actual or tacit, of the owner upon business or for a purpose in which the owner had an interest, it was his duty to make it reasonably safe, and he was liable for damages arising from a neglect of this duty. Indermaur v. Dames, L. R. 1 C. P. 274, 2 C. P. 311; Carleton v. Franconia Iron & Steel Co., 99 Mass. 216 (rock by wharf at which vessel unloaded); The Moorcock, 14 P. D. 64 (a similar case); Davis v. Central Congregational Society, 129 Mass. 367 (plaintiff attending a conference of churches at defendant’s meeting-house, an object in which both parties had an interest; also, p. 371, “a dangerous place without warning”); Pollock on Torts, 415–418.

It is this common interest, not the form of the license or invitation, that creates the liability (Holmes v. North Eastern Ry. Co., L. R. 4 Ex. 254, 6 Ex. 123).

The distinction between these two classes of cases is that in one the owner of the land has an interest in the person’s coming there, while in the other the authority to come upon the land is a pure gratuity. It is reasonable that the owner should undertake some duty in respect of the condition of the land when he brings another person there for an object in which he himself has an interest. But there is no reason why he should undertake any such duty when he makes a gift of the privilege of going upon his land. The privilege is only a gift, whether the owner gives it because it is asked for, or whether he offers it first, or asks or “invites” the other to accept it. It may in a sense be said that a person is “induced” to go upon land by a license or permission of the owner, but the real inducement is his own convenience. When the owner asks him to walk over his land whenever it is agreeable to him, and he goes there, he does so because it is agreeable to him, and not because the owner asks him. He is in law a licensee going upon the 216land for his own convenience by the owner’s permission, and not a person brought there for a purpose in which the owner has an interest.^[162]

Licensees, however, have a right to expect that the owner will not create a new danger while the license continues, and he is liable for the consequences if he does create such a danger; e. g., by making an excavation near a path, as in Oliver v. Worcester, 102 Mass. 489, 502, or by placing an obstruction in an avenue, as in Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. N. S. 556, 567, or by carelessly throwing a keg into a passageway, as in Corrigan v. Union Sugar Refinery, 98 Mass. 577, or by negligent management of trains at a private crossing of a railway habitually used by the public with the assent of the company, as in Sweeny v. Old Colony Rld. Co., 10 Allen, 368; Murphy v. Boston & Albany Rld. Co., 133 Mass. 121; Hanks v. Boston & Albany Rld. Co., 147 Mass. 495; Byrne v. New York Central Rld. Co., 104 N. Y. 362; Swift v. Staten Island Rld. Co., 123 N. Y. 645; Taylor v. Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., 113 Pa. St. 162, 175.

The principle of these cases is stated by Willes, J., in Gautret v. Egerton, L. R. 2 C. P., p. 373, as follows: “If I dedicate a way to the public which is full of ruts and holes, the public must take it as it is. If I dig a pit in it, I may be liable for the consequences; but, if I do nothing, I am not.”

The same principle is alluded to in June v. Boston & Albany Rld. Co., 153 Mass. p. 82, where the court speaks of “cases in which even unintended damage done to a licensee by actively bringing force to bear upon his person will stand differently from merely passively leaving land in a dangerous condition.”

217The cases above mentioned include all that are cited in Holmes v. Drew, 151 Mass. 580. In none of them is it held or suggested that the railway company was liable for any defect or obstruction in the crossing, or that the landowner was liable for any excavation or obstruction existing when the permission was granted.

[After citing cases where the court said that some kind of inducement or invitation was necessary to create a liability for want of care in running trains.] But it was not suggested that the inducement or invitation would create any liability for defects in the crossing itself which the company gratuitously allowed the public to use.

[Referring to cases where there is implied license to the public to use a crossing.] The probability known to the company that some one may be there in pursuance of the license is treated ... as the ground of liability in such cases for want of care in running trains.... But there is nothing in any of the cases above mentioned tending to support the proposition that the knowledge of the habitual use of the crossing, pursuant to the implied permission, would create a liability for defects in the crossing itself or impose any kind of duty to make it safe or convenient.

Holmes v. Drew (151 Mass. 578) does not belong to either of the two last classes of cases. The plaintiff (1) did not go there upon the defendant’s land for any purpose in which the defendant was interested, and (2) the defendant did nothing to make the place less safe than it was when it was first opened to the public. The plaintiff was a volunteer, going upon the defendant’s land with her full permission, but entirely for his own convenience. These distinctions do not appear to have been called to the attention of the court. The judgment, which is very short, seems to proceed upon the ground that the defendant, by paving a footway partly on her own land and allowing it to remain apparently a part of the street, showed an intention that it should be used by foot passengers, and that this would amount to an implied invitation, which imposed on her a duty to make it reasonably safe. If this is to be taken literally, a permission ceases to be a license if it is intended that it shall be used; and an invitation imposes the same duty when it is given gratuitously for the pleasure of the donee as when it is given for an object in which the giver has an interest; and the owner of land that gives permission to cross his land can escape liability only by proving that he did not intend the permission to be used. It is submitted that the authorities cited in that case do not support this doctrine. Two of them are cases where the invitation was to come upon the land for a purpose in which the owner had an interest, and in the three others a licensee was injured by negligence in something done after the license was given....

Lathrop, J. The declaration in this case, so far as material to the questions presented at the argument, alleged that the defendants on 218the day of the accident were, and had been for a long time, lessees and occupants of an estate on Atlantic Avenue in Boston; that the defendants maintained a way or street down by their premises, “leading out of said Atlantic Avenue, and extending to other premises beyond; that said street was in all particulars like the public streets of the city of Boston, being paved with granite blocks, and having sidewalks, and to all appearances was a public thoroughfare; that the defendants had placed no sign or notice of any kind upon or about said street ... which would give warning to the plaintiff or to the public that said street was private property, or dangerous, but had erected a granite curbing out into said street, extending one half the distance across the same, on a line with the rear of their estate, said granite curbing being from six to seven inches above the grade of the paving; that said obstruction was dangerous both by day and by night to all persons who entered upon or passed through said street; that on or about said day the plaintiff had business that called him to the premises that lie beyond the estate of the defendants on said street, and, supposing and assuming that said street was a highway, and being induced by the acts and omissions of these defendants to so suppose and assume, entered in and upon said street to drive through the same; that said obstruction was covered by snow at said time, and plaintiff was unable to see the same; and, while in the exercise of due care, his sleigh struck said granite curbing,” and he was thrown out and injured.

The opening of the plaintiff’s counsel added but little to the declaration. It stated that “the snow lay perfectly level” where the curbstone was; that the plaintiff was driving through the defendants’ way “into the way lying beyond, of which it was ... an extension,” to reach the works of the company for which he was working. It also stated that, before the defendants controlled the way under the written lease, they owned the premises, erected the building, paved the way, and put in the curbstone; “that ever since this building and other buildings had been erected down there the public made use of that way, as they would use any other street in the city; that is, as much as they had any occasion to pass down there with teams or on foot.”

It does not appear that the plaintiff had any right in the way, unless he had it as one of the public. There is no allegation or statement that the plaintiff had ever used the way before, or that he knew the way was paved, or noticed whether there was a sign or not. Indeed, if he was then using the way for the first time, the fair inference would be, from the statement of the condition of the snow, that the fact that the way was paved was unknown to him until after the accident, and did not operate as an inducement to enter the way. The declaration contained no allegation as to any use by the public of the way, and the statement in the opening of counsel, that the public made use of that way, was qualified by the words, “that is, as much as they 219had any occasion to pass down there with teams or on foot.” It is difficult to see how vehicles of any description could, when the paving was sufficiently visible to act as an inducement, go over that portion of the way which the defendants controlled.

Without laying stress upon these points, we are of opinion that the declaration and the opening of the plaintiff’s counsel do not show that there was any breach on the part of the defendants of any duty which they owed the plaintiff. The defendants were not obliged to put up a sign notifying travellers on the public street that the passageway was not a public way. Galligan v. Metacomet Manuf. Co., 143 Mass. 527; Reardon v. Thompson, 149 Mass. 267; Redigan v. Boston & Maine Railroad, ante, 44.^[163]

Nor can the fact that the passageway was paved be considered an invitation or inducement to the public to enter upon it for their own convenience. The defendants have a right to pave it for their own use or for the use of their customers. Johnson v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 125 Mass. 75; Heinlein v. Boston & Providence Railroad, 147 Mass. 136; Reardon v. Thompson, 149 Mass. 267; Donnelly v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 151 Mass. 210; Redigan v. Boston & Maine Railroad, ante, 44.

There was in this case no allegation and no statement that the defendants had any knowledge that the public was using the passageway, or of such a condition of things that it can be said that they must have known of it. But if it be assumed that there was such use and such acquiescence that a license might be implied, the plaintiff stands in no better position. “The general rule is,” as stated by Mr. Justice Holmes in Reardon v. Thompson, ubi supra, “that a licensee goes upon land at his own risk, and must take the premises as he finds them.” See also Redigan v. Boston & Maine Railroad, ante, 44; Gautret v. Egerton, L. R. 2 C. P. 371, 374.

The licensor has, however, no right to create a new danger while the license continues. Oliver v. Worcester, 102 Mass. 489, 502; Corrigan v. Union Sugar Refinery, 98 Mass. 577; Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. (N. S.) 556. So a railroad company which allows the public habitually to use a private crossing of its tracks cannot use active force against a person or vehicle crossing under a license, express or implied. Sweeny v. Old Colony & Newport Railroad, 10 Allen, 368; Murphy v. Boston & Albany Railroad, 133 Mass. 121; Hanks v. Boston & Albany Railroad, 147 Mass. 495. See June v. Boston & Albany Railroad, 153 Mass. 79, 82.

We have no occasion to consider whether the case of Holmes v. Drew, 151 Mass. 578, is open to the criticism that it is inconsistent with the doctrine that a person who dedicates a footway to the public use is not obliged to keep it in repair (see Fisher v. Prowse, 2 B. & S. 770, 780, and Robbins v. Jones, 15 C. B. (N. S.) 221) as we are of 220opinion that that case has no application to the case at bar. In Holmes v. Drew, the defendant made a continuous pavement in front of his house, partly on his own land and partly on the public land; and it was held that the jury might infer from this an invitation to walk over the whole pavement. In the case at bar, the defendants merely opened a private way into a public street, and we fail to see that they thereby invited the public to use it, even though it were paved.

TUTTLE v. GILBERT MANUFACTURING CO.
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, October 20, 1887.
Reported in 145 Massachusetts Reports, 169.

Tort, by lessee of a building against lessor. The lessee claimed, and introduced evidence to show, that, at the time of letting, the lessor agreed to repair the building and put it in safe condition; that the lessee suffered damage by reason of a defect in the building; and that the lessor failed and neglected to make repairs until after the damage to the plaintiff.

Upon the evidence, the judge ruled that plaintiff could not recover, and ordered a verdict for defendant. Plaintiff excepted.^[165]

Morton, C. J. It is the general rule that there is no warranty implied in the letting of premises that they are reasonably fit for use. The lessee takes an estate in the premises hired, and he takes the risk of the quality of the premises, in the absence of an express or implied warranty by the lessor, or of deceit. A lessee, therefore, if he is injured by reason of the unsafe condition of the premises hired, cannot maintain an action against the lessor, in the absence of warranty or of misrepresentation. In cases where lessors have been held liable for such injuries to the lessees, the liability is founded in negligence. Looney v. McLean, 129 Mass. 33. Bowe v. Hunking, 135 Mass. 380, and cases cited.

221The plaintiff admits the general rule, but contends that this case is taken out of it because, at the time of the letting, the defendant agreed to repair and put in a safe condition the stable floor, the unsafe condition of which caused the injury. The contract relied on is a loose one; it fixed no time within which the repairs were to be made, and it is doubtful whether the evidence proved any breach of contract on the part of the defendant. But if we assume that the contract was to make the repairs within a reasonable time, and that the jury would be justified in finding that the defendant had not performed it within a reasonable time, the question is whether, for such a breach, the plaintiff can maintain an action of tort to recover for personal injuries sustained by reason of the defective condition of the stable floor.

The cases are numerous and confusing as to the dividing line between actions of contract and of tort, and there are many cases where a man may have his election to bring either action. Where the cause of action arises merely from a breach of promise, the action is in contract.

The action of tort has for its foundation the negligence of the defendant, and this means more than a mere breach of a promise. Otherwise, the failure to meet a note, or any other promise to pay money, would sustain an action in tort for negligence, and thus the promisor be made liable for all the consequential damages arising from such failure.

As a general rule, there must be some active negligence or misfeasance to support tort. There must be some breach of duty distinct from breach of contract. In the case at bar, the utmost shown against the defendant is that there was unreasonable delay on its part in performing an executory contract. As we have seen, it is not liable by reason of the relation of lessor and lessee, but its liability, if any, must rest solely upon a breach of this contract.

We do not see how the cases would differ in principle if an action were brought against a third person who had contracted to repair the stable floor and had unreasonably delayed in performing his contract. We are not aware of any authority for maintaining such an action. If the defendant had performed the work contemplated by its contract unskilfully and negligently, it would be liable to an action of tort, because in such case there would be a misfeasance, which is a sufficient foundation for an action of tort. Such was the case of Gill v. Middleton, 105 Mass. 477.

The case of Ashley v. Root, 4 Allen, 504, does not conflict with our view, but recognizes the rule that to sustain an action of tort there must be more than a mere breach of contract.

The plaintiff now argues that he had the right to go to the jury upon the questions of warranty and deceit. It does not appear that this claim was made in the Superior Court; but it is clear that there 222is no sufficient evidence of any warranty that the stable was safe, or of any deceit or misrepresentation on the part of the defendant or its agent.

SOUTHCOTE v. STANLEY
In the Exchequer, June 4, 1856.
Reported in 1 Hurlstone & Norman, 247.

The declaration stated that at the time of the committing of the grievances, &c., the defendant was possessed of an hotel, into which he had then permitted and invited the plaintiff to come as a visitor of the defendant, and in which the plaintiff as such visitor then lawfully was by the permission and invitation of the defendant, and in which hotel there then was a glass door of the defendant which it was then necessary for the plaintiff, as such visitor, to open for the purpose of leaving the hotel, and which the plaintiff, as such visitor, then by the permission of the defendant and with his knowledge, and without any warning from him, lawfully opened for the purpose aforesaid, as a door which was in a proper condition to be opened; nevertheless, by and through the mere carelessness, negligence, and default of the defendant in that behalf, the said door was then in an insecure and dangerous condition, and unfit to be used or opened, and by reason of the said door being in such insecure and dangerous condition and unfit, as aforesaid, and of the then carelessness, negligence, default, and improper conduct of the defendant in that behalf, a large piece of glass from the said door fell out of the same to and upon the plaintiff, and wounded him, and he sustained divers bodily injuries, and remained ill and unable to work for a long time, &c.

Demurrer and joinder therein.

Raymond, in support of the demurrer. The declaration discloses no cause of action. It is not stated that the plaintiff was in the hotel 223as a guest, but merely as a visitor; and there is no allegation that the defendant knew of the dangerous condition of the door. To render the defendant liable, the declaration ought to have shown some contract between the plaintiff and the defendant which imposed on the latter the obligation of taking care that the door was secure; or it should have alleged some negligence on the part of the defendant in the performance of a duty which he owed to the plaintiff. [Bramwell, B. If a person invites another into his house, and the latter can only enter through a particular door, is it not the duty of the former to take care that the door is in a secure condition?] He may not be aware that the door is insecure. This declaration only alleges that through the carelessness, negligence, and default of the defendant the door was in a dangerous condition; that cannot be read as involving the allegation that the defendant knew that the door was insecure. All facts necessary to raise a legal liability must be strictly averred. Metcalfe v. Hetherington, 11 Exch. 257. [Alderson, B. It is not stated that it was the duty of the defendant, as an hotel keeper, to take care that the door was secure. Suppose a person invites another to his house, and the latter runs his hand through a pane of glass, how is the former liable?] The Court then called on

Gray, contra. The declaration shows a duty on the part of the defendant, and a breach of that duty. It is immaterial whether the injury takes place in a private house, or in a shop, or in a street; the only question is whether the person who complains was lawfully there? The case is similar in principle to that of Randleson v. Murray, 8 A. & E. 109, which decided that a warehouseman who lowers goods from his warehouse is bound to use proper tackle for that purpose. [Alderson, B. It is the duty of every person who hangs anything over a public way to take care that it is suspended by a proper rope.] Whether it be a private house or a shop, a duty is so far imposed on the occupier to keep it reasonably secure, that if a person lawfully enters, and through the negligence of the occupier in leaving it in an insecure state receives an injury, the occupier is responsible. Here it is alleged that the defendant invited the plaintiff to come into the hotel as a visitor; that shows that he was lawfully there. [Pollock, C. B. The position that an action lies because the plaintiff was lawfully in the house, cannot be supported; a servant is lawfully in his master’s house and yet if the balusters fell, whereby he was injured, he could not maintain an action against the master. If a lady who is invited to dinner goes in an expensive dress, and a servant spills something over her dress which spoils it, the master of the house would not be liable. Where a person enters a house by invitation the same rule prevails as in the case of a servant. A visitor would have no right of action for being put in a damp bed, or near a broken pane of glass, whereby he caught cold. Alderson, B. The case of a shop is different, because a shop is open to the public; and there is a distinction 224between persons who come on business and those who come by invitation.]

Pollock, C. B. We are all of opinion that the declaration cannot be supported, and that the defendant is entitled to judgment. I do not think it necessary to point out the reasons by which I have come to that conclusion; because it follows from the decision of this Court (Priestley v. Fowler, 3 M. & W. 1) that the mere relation of master and servant does not create any implied duty on the part of the master to take more care of the servant than he may reasonably be expected to do of himself. That decision has been followed by several cases,^[167] and is now established law, though I believe the principle was not recognized until recent times. The reason for the rule is that the servant undertakes to run all the ordinary risks of service, including those arising from the negligence of his fellow-servants. The rule applies to all the members of a domestic establishment, so that the master is not in general liable to a servant for injury resulting from the negligence of a fellow-servant; neither can one servant maintain an action against another for negligence whilst engaged in their common employment. The same principle applies to the case of a visitor at a house; whilst he remains there he is in the same position as any other member of the establishment, so far as regards the negligence of the master or his servants, and he must take his chance with the rest.

Alderson, B. I am of the same opinion.

Bramwell, B. I agree with Mr. Gray to this extent, that where a person is in the house of another, either on business or for any other purpose, he has a right to expect that the owner of the house will take reasonable care to protect him from injury; for instance, that he will not allow a trap-door to be open through which the visitor may fall. But in this case my difficulty is to see that the declaration charges any act of commission. If a person asked another to walk in his garden, in which he had placed spring-guns or men-traps, and the latter, not being aware of it, was thereby injured, that would be an act of commission. But if a person asked a visitor to sleep at his house, and the former omitted to see that the sheets were properly aired, whereby the visitor caught cold, he could maintain no action, for there was no act of commission, but simply an act of omission. This declaration merely alleges that “by and through the mere carelessness, negligence, default, and improper conduct of the defendant,” the glass fell from the door. That means a want of care,—a default in not doing something. The words are all negatives, and under these circumstances the action is not maintainable. I doubted whether the words “carelessness, negligence, and improper conduct,” &c., might not mean something equivalent to actual commission, but on the best consideration which I can give the subject, it appears to me that they do not 225mean that, but merely point to a negative. If I misconstrue the declaration it is the fault of those who so framed it.

BEEHLER v. DANIELS
Supreme Court, Rhode Island, May 1, 1894.
Reported in 18 Rhode Island Reports, 563.

Trespass on the Case. Certified from the Common Pleas Division on demurrer to the declaration.

Stiness, J. The plaintiff seeks to recover for injury caused by falling into an elevator well in the defendants’ building, which he entered in the discharge of his duty, as a member of the fire department of the city of Providence, in answering a call to extinguish a fire. The negligence alleged in the first count is a failure to guard and protect the well; and in the second count such a packing of merchandise as to guide and conduct one to the unguarded and unprotected well. The defendants demur to the declaration, alleging as grounds of demurrer that they owed no duty to the plaintiff; that he entered their premises in the discharge of a public duty and assumed the risks of his employment; that he was in the premises without invitation from them; and that they are not liable for consequences which they could not and were not bound to foresee.

The decisive question thus raised is, Did the defendants, under the circumstances, owe to the plaintiff a duty, for failure in which they are liable to him in damages? The question is not a new one, and we think it is safe to say that it has never been answered otherwise than in favor of the defendants. The plaintiff argues that it was his duty to enter the premises, and, consequently, since an owner may reasonably anticipate the liability of a fire, a duty arises from the owner to the fireman to keep his premises guarded and safe. An extension of this argument to its legitimate result, as a rule of law, is sufficiently startling to show its unsoundness. The liability to fire is common to all buildings and at all times. Hence every owner of every building must at all times keep every part of his property, in such condition, that a fireman, unacquainted with the place, and groping about in darkness and smoke, shall come upon no obstacle, opening, machine or anything whatever which may cause him injury. This argument was urged in Woodruff v. Bowen, 136 Ind. 431; but 226the court said: “We are of the opinion that the owner of a building in a populous city does not owe it as a duty at common law, independent of any statute or ordinance, to keep such building safe for firemen or other officers, who, in a contingency, may enter the same under a license conferred by law.”

Undoubtedly the plaintiff in this case had the right to enter the defendants’ premises, and the character of his entry was that of a licensee. Cooley on Torts, *313. But no such duty as is averred in this declaration is due from an owner to a licensee. This question is discussed in the case just cited, as also in many others. For example, in Reardon v. Thompson, 149 Mass. 267, Holmes, J., says: “But the general rule is that a licensee goes upon land at his own risk, and must take the premises as he finds them. An open hole, which is not concealed otherwise than by the darkness of the night, is a danger which a licensee must avoid at his peril.” So in Mathews v. Bensel, 51 N. J. Law, 30, Beasley, C. J., says: “The substantial ground of complaint laid in the count is, that the defendants did not properly construct their planer, and, being a dangerous instrument, did not surround it with proper safeguards. But there is no legal principle that imposes such a duty as this on the owner of property with respect to a mere licensee. This is the recognized rule. In the case of Holmes v. Northeastern Railway Co., L. R. 4 Exch. 254, 256, Baron Channell says: ‘That where a person is a mere licensee he has no cause of action on account of the dangers existing in the place he is permitted to enter.’” In Parker v. Portland Publishing Co., 69 Me. 173, this question is fully examined, the court holding it to be well settled, if the plaintiff was at the place where the injury was received by license merely, that the defendant would owe him no duty and that he could not recover. See also Indiana, etc., Railway Co. v. Barnhart, 115 Ind. 399; Gibson v. Leonard, 37 Ill. App. 344; Bedell v. Berkey, 76 Mich. 435.

There is a clear distinction between a license and an invitation to enter premises, and an equally clear distinction as to the duty of an owner in the two cases. An owner owes to a licensee no duty as to the condition of premises, unless imposed by statute, save that he should not knowingly let him run upon a hidden peril or wilfully cause him harm; while to one invited he is under obligation for reasonable security for the purposes of the invitation. The plaintiff’s declaration does not set out a cause of action upon either of these grounds, and the cases cited and relied on by him fall within the two classes of cases described, and mark the line of duty very clearly. Parker v. Barnard, 135 Mass. 116, was the case of a police officer who had entered a building, the doors of which were found open in the night time, to inspect it according to the rules of the police department, and fell down an unguarded elevator well. A statute required such wells to be protected by railings and trap-doors. Judgment 227having been given for the defendant at the trial, a new trial was ordered upon the ground of a violation of statute. The court says: “The owner or occupant of land or a building is not liable, at common law, for obstructions, pitfalls, or other dangers there existing, as, in the absence of any inducement or invitation to others to enter, he may use his property as he pleases. But he holds his property ‘subject to such reasonable control and regulation of the mode of keeping and use as the legislature, under the police power vested in them by the Constitution of the Commonwealth, may think necessary for the preventing of injuries to the rights of others and the security of the public health and welfare.’” Then, likening the plaintiff to a fireman, the court also says: “Even if they must encounter the danger arising from neglect of such precautions against obstructions and pitfalls as those invited or induced to enter have a right to expect, they may demand, as against the owners or occupants, that they observe the statute in the construction and management of their building.” In Learoyd v. Godfrey, 138 Mass. 315, a police officer fell down an uncovered well in or near a passageway to a house where he was called to quell a disturbance of the peace. A verdict for the plaintiff was sustained upon the ground that the jury must have found that the officer was using the passageway by the defendant’s invitation and that the evidence warranted the finding. Gordon v. Cummings, 152 Mass. 513, was the case of a letter carrier who fell into an elevator well, in a hallway where he was accustomed to leave letters in boxes put there for that purpose. The court held that there was an implied invitation to the carrier to enter the premises. In Engel v. Smith, 82 Mich. 1, the plaintiff fell through a trap-door left open in a building where he was employed. The question of duty is not discussed in the case but simply the fact of negligence. In Bennett v. Railroad Co., 102 U. S. 577, the plaintiff, a passenger, fell through a hatch hole in the depot floor. The court construed the declaration as setting out facts which amounted to an invitation to the plaintiff to pass over the route which he took through the shed depot where the hatch hole was.

In the present case the plaintiff sets out no violation of a statute, or facts which amount to an invitation, and, consequently, under the well-settled rule of law, the defendants were under no liability to him for the condition of their premises or the packing of their merchandise. The demurrer to the declaration must therefore be sustained.^[169]

WINTERBOTTOM v. WRIGHT
In the Exchequer, June 6, 1842.
Reported in 10 Meeson & Welsby, 109.

Case. The declaration stated, that the defendant was a contractor for the supply of mail-coaches, and had in that character contracted for hire and reward with the Postmaster-General, to provide the mail-coach for the purpose of conveying the mail-bags from Hartford, in the county of Chester, to Holyhead: That the defendant, under and by virtue of the said contract, had agreed with the said Postmaster-General that the said mail-coach should, during the said contract, be kept in a fit, proper, safe, and secure state and condition for the said purpose, and took upon himself, to wit, under and by virtue of the said contract, the sole and exclusive duty, charge, care, and burden of the repairs, state, and condition of the said mail-coach; and it had become and was the sole and exclusive duty of the defendant, to wit, under and by virtue of his said contract, to keep and maintain the said mail-coach in a fit, proper, safe, and secure state and condition for the purpose aforesaid: That Nathaniel Atkinson and other persons, having notice of the said contract, were under contract with the Postmaster-General to convey the said mail-coach from Hartford to Holyhead, and to supply horses and coachmen for that purpose, and also not, on any pretence whatever, to use or employ any other coach or carriage whatever than such as should be so provided, directed, and appointed by the Postmaster-General: That the plaintiff, being a mail-coachman, and thereby obtaining his livelihood, and whilst the said several contracts were in force, having notice thereof, and trusting to and confiding in the contract made between the defendant and the Postmaster-General, and believing that the said coach was in a fit, safe, secure, and proper state and condition for the purpose 229aforesaid, and not knowing and having no means of knowing to the contrary thereof, hired himself to the said Nathaniel Atkinson and his co-contractors as mail-coachman, to drive and take the conduct of the said mail-coach, which but for the said contract of the defendant he would not have done. The declaration then averred, that the defendant so improperly and negligently conducted himself, and so utterly disregarded his aforesaid contract, and so wholly neglected and failed to perform his duty in this behalf, that heretofore, to wit, on the 8th of August, 1840, whilst the plaintiff, as such mail-coachman so hired, was driving the said mail-coach from Hartford to Holyhead, the same coach, being a mail-coach found and provided by the defendant under his said contract, and the defendant then acting under his said contract, and having the means of knowing and then well knowing all the aforesaid premises, the said mail-coach being then in a frail, weak, infirm, and dangerous state and condition, to wit, by and through certain latent defects in the state and condition thereof, and unsafe and unfit for the use and purpose aforesaid, and from no other cause, circumstance, matter, or thing whatsoever gave way and broke down, whereby the plaintiff was thrown from his seat, and, in consequence of injuries then received, had become lamed for life.

To this declaration the defendant pleaded several pleas, to two of which there were demurrers; but, as the Court gave no opinion as to their validity, it is not necessary to state them.

Peacock, who appeared in support of the demurrers, having argued against the sufficiency of the pleas,—

Byles, for the defendant, objected that the declaration was bad in substance. This is an action brought, not against Atkinson and his co-contractors, who were the employers of the plaintiff, but against the person employed by the Postmaster-General, and totally unconnected with them or with the plaintiff. Now it is a general rule, that wherever a wrong arises merely out of the breach of a contract, which is the case on the face of this declaration, whether the form in which the action is conceived be ex contractu or ex delicto, the party who made the contract alone can sue: Tollit v. Sherstone, 5 M. & W. 283. If the rule were otherwise, and privity of contract were not requisite, there would be no limit to such actions. If the plaintiff may, as in this case, run through the length of three contracts, he may run through any number or series of them; and the most alarming consequences would follow the adoption of such a principle. Levy v. Langridge, 4 M. & W. 337, will probably be referred to on the other side. But that case was expressly decided on the ground that the defendant, who sold the gun by which the plaintiff was injured, although he did not personally contract with the plaintiff, who was a minor, knew that it was bought to be used by him. Here there is no allegation that the defendant knew that the coach was to be driven by the 230plaintiff. There, moreover, fraud was alleged in the declaration, and found by the jury: and there, too, the cause of injury was a weapon of a dangerous nature, and the defendant was alleged to have had notice of the defect in its construction. Nothing of that sort appears upon this declaration.

Peacock, contra. This case is within the principle of the decision in Levy v. Langridge. Here the defendant entered into a contract with a public officer to supply an article which, if imperfectly constructed, was necessarily dangerous, and which, from its nature and the use for which it was destined, was necessarily to be driven by a coachman. That is sufficient to bring the case within the rule established by Levy v. Langridge. In that case the contract made by the father of the plaintiff with the defendant was made on behalf of himself and his family generally, and there was nothing to show that the defendant was aware even of the existence of the particular son who was injured. Suppose a party made a contract with government for a supply of muskets, one of which, from its misconstruction, burst and injured a soldier: there it is clear that the use of the weapon by a soldier would have been contemplated, although not by the particular individual who received the injury, and could it be said, since the decision in Levy v. Langridge, that he could not maintain an action against the contractor? So, if a coachmaker, employed to put on the wheels of a carriage, did it so negligently that one of them flew off, and a child of the owner were thereby injured, the damage being the natural and immediate consequence of his negligence, he would surely be responsible. So, if a party entered into a contract to repair a church, a workhouse, or other public building, and did it so insufficiently that a person attending the former, or a pauper in the latter, were injured by the falling of a stone, he could not maintain an action against any other person than the contractor; but against him he must surely have a remedy. It is like the case of a contractor who negligently leaves open a sewer, whereby a person passing along the street is injured. It is clear that no action could be maintained against the Postmaster-General: Hall v. Smith, 2 Bing. 156; Humphreys v. Mears, 1 Man. & R. 187; Priestly v. Fowler. But here the declaration alleges the accident to have happened through the defendant’s negligence and want of care. The plaintiff had no opportunity of seeing that the carriage was sound and secure. [Alderson, B. The decision in Levy v. Langridge proceeds upon the ground of the knowledge and fraud of the defendant.] Here also there was fraud: the defendant represented the coach to be in a proper state for use, and whether he represented that which was false within his knowledge, or a fact as true which he did not know to be so, it was equally a fraud in point of law, for which he is responsible.

Lord Abinger, C. B. I am clearly of opinion that the defendant is entitled to our judgment. We ought not to permit a doubt to rest 231upon this subject, for our doing so might be the means of letting in upon us an infinity of actions. This is an action of the first impression, and it has been brought in spite of the precautions which were taken, in the judgment of this Court in the case of Levy v. Langridge, to obviate any notion that such an action could be maintained. We ought not to attempt to extend the principle of that decision, which, although it has been cited in support of this action, wholly fails as an authority in its favor; for there the gun was bought for the use of the son, the plaintiff in that action, who could not make the bargain himself, but was really and substantially the party contracting. Here the action is brought simply because the defendant was a contractor with a third person; and it is contended that thereupon he became liable to everybody who might use the carriage. If there had been any ground for such an action, there certainly would have been some precedent of it; but with the exception of actions against innkeepers, and some few other persons, no case of a similar nature has occurred in practice. That is a strong circumstance, and is of itself a great authority against its maintenance. It is however contended, that this contract being made on the behalf of the public by the Postmaster-General, no action could be maintained against him, and therefore the plaintiff must have a remedy against the defendant. But that is by no means a necessary consequence,—he may be remediless altogether. There is no privity of contract between these parties; and if the plaintiff can sue, every passenger, or even any person passing along the road, who was injured by the upsetting of the coach, might bring a similar action. Unless we confine the operation of such contracts as this to the parties who entered into them, the most absurd and outrageous consequences, to which I can see no limit, would ensue. Where a party becomes responsible to the public, by undertaking a public duty, he is liable, though the injury may have arisen from the negligence of his servant or agent. So, in cases of public nuisances, whether the act was done by the party as a servant, or in any other capacity, you are liable to an action at the suit of any person who suffers. Those, however, are cases where the real ground of the liability is the public duty, or the commission of the public nuisance. There is also a class of cases in which the law permits a contract to be turned into a tort; but unless there has been some public duty undertaken, or public nuisance committed, they are all cases in which an action might have been maintained upon the contract. Thus, a carrier may be sued either in assumpsit or case; but there is no instance in which a party, who was not privy to the contract entered into with him, can maintain any such action. The plaintiff in this case could not have brought an action on the contract; if he could have done so, what would have been his situation supposing the Postmaster-General had released the defendant? That would, at all events, have defeated his claim altogether. By permitting 232this action, we should be working this injustice, that after the defendant had done everything to the satisfaction of his employer, and after all matters between them had been adjusted, and all accounts settled on the footing of their contract, we should subject them to be ripped open by this action of tort being brought against him.

Alderson, B. I am of the same opinion. The contract in this case was made with the Postmaster-General alone; and the case is just the same as if he had come to the defendant and ordered a carriage, and handed it at once over to Atkinson. If we were to hold that the plaintiff could sue in such a case, there is no point at which such actions would stop. The only safe rule is to confine the right to recover to those who enter into the contract: if we go one step beyond that, there is no reason why we should not go fifty. The only real argument in favor of the action is, that this is a case of hardship; but that might have been obviated, if the plaintiff had made himself a party to the contract. Then it is urged that it falls within the principle of the case of Levy v. Langridge. But the principle of that case was simply this, that the father having bought the gun for the very purpose of being used by the plaintiff, the defendant made representations by which he was induced to use it. There, a distinct fraud was committed on the plaintiff; the falsehood of the representation was also alleged to have been within the knowledge of the defendant who made it, and he was properly held liable for the consequences. How are the facts of that case applicable to those of the present? Where is the allegation of misrepresentation or fraud in this declaration? It shows nothing of the kind. Our judgment must therefore be for the defendant.

Gurney, B., concurred.

Rolfe, B. The breach of the defendant’s duty, stated in this declaration, is his omission to keep the carriage in a safe condition; and when we examine the mode in which that duty is alleged to have arisen, we find a statement that the defendant took upon himself, to wit, under and by virtue of the said contract, the sole and exclusive duty, charge, care, and burden of the repairs, state, and condition of the said mail-coach, and, during all the time aforesaid, it had become and was the sole and exclusive duty of the defendant, to wit, under and by virtue of his said contract, to keep and maintain the said mail-coach in a fit, proper, safe, and secure state and condition. The duty, therefore, is shown to have arisen solely from the contract; and the fallacy consists in the use of that word “duty.” If a duty to the Postmaster-General be meant, that is true; but if a duty to the plaintiff be intended (and in that sense the word is evidently used), there was none. This is one of those unfortunate cases in which there certainly has been damnum, but it is damnum absque injuria; it is, no doubt, a hardship upon the plaintiff to be without a remedy, but, by 233that consideration we ought not to be influenced. Hard cases, it has been frequently observed, are apt to introduce bad law.

BLOOD BALM COMPANY v. COOPER
Supreme Court, Georgia, October 14, 1889.
Reported in 83 Georgia Reports, 857.

Action by Cooper against Blood Balm Company in the City Court of Atlanta. Verdict for plaintiff. Defendants brought error.^[171]

Blandford, J. The main question in this case arises upon the refusal of the Court below to award a nonsuit, and the solution of this question depends upon whether, where one prepares what is known as a proprietary or patent medicine, and puts it upon the market and recommends it to the world as useful for the cure of certain diseases, the bottle containing it having therewith a prescription made by the proprietor of the medicine, in which he states that it is to be taken in certain quantities, and such medicine, accompanied with this prescription, is sold by the proprietor to a druggist for the purpose of being resold to persons who might wish to use it, and the druggist sells the same to a person who uses it in the quantity thus prescribed, and it being shown that the same contains a certain article known as the iodide of potash in such quantity as proves harmful to the person thus using, the proprietor is liable. The plaintiff in error insists that there is no liability on the part of the proprietor, (1) because it was not sold by the proprietor to the person injured, but by a druggist who had purchased the same from the proprietor; and several cases are cited to sustain this position; (2) because the drug thus sold was not imminently hurtful or poisonous.

1. We are not aware of any decision of this Court upon this question, indeed there is none; and we have searched carefully not only the authorities cited by counsel in this case, but others, and we find no question like the one which arises in this record determined by any Court. In the case of Thomas v. Winchester, 6 N. Y. (2 Seld.) 397, 57 Am. Dec. 455, 1 Thompson, Neg. 224, referred to by counsel in this case, the question decided was, that a dealer in drugs and medicines who carelessly labels a deadly poison as a harmless medicine, and sends it so labelled into market, is liable to all persons who, without fault on their part, are injured by using it as such medicine in consequence of the false label. This comes nearer the present case 234than any we have been able to find, and it is relied upon by both parties as an authority; and in the notes thereto by Mr. Freeman in the American Decisions, the cases relied upon by counsel in this case are embraced and referred to, and to some extent considered. It is not denied by counsel in this case that the doctrine of the case cited (Thomas v. Winchester) is sound and correct law, but the present case differs from that case, and mainly in this: there the drug sold was a deadly poison, and the wrong consisted in putting a label upon the same which indicated that it was a harmless medicine; whereas in this case the medicine sold was not a deadly poison, and no label was put upon it which was calculated to deceive any one in this respect. But accompanying this medicine was a prescription of the proprietor stating the quantity to be taken, and the evidence tended to show that the quantity thus prescribed contained iodide of potash to such an extent as, when taken by the plaintiff, produced the injury and damage complained of. The liability of the plaintiff in error to the person injured arises, not by contract, but for a wrong committed by the proprietor in the prescription and direction as to the dose that should be taken.

We can see no difference whether the medicine was directly sold to the defendant in error by the proprietor, or by an intermediate party to whom the proprietors had sold it in the first instance for the purpose of being sold again. It was put upon the market by the proprietor, not alone for the use of druggists to whom they might sell it, but to be used by the public in general who might need the same for the cure of certain diseases for which the proprietor set forth in his label the same was adapted. This was the same thing as if the proprietor himself had sold this medicine to the defendant in error, with his instructions and directions as to how the same should be taken. In all the cases cited by the plaintiff in error there is no case in which the proprietor prescribed the doses and quantities to be taken of the medicine sold by him. If this medicine contained the iodide of potassium in sufficient quantity to produce the injurious consequences complained of to the defendant in error, and if the same was administered to him, either by himself or any other person, as prescribed in the label accompanying the medicine, he could, in our judgment, recover for any injury he may have sustained on account of the poisonous effect thereof. It was a wrong on the part of the proprietor to extend to the public generally an invitation to take the medicine in quantities sufficient to injure and damage persons who might take it.

A medicine which is known to the public as being dangerous and poisonous if taken in large quantities, may be sold by the proprietor to druggists and others, and if any person, without more, should purchase and take the same so as to cause injury to himself, the proprietor would not be liable. But if the contents of a medicine are concealed from the public generally, and the medicine is prepared by 235one who know its contents, and he sells the same, recommending it for certain diseases and prescribing the mode in which it shall be taken, and injury is thereby sustained by the person taking the same, the proprietor would be liable for the damage thus sustained. These proprietary or patent medicines are secret, or intended by the proprietors to be secret, as to their contents. They expect to derive a profit from such secrecy. They are therefore liable for all injuries sustained by any one who takes their medicine in such quantities as may be prescribed by them. There is no way for a person who uses the medicine to ascertain what its contents are, ordinarily, and in this case the contents were only ascertained after an analysis made by a chemist,—which would be very inconvenient and expensive to the public; nor would it be the duty of a person using the medicine to ascertain what poisonous drugs it may contain. He has a right to rely upon the statement and recommendation of the proprietor, printed and published to the world; and if thus relying, he takes the medicine and is injured on account of some concealed drug of which he is unaware, the proprietor is not free from fault, and is liable for the injury thereby sustained. It appears from the analysis made by the chemist in this case that this medicine contained 25 grains of the iodide of potash to two tablespoonfuls of the medicine. The testimony of the plaintiff, by witnesses learned in the profession of medicine, was that iodide of potash in this quantity would produce the effects upon a person using it shown by the condition of the defendant in error. The prescription accompanying the bottle directed the taking of one to two tablespoonfuls of the medicine, and this was done by the defendant in error, and he was thereby greatly injured and damaged.

This is not like the case of a dangerous machine or a gun sold to a person and by him given or sold to another, as in some of the cases referred to. Mr. Freeman, in his notes to the case above referred to (Thomas v. Winchester), alludes to all those cases; and Mr. Thompson, in his work on Negligence, refers to the same cases, and they are there fully discussed.

[Remainder of opinion omitted.]

HUSET v. J. I. CASE THRESHING MACHINE CO.
Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, February 26, 1903.
Reported in 120 Federal Reporter, 865.

Sanborn, Circuit Judge:^[172]

Is a manufacturer or vendor of an article or machine which he knows, when he sells it, to be imminently dangerous, by reason of a concealed defect therein, to the life and limbs of any one who shall use 236it for the purpose for which it was made and intended, liable to a stranger to the contract of sale for an injury which he sustains from the concealed defect while he is lawfully applying the article or machine to its intended use?

The argument of this question has traversed the whole field in which the liability of contractors, manufacturers, and vendors to strangers to their contracts for negligence in the construction or sale of their articles has been contested. The decisions which have been cited are not entirely harmonious, and it is impossible to reconcile all of them with any established rule of law. And yet the underlying principle of the law of negligence, that it is the duty of every one to so act himself and to so use his property as to do no unnecessary damage to his neighbors, leads us fairly through the maze. With this fundamental principle in mind, if we contemplate the familiar rules that every one is liable for the natural and probable effects of his acts; that negligence is a breach of a duty; that an injury that is the natural and probable consequence of an act of negligence is actionable, while one that could not have been foreseen or reasonably anticipated as the probable effect of such an act is not actionable, because the act of negligence in such a case is the remote, and not the proximate, cause of the injury; and that, for the same reason, an injury is not actionable which would not have resulted from an act of negligence except from the interposition of an independent cause (Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha R. Co. v. Elliott, 55 Fed. 949, 5 C. C. A. 347, 20 L. R. A. 582)—nearly all the decisions upon this subject range themselves along symmetrical lines, and establish rational rules of the law of negligence consistent with the basic principles upon which it rests.

Actions for negligence are for breaches of duty. Actions on contracts are for breaches of agreements. Hence the limits of liability for negligence are not the limits of liability for breaches of contracts, and actions for negligence often accrue where actions upon contracts do not arise, and vice versa. It is a rational and fair deduction from the rules to which brief reference has been made that one who makes or sells a machine, a building, a tool, or an article of merchandise designed and fitted for a specific use is liable to the person who, in the natural course of events, uses it for the purpose for which it was made or sold, for an injury which is the natural and probable consequence of sale. But when a contractor builds a house or a bridge, or a manufacturer constructs a car or a carriage, for the owner thereof under a special contract with him, an injury to any other person than the owner for whom the article is built and to whom it is delivered cannot ordinarily be foreseen or reasonably anticipated as the probable result of the negligence in its construction. So, when a manufacturer sells articles to the wholesale or retail dealers, or to those who are to use them, injury to third persons is not generally the natural or probable 237effect of negligence in their manufacture, because (1) such a result cannot ordinarily be reasonably anticipated, and because (2) an independent cause—the responsible human agency of the purchaser—without which the injury to the third person would not occur, intervenes, and, as Wharton says, “insulates” the negligence of the manufacturer from the injury to the third person. Wharton on Law of Negligence (2d ed.) § 134. For the reason that in the cases of the character which have been mentioned the natural and probable effect of the negligence of the contractor or manufacturer will generally be limited to the party for whom the article is constructed, or to whom it is sold, and, perhaps more than all this, for the reason that a wise and conservative public policy has impressed the courts with the view that there must be a fixed and definite limitation to the liability of manufacturers and vendors for negligence in the construction and sale of complicated machines and structures which are to be operated or used by the intelligent and the ignorant, the skilful and the incompetent, the watchful and the careless, parties that cannot be known to the manufacturers or vendors, and who use the articles all over the country hundreds of miles distant from the place of their manufacture or original sale, a general rule has been adopted and has become established by repeated decisions of the courts of England and of this country that in these cases the liability of the contractor or manufacturer for negligence in the construction or sale of the articles which he makes or vends is limited to the persons to whom he is liable under his contracts of construction or sale. The limits of the liability for negligence and for breaches of contract in cases of this character are held to be identical. The general rule is that a contractor, manufacturer, or vendor is not liable to third parties who have no contractual relations with him for negligence in the construction, manufacture, or sale of the articles he handles. Winterbottom v. Wright, 10 M. & W. 109; Longmeid v. Holliday, 6 Exch. 764, 765; Blakemore v. Ry. Co., 8 El. & Bl. 1035; Collis v. Selden, L. R. 3 C. P. 495, 497; Bank v. Ward, 100 U. S. 195, 204, 25 L. Ed. 621; Bragdon v. Perkins-Campbell Co., 87 Fed. 109, 30 C. C. A. 567; Goodlander v. Standard Oil Co., 63 Fed. 400, 406, 11 C. C. A. 253, 259, 27 L. R. A. 583; Loop v. Litchfield, 42 N. Y. 351, 359, 1 Am. Rep. 513; Losee v. Clute, 51 N. Y. 494, 10 Am. Rep. 623; Curtain v. Somerset, 140 Pa. 70, 21 Atl. 244, 12 L. R. A. 322, 23 Am. St. Rep. 220; Heizer v. Kingsland & Douglass Mfg. Co., 110 Mo. 605, 615, 617, 19 S. W. 630, 15 L. R. A. 821, 33 Am. St. Rep. 481; Daugherty v. Herzog, 145 Ind. 255, 44 N. E. 457, 32 L. R. A. 837, 57 Am. St. Rep. 204; Burke v. De Castro, 11 Hun, 354; Swan v. Jackson, 55 Hun, 194, 7 N. Y. Supp. 821; Barrett v. Mfg. Co., 31 N. Y. Super. Ct. 545; Carter v. Harden, 78 Me. 528, 7 Atl. 392; McCaffrey v. Mfg. Co., (R. I.) 50 Atl. 651, 55 L. R. A. 822; Marvin Safe Co. v. Ward, 46 N. J. Law, 19; Burdick v. Cheadle, 26 Ohio St. 393, 20 Am. Rep. 767; 238Davidson v. Nichols, 11 Allen, 514; J. I. Case Plow Works v. Niles & Scott Co., (Wis.) 63 N. W. 1013.

In these cases third parties, without any fault on their part, were injured by the negligence of the manufacturer, vendor, or furnisher of the following articles, while the parties thus injured were innocently using them for the purposes for which they were made or furnished, and the courts held that there could be no recovery, because the makers, vendors, or furnishers owed no duty to strangers to their contracts of construction, sale, or furnishing. A stage-coach, Winterbottom v. Wright, 10 M. & W. 109; a leaky lamp, Longmeid v. Holliday, 6 Exch. 764, 765; a defective chain furnished one to lead stone, Blakemore v. Ry Co., 8 El. & Bl. 1035; an improperly hung chandelier, Collis v. Selden, L. R. 3 C. P. 495, 497; an attorney’s certificate of title, Bank v. Ward, 100 U. S. 195, 204, 25 L. Ed. 621; a defective valve in an oil car, Goodlander v. Standard Oil Co., 63 Fed. 401, 406, 11 C. C. A. 253, 259, 27 L. R. A. 583; a porch on a hotel, Curtain v. Somerset, 140 Pa. 70, 21 Atl. 244, 12 L. R. A. 322, 23 Am. St. Rep. 220; a defective side saddle, Bragdon v. Perkins-Campbell Co., 87 Fed. 109, 30 C. C. A. 567; a defective rim in a balance wheel, Loop v. Litchfield, 42 N. Y. 351, 359, 1 Am. Rep. 513; a defective boiler, Losee v. Clute, 51 N. Y. 494, 10 Am. Rep. 623; a defective cylinder in a threshing machine, Heizer v. Kingsland & Douglass Mfg. Co., 110 Mo. 605, 615, 617, 19 S. W. 630, 15 L. R. A. 821, 33 Am. St. Rep. 481; a defective wall which fell on a pedestrian, Daugherty v. Herzog, 145 Ind. 255, 44 N. E. 457, 32 L. R. A. 837, 57 Am. St. Rep. 204; a defective rope on a derrick, Burke v. Refining Co., 11 Hun, 354; a defective shelf for a workman to stand upon in placing ice in a box, Swan v. Jackson, 55 Hun, 194, 7 N. Y. Supp. 821; a defective hoisting rope of an elevator, Barrett v. Mfg. Co., 31 N. Y. Super. Ct. 545; a runaway horse, Carter v. Harden, 78 Me. 528, 7 Atl. 392; a defective hook holding a heavy weight in a drop press, McCaffrey v. Mfg. Co., (R. I.) 50 Atl. 651, 55 L. R. A. 822; a defective bridge, Marvin Safe Co. v. Ward, 46 N. J. Law, 19; shelves in a dry goods store, whose fall injured a customer, Burdick v. Cheadle, 26 Ohio St. 393, 20 Am. Rep. 767; a staging erected by a contractor for the use of his employees, McGuire v. McGee, (Pa.) 13 Atl. 551; defective wheels, J. I. Case Plow Works v. Niles & Scott Co., (Wis.) 63 N. W. 1013.

In the leading case of Winterbottom v. Wright this rule is placed upon the ground of public policy, upon the ground that there would be no end of litigation if contractors and manufacturers were to be held liable to third persons for every act of negligence in the construction of the articles or machines they make after the parties to whom they have sold them have received and accepted them. In that case the defendant had made a contract with the Postmaster-General to provide and keep in repair the stage-coach used to convey the mail from Hartford to Holyhead. The coach broke down, overturned, 239and injured the driver, who sued the contractor for the injury resulting from his negligence. Lord Abinger, C. B., said:

“There is no privity of contract between these parties; and, if the plaintiff can sue, every passenger, or even any person passing along the road, who was injured by the upsetting of the coach, might bring a similar action. Unless we confine the operation of such contracts as this to the parties who entered into them, the most absurd and outrageous consequences, to which I can see no limit, would ensue.”

Baron Alderson said:

“I am of the same opinion. The contract in this case was made with the Postmaster-General alone; and the case is just the same as if he had come to the defendant and ordered a carriage, and handed it at once over to Atkinson. If we were to hold that the plaintiff could sue in such a case, there is no point at which such actions would stop. The only safe rule is to confine the right to recover to those who enter into the contract. If we go one step beyond that, there is no reason why we should not go fifty.”

The views expressed by the judges in this case have prevailed in England and in the United States, with the exception of two decisions which are in conflict with the leading case and with all the decisions to which reference has been made. Those cases are Devlin v. Smith, 89 N. Y. 470, 42 Am. Rep. 311, in which Smith, a painter, employed Stevenson, a contractor, to build a scaffold 90 feet in height, for the express purpose of enabling the painter’s workmen to stand upon it to paint the interior of the dome of a building, and the Court of Appeals of New York held that Stevenson was liable to a workman of Smith, the painter, who was injured by a fall, caused by the negligence of Stevenson in the construction of the scaffold upon which he was working; and Schubert v. J. R. Clark Co., 49 Minn. 331, 51 N. W. 1103, 15 L. R. A. 818, 32 Am. St. Rep. 559, in which a painter purchased of a manufacturer a stepladder, and one of the painter’s employees, who was injured by the breaking of a step caused by the negligence of the manufacturer, was permitted to recover of the latter for the injuries he had sustained. The decision in Devlin v. Smith may, perhaps, be sustained on the ground that the workmen of Smith were the real parties in interest in the contract, since Stevenson was employed and expressly agreed to construct the scaffold for their use. But the case of Schubert v. J. R. Clark Co. is in direct conflict with the side saddle case, Bragdon v. Perkins-Campbell Co., 87 Fed. 109, 30 C. C. A. 567; the porch case, Curtain v. Somerset, 140 Pa. 70, 21 Atl. 244, 12 L. R. A. 322, 23 Am. St. Rep. 220; the defective cylinder case, Heizer v. Kingsland & Douglass Mfg. Co., 110 Mo. 617, 19 S. W. 630, 15 L. R. A. 821, 33 Am. St. Rep. 481; the defective hook case, McCaffrey v. Mfg. Co., (R. I.) 50 Atl. 651, 55 L. R. A. 822; and with the general rule upon which all these cases stand.

240It is, perhaps, the more remarkable that the current of decisions throughout all the courts of England and the United States should be so uniform and conclusive in support of this rule, and that there should, in the multitude of opinions, be but one or two in conflict with it, than it is that such sporadic cases should be found. They are insufficient in themselves, or in the reasoning they contain, to overthrow or shake the established rule which prevails throughout the English-speaking nations.

But while this general rule is both established and settled, there are, as is usually the case, exceptions to it as well defined and settled as the rule itself. There are three exceptions to this rule.

The first is that an act of negligence of a manufacturer or vendor which is imminently dangerous to the life or health of mankind, and which is committed in the preparation or sale of an article intended to preserve, destroy, or affect human life, is actionable by third parties who suffer from the negligence. Dixon v. Bell, 5 Maule & Sel. 198; Thomas v. Winchester, 6 N. Y. 397, 57 Am. Dec. 455; Norton v. Sewall, 106 Mass. 143, 8 Am. Rep. 298; Elkins v. McKean, 79 Pa. 493, 502; Bishop v. Weber, 139 Mass. 411, 1 N. E. 154, 52 Am. Rep. 715; Peters v. Johnson, (W. Va.) 41 S. E. 190, 191, 57 L. R. A. 428. The leading case upon this subject is Thomas v. Winchester, 6 N. Y. 397, 57 Am. Dec. 455. A dealer in drugs sold to a druggist a jar of belladonna, a deadly poison, and labelled it “Extract of Dandelion.” The druggist filled a prescription of extract of dandelion, prepared by a physician for his patient. The patient took the prescription thus filled, and recovered of the wholesale dealer for the injuries she sustained. In Norton v. Sewall, 106 Mass. 143, 8 Am. Rep. 298, a recovery was had by a third party for the sale of laudanum as rhubarb; in Bishop v. Weber, for the furnishing of poisonous food for wholesome food; in Peters v. Johnson, for the sale of saltpetre for epsom salts; and in Dixon v. Bell, for placing a loaded gun in the hands of a child. In all these cases of sale the natural and probable result of the act of negligence—nay, the inevitable result of it—was not an injury to the party to whom the sales were made, but to those who, after the purchasers had disposed of the articles, should consume them. Hence these cases stand upon two well-established principles of law: (1) That every one is bound to avoid acts or omissions imminently dangerous to the lives of others, and (2) that an injury which is the natural and probable result of an act of negligence is actionable. It was the natural and probable result of the negligence in these cases that the vendees would not suffer, but that those who subsequently purchased the deleterious articles would sustain the injuries resulting from the negligence of the manufacturers or dealers who furnished them.

The second exception is that an owner’s act of negligence which causes injury to one who is invited by him to use his defective appliance 241upon the owner’s premises may form the basis of an action against the owner. Coughtry v. Globe Woolen Co., 56 N. Y. 124, 15 Am. Rep. 387; Bright v. Barnett & Record Co., (Wis.) 60 N. W. 418, 420, 26 L. R. A. 524; Heaven v. Pender, L. R. 11 Q. B. Div. 503; Roddy v. Railway Co., 104 Mo. 234, 241, 15 S. W. 1112, 12 L. R. A. 746, 24 Am. St. Rep. 333. In Coughtry v. Globe Woolen Co., 56 N. Y. 124, 15 Am. Rep. 387, the owner of a building employed Osborn & Martin to construct a cornice, and agreed with them to furnish a scaffold upon which their men could perform the work. He furnished the scaffold and one of the employees of the contractors was injured by the negligence of the owner in constructing the scaffold. The court held that the act of the owner was an implied invitation to the employees of Osborn & Martin to use the scaffold and imposed upon him a liability for negligence in its erection. The other cases cited to this exception are of a similar character.

The third exception to the rule is that one who sells or delivers an article which he knows to be imminently dangerous to life or limb to another without notice of its qualities is liable to any person who suffers an injury therefrom which might have been reasonably anticipated, whether there were any contractual relations between the parties or not. Langridge v. Levy, 2 M. & W. 519, 4 M. & W. 337; Wellington v. Oil Co., 104 Mass. 64, 67; Lewis v. Terry, (Cal.) 43 Pac. 398. In Langridge v. Levy, 2 M. & W. 519, a dealer sold a gun to the father for the use of the son, and represented that it was a safe gun, and made by one Nock. It was not made by Nock, was a defective gun, and when the son discharged it, it exploded and injured him. The son was permitted to recover, because the defendant had knowingly sold the gun to the father for the purpose of being used by the plaintiff by loading and discharging it, and had knowingly made a false warranty that this might be safely done, and the plaintiff, on the faith of that warranty, and believing it to be true, had used the gun, and sustained the damages. The court said in conclusion:

“We therefore think that, as there is fraud, and damage, the result of that fraud, not from an act remote and consequential, but one contemplated by the defendant at the time as one of its results, the party guilty of the fraud is responsible to the party injured.”

This case was affirmed in 4 M. & W. 337, on the ground that the sale of the gun to the father for the use of the son with the knowledge that it was not as represented was a fraud, which entitled the son to recover the damages he had sustained.

In Wellington v. Oil Co., the defendants knowingly sold to one Chase, a retail dealer, to be sold by him to his customers as oil, naphtha, a dangerous and explosive liquid. Chase sold the naphtha as oil, the plaintiff used it in a lamp for illuminating purposes, it ignited and exploded, and he recovered of the wholesale dealer. Judge Gray, later Mr. Justice Gray of the Supreme Court, said:

242“It is well settled that a man who delivers an article, which he knows to be dangerous or noxious, to another person, without notice of its nature and qualities, is liable for an injury which may reasonably be contemplated as likely to result, and which does in fact result therefrom to that person or any other who is not himself in fault. Thus a person who delivers a carboy, which he knows to contain nitric acid, to a carrier, without informing him of the nature of its contents, is liable for an injury occasioned by the leaking out of the acid upon another carrier, to whom it is delivered by the first in the ordinary course of business, to be carried to its destination. Farrant v. Barnes, 11 C. B. (N. S.) 553. So a chemist who sells a bottle of liquid, made up of ingredients known only to himself, representing it to be fit to be used for washing the hair, and knowing that it is to be used by the purchaser’s wife, is liable for an injury occasioned to her by using it for washing her hair. George v. Skivington, Law Rep. 5 Ex. 1.”

In Lewis v. Terry, (Cal.) 43 Pac. 398, a dealer, knowing a folding bed to be defective and unsafe, sold it to a Mr. Apperson without informing him of the fact. His wife suffered a broken arm and other severe injuries from the negligence of the dealer in the sale of the bed, and recovered of him the damages she sustained.

The Supreme Court of Missouri, in Heizer v. Kingsland & Douglass Mfg. Co., in which they held that the manufacturer was not liable to a third person for negligence in the construction of the cylinder of a threshing machine, which burst and injured him, said:

“Had the defendant sold this machine to Ellis, knowing that the cylinder was defective, and for that reason dangerous, without informing him of the defect, then the defendant would be liable even to third persons not themselves in fault. Shearman & Redfield on Negligence, (4th ed.) § 117.”

Turning now to the case in hand, it is no longer difficult to dispose of it. The allegations of the complaint are that the defendant prepared a covering for the cylinder of the threshing machine, which was customarily and necessarily used by those who operated it to walk upon, and which was so incapable of sustaining the least weight that it would bend and collapse whenever any one stepped upon it; that it concealed this defective and dangerous condition of the threshing rig so that it could not be readily discovered by persons engaged in operating or working upon it; that it knew that the machine was in this imminently dangerous condition when it shipped and supplied it to the employer of the plaintiff; and that the plaintiff has sustained serious injury through this defect in its construction. The case falls fairly within the third exception. It portrays a negligence imminently dangerous to the lives and limbs of those who should use the machine, a machine imminently dangerous to the lives and limbs of all who should undertake to operate it, a concealment of this dangerous condition, a knowledge of the defendant when it was shipped and 243supplied to the employer of the plaintiff that the rig was imminently dangerous to all who should use it for the purpose for which it was made and sold, and consequent damage to the plaintiff. It falls directly within the rule stated by Mr. Justice Gray that when one delivers an article, which he knows to be dangerous to another person, without notice of its nature and qualities, he is liable for an injury which may be reasonably contemplated as likely to result, and which does in fact result therefrom, to that person or to any other who is not himself in fault. The natural, probable, and inevitable result of the negligence portrayed by this complaint in delivering this machine when it was known to be in a condition so imminently dangerous to the lives and limbs of those who should undertake to use it for the purpose for which it was constructed was the death, or loss of one or more of the limbs, of some of the operators. It is perhaps improbable that the defendant was possessed of the knowledge of the imminently dangerous character of this threshing machine when it delivered it, and that upon the trial of the case it will be found to fall under the general rule which has been announced in an earlier part of this opinion. But upon the facts alleged in this complaint, the act of delivering it to the purchaser with a knowledge and a concealment of its dangerous condition was so flagrant a disregard of the rule that one is bound to avoid any act imminently dangerous to the lives and health of his fellows that it forms the basis of a good cause of action in favor of any one who sustained injury therefrom.

The judgment of the Circuit Court must be reversed, and the cause must be remanded to the court below for further proceedings not inconsistent with the views expressed in this opinion.

HEAVEN v. PENDER
In the Court of Appeal, July 30, 1883.
Reported in 11 Queen’s Bench Division, 503.

Action to recover damages for injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff through the negligence of the defendant. The County Court judge gave judgment for the plaintiff. The Queen’s Bench Division, on appeal, ordered judgment for defendant. The plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeal.^[173]

Brett, M. R. In this case the plaintiff was a workman in the employ of Gray, a ship-painter. Gray entered into a contract with a shipowner whose ship was in the defendant’s dock to paint the outside of his ship. The defendant, the dock-owner, supplied, under a contract with the shipowner, an ordinary stage to be slung in the ordinary way outside the ship for the purpose of painting her. It 244must have been known to the defendant’s servants, if they had considered the matter at all, that the stage would be put to immediate use, that it would not be used by the shipowner, but that it would be used by such a person as the plaintiff, a working ship-painter. The ropes by which the stage was slung, and which were supplied as a part of the instrument by the defendant, had been scorched and were unfit for use, and were supplied without a reasonably careful attention to their condition. When the plaintiff began to use the stage the ropes broke, the stage fell, and the plaintiff was injured. The Divisional Court held that the plaintiff could not recover against the defendant. The plaintiff appealed. The action is in form and substance an action for negligence. That the stage was, through want of attention of the defendant’s servants, supplied in a state unsafe for use is not denied. But want of attention amounting to a want of ordinary care is not a good cause of action although injury ensue from such want, unless the person charged with such want of ordinary care had a duty to the person complaining to use ordinary care in the matter called in question. Actionable negligence consists in the neglect of the use of ordinary care or skill toward a person to whom the defendant owes the duty of observing ordinary care and skill, by which neglect the plaintiff, without contributory negligence on his part, has suffered injury to his person or property. The question in this case is whether the defendant owed such a duty to the plaintiff.

If a person contracts with another to use ordinary care or skill toward him or his property, the obligation need not be considered in the light of a duty; it is an obligation of contract. It is undoubted, however, that there may be the obligation of such a duty from one person to another although there is no contract between them with regard to such duty. Two drivers meeting have no contract with each other, but under certain circumstances they have a reciprocal duty toward each other. So two ships navigating the sea. So a railway company which has contracted with one person to carry another has no contract with the person carried, but has a duty toward that person. So the owner or occupier of a house or land who permits a person or persons to come to his house or land has no contract with such person or persons, but has a duty toward him or them. It should be observed that the existence of a contract between two persons does not prevent the existence of the suggested duty between them also being raised by law independently of the contract, by the facts with regard to which the contract is made and to which it applies an exactly similar but a contract duty. We have not in this case to consider the circumstances in which an implied contract may arise to use ordinary care and skill to avoid danger to the safety of person or property. We have not in this case to consider the question of a fraudulent misrepresentation, express or implied, which is a well-recognized head of law. The questions which we have to solve in this case are: What is the proper 245definition of the relation between two persons other than the relation established by contract, or fraud, which imposes on one of them a duty toward the other to observe, with regard to the person or property of such other, such ordinary care or skill as may be necessary to prevent injury to his person or property; and whether the present case falls within such definition? When two drivers or two ships are approaching each other, such a relation arises between them when they are approaching each other in such a manner that, unless they use ordinary care and skill to avoid it, there will be danger of an injurious collision between them. This relation is established in such circumstances between them, not only if it be proved that they actually know and think of this danger, but whether such proof be made or not. It is established, as it seems to me, because any one of ordinary sense who did think would at once recognize that if he did not use ordinary care and skill under such circumstances there would be such danger. And every one ought, by the universally recognized rules of right and wrong, to think so much with regard to the safety of others who may be jeopardized by his conduct; and if, being in such circumstances, he does not think, and in consequence neglects, or if he neglects to use ordinary care and skill, and injury ensue, the law, which takes cognizance of and enforces the rules of right and wrong, will force him to give an indemnity for the injury. In the case of a railway company carrying a passenger with whom it has not entered into the contract of carriage, the law implies the duty, because it must be obvious that unless ordinary care and skill be used the personal safety of the passenger must be endangered. With regard to the condition in which an owner or occupier leaves his house or property other phraseology has been used, which it is necessary to consider. If a man opens his shop or warehouse to customers it is said that he invites them to enter, and that this invitation raises the relation between them which imposes on the inviter the duty of using reasonable care so to keep his house or warehouse that it may not endanger the person or property of the person invited. This is in a sense an accurate phrase, and as applied to the circumstances a sufficiently accurate phrase. Yet it is not accurate if the word “invitation” be used in its ordinary sense. By opening a shop you do not really invite, you do not ask A. B. to come in to buy; you intimate to him that if it pleases him to come in he will find things which you are willing to sell. So in the case of shop, warehouse, road, or premises, the phrase has been used that if you permit a person to enter them you impose on yourself a duty not to lay a trap for him. This, again, is in a sense a true statement of the duty arising from the relation constituted by the permission to enter. It is not a statement of what causes the relation which raises the duty. What causes the relation is the permission to enter and the entry. But it is not a strictly accurate statement of the duty. To lay a trap means in ordinary language to do 246something with an intention. Yet it is clear that the duty extends to a danger the result of negligence without intention. And with regard to both these phrases, though each covers the circumstances to which it is particularly applied, yet it does not cover the other set of circumstances from which an exactly similar legal liability is inferred. It follows, as it seems to me, that there must be some larger proposition which involves and covers both sets of circumstances. The logic of inductive reasoning requires that where two major propositions lead to exactly similar minor premises there must be a more remote and larger premise which embraces both of the major propositions. That, in the present consideration, is, as it seems to me, the same proposition which will cover the similar legal liability inferred in the cases of collision and carriage. The proposition which these recognized cases suggest, and which is, therefore, to be deduced from them, is that whenever one person is by circumstances placed in such a position with regard to another that every one of ordinary sense who did think would at once recognize that if he did not use ordinary care and skill in his own conduct with regard to those circumstances he would cause danger of injury to the person or property of the other, a duty arises to use ordinary care and skill to avoid such danger. Without displacing the other propositions to which allusion has been made as applicable to the particular circumstances in respect of which they have been enunciated, this proposition includes, I think, all the recognized cases of liability. It is the only proposition which covers them all. It may, therefore, safely be affirmed to be a true proposition, unless some obvious case can be stated in which the liability must be admitted to exist, and which yet is not within this proposition. There is no such case. Let us apply this proposition to the case of one person supplying goods or machinery or instruments or utensils, or the like, for the purpose of their being used by another person, but with whom there is no contract as to the supply. The proposition will stand thus: whenever one person supplies goods, or machinery, or the like, for the purpose of their being used by another person under such circumstances that every one of ordinary sense would, if he thought, recognize at once that unless he used ordinary care and skill with regard to the condition of the thing supplied or the mode of supplying it, there will be danger of injury to the person or property of him for whose use the thing is supplied and who is to use it, a duty arises to use ordinary care and skill as to the condition or manner of supplying such thing. And for a neglect of such ordinary care or skill whereby injury happens, a legal liability arises to be enforced by an action for negligence. This includes the case of goods, etc., supplied to be used immediately by a particular person or persons, or one of a class of persons, where it would be obvious to the person supplying, if he thought that the goods would in all probability be used at once by such persons before a reasonable opportunity for discovering any defect which might exist, and 247where the thing supplied would be of such a nature that neglect of ordinary care or skill as to its condition or the manner of supplying it would probably cause danger to the person or property of the person for whose use it was supplied, and who was about to use it. It would exclude a case in which the goods are supplied under circumstances in which it would be a chance by whom they would be used or whether they would be used or not, or whether they would be used before there would probably be means of observing any defect, or where the goods would be of such a nature that a want of care or skill as to their condition or the manner of supplying them would not probably produce danger of injury to person or property. The cases of vendor and purchaser and lender and hirer under contract need not be considered, as the liability arises under the contract, and not merely as a duty imposed by law, though it may not be useless to observe that it seems difficult to import the implied obligation into the contract except in cases in which if there were no contract between the parties the law would, according to the rule above stated, imply the duty.

Examining the rule which has been above enunciated with the cases which have been decided with regard to goods supplied for the purpose of being used by persons with whom there is no contract, the first case to be considered is inevitably Langridge v. Levy, 2 M. & W. 519; 4 id. 337. It is not an easy case to act upon. It is not, it cannot be, accurately reported; the declaration is set out; the evidence is assumed to be reported; the questions left to the jury are stated. And then it is said that a motion was made to enter a nonsuit in pursuance of leave reserved on particular grounds. These grounds do not raise the question of fraud at all, but only the question of remoteness. And although the question of fraud seems in a sense to have been left to the jury, yet no question was, according to the report, left to them as to whether the plaintiff acted on the faith of the fraudulent misrepresentation, which is, nevertheless, a necessary question in a case of fraudulent misrepresentation. The report of the argument makes the object of the argument depend entirely upon an assumed motion to arrest the judgment, which raises always a discussion depending entirely on the form of the declaration, and the effect on it of a verdict, in respect of which it is assumed that all questions were left to the jury. If this was the point taken the report of the evidence and of the questions left to the jury is idle! The case was decided on the ground of a fraudulent misrepresentation as stated in the declaration. It is inferred that the defendant intended the representation to be communicated to the son. Why he should have such an intention in fact it seems difficult to understand. His immediate object must have been to induce the father to buy and pay for the gun. It must have been wholly indifferent to him whether, after the sale and payment, the gun would be used or not by the son. I cannot hesitate to 248say that, in my opinion, the case is a wholly unsatisfactory case to act on as an authority. But taking the case to be decided on the ground of a fraudulent misrepresentation made hypothetically to the son, and acted upon by him, such a decision upon such a ground in no way negatives the proposition that the action might have been supported on the ground of negligence without fraud. It seems to be a case which is within the proposition enunciated in this judgment, and in which the action might have been supported without proof of actual fraud. And this seems to be the meaning of Cleasby, B., in the observations he made on Langridge v. Levy, supra, in the case of George v. Skivington, L. R. 5 Ex. 1, 5. In that case the proposition laid down in that judgment is clearly adopted. The ground of the decision is that the article was, to the knowledge of the defendant, supplied for the use of the wife and for her immediate use. And certainly, if he or any one in his position had thought at all, it must have been obvious that a want of ordinary care or skill in preparing the prescription sold would endanger the personal safety of the wife.

In Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. (N. S.) 556, it is stated by the Lord Chief Justice that an allurement was held out to the plaintiff. And Willes, J., stated that the defendant had no right to set a trap for the plaintiff. But in the form of declaration suggested by Willes, J., on p. 567, there is no mention of allurement, or invitation or trap. The facts suggested in that form are, “that the plaintiff had license to go on the road, that he was in consequence accustomed and likely to pass along it, that the defendant knew of that custom and probability, that the defendant negligently placed slates in such a manner as to be likely to prove dangerous to persons driving along the road, that the plaintiff drove along the road, being by reason of the license lawfully on the road, and that he was injured by the obstruction.” It is impossible to state a case more exactly within the proposition laid down in this judgment. In Smith v. London & St. Katharine Docks Co., L. R. 3 C. P. 326, the phrase is again used of invitation to the plaintiff by the defendants. Again, let it be observed that there is no objection to the phrase as applied to the case. But the real value of the phrase may not improperly be said to be that invitation imports knowledge by the defendant of the probable use by the plaintiff of the article supplied, and therefore carries with it the relation between the parties which establishes the duty. In Indermaur v. Dames, L. R. 1 C. P. 274, L. R. 2 C. P. 311, reliance is again placed upon a supposed invitation of the plaintiff by the defendant. But, again, it is hardly possible to state facts which bring a case more completely within the definition of the present judgment. In Winterbottom v. Wright, 10 M. & W. 109, it was held that there was no duty cast upon the defendant with regard to the plaintiff. The case was decided on what was equivalent to a general demurrer to the declaration. And the declaration does not seem to show that the defendant, if he had thought about it, must 249have known, or ought to have known, that the coach would be necessarily or probably driven by the plaintiff, or by any class of which he could be said to be one, or that it would be so driven within any time which would make it probable that the defect would not be observed. The declaration relied too much on contracts entered into with other persons than the plaintiff. The facts alleged did not bring the case within the proposition herein enunciated. It was an attempt to establish a duty toward all the world. The case was decided on the ground of remoteness. And it is as to too great a remoteness that the observation of Lord Abinger is pointed, when he says that the doctrine of Langridge v. Levy, supra, is not to be extended. In Francis v. Cockrell, L. R. 5 Q. B. 501, the decision is put by some of the judges on an implied contract between the plaintiff and the defendant. But Cleasby, B. (p. 515), puts it upon the duty raised by the knowledge of the defendant that the stand was to be used immediately by persons of whom the plaintiff was one. In other words, he acts upon the rule above laid down. In Collis v. Selden, L. R. 3 C. P. 495, it was held that the declaration disclosed no duty. And obviously, the declaration was too uncertain. There is nothing to show that the defendant knew more of the probability of the plaintiff rather than any other of the public being near the chandelier. There is nothing to show that the plaintiff was more likely to be in the public-house than any other member of the public. There is nothing to show how soon after the hanging of the chandelier any one might be expected or permitted to enter the room in which it was. The facts stated do not bring it within the rule. There is an American case: Thomas v. Winchester, 6 N. Y. 397, 57 Am. Dec. 455, cited in Mr. Horace Smith’s Treatise on the Law of Negligence, p. 88, note (t), which goes a very long way. I doubt whether it does not go too far. In Longmeid v. Holliday, 6 Ex. 761, a lamp was sold to the plaintiff to be used by the wife. The jury were not satisfied that the defendant knew of the defect in the lamp. If he did, there was fraud; if he did not, there seems to have been no evidence of negligence. If there was fraud, the case was more than within the rule. If there was no fraud the case was not brought by other circumstances within the rule. In Gautret v. Egerton, L. R. 2 C. P. 374, the declaration was held by Willes, J., to be bad on demurrer, because it did not show that the defendant had any reason to suppose that persons going to the docks would not have ample means of seeing the holes and cuttings relied on. He does not say there must be fraud in order to support the action. He says there must be something like fraud. He says: “Every man is bound not wilfully to deceive others.” And then, in the alternative, he says: “or to do any act which may place them in danger.” There seems to be no case in conflict with the rule above deduced from well admitted cases. I am, therefore, of opinion that it is a good, safe, and just rule.

250I cannot conceive that if the facts were proved which would make out the proposition I have enunciated, the law can be that there would be no liability. Unless that be true, the proposition must be true. If it be the rule the present case is clearly within it. This case is also, I agree, within that which seems to me to be a minor proposition, namely, the proposition which has been often acted upon, that there was in a sense an invitation of the plaintiff by the defendant to use the stage. The appeal must, in my opinion, be allowed, and judgment must be entered for the plaintiff.

Cotton, L. J., Bowen, L. J., concurs in the judgment I am about to read. [The opinion holds defendant liable, on the ground that he must be considered as having invited the workman to use the dock and all appliances provided by the dock-owner as incident to the use of the dock; and that he was under obligation to take reasonable care that at the time the appliances provided for immediate use in the dock were furnished by him they were in a fit state to be used. The opinion then proceeds as follows:—]

This decides this appeal in favor of the plaintiff, and I am unwilling to concur with the Master of the Rolls in laying down unnecessarily the larger principle which he entertains, inasmuch as there are many cases in which the principle was impliedly negatived.

Take, for instance, the case of Langridge v. Levy, supra, to which the principle, if it existed, would have applied. But the judges who decided that case based their judgment on the fraudulent representation made to the father of the plaintiff by the defendant. In other cases where the decision has been referred to, judges have treated fraud as the ground of the decision; as was done by Coleridge, J., in Blackmore v. Bristol & Exeter Ry. Co., 8 E. & B. 1035; and in Collis v. Selden, L. R. 3 C. P. 495, Willes, J., says that the judgment in Langridge v. Levy, supra, was based on the fraud of the defendant. This impliedly negatives the existence of the larger general principle which is relied on, and the decisions in Collis v. Selden, supra, and in Longmeid v. Holliday, supra (in each of which the plaintiff failed), are, in my opinion, at variance with the principle contended for. The case of George v. Skivington, supra, and especially what is said by Cleasby, B., in giving judgment in that case, seems to support the existence of the general principle. But it is not in terms laid down that any such principle exists, and the case was decided by Cleasby, B., on the ground that the negligence of the defendant which was his own personal negligence was equivalent, for the purposes of that action, to fraud, on which (as he said) the decision in Langridge v. Levy, supra, was based.^[174]

In declining to concur in laying down the principle enunciated by the Master of the Rolls, I in no way intimate any doubt as to the 251principle that any one who leaves a dangerous instrument, as a gun, in such a way as to cause danger, or who without due warning supplies to others for use an instrument or thing which to his knowledge, from its construction or otherwise, is in such a condition as to cause danger, not necessarily incident to the use of such an instrument or thing, is liable for injury caused to others by reason of his negligent act.

For the reasons stated I agree that the plaintiff is entitled to judgment, though I do not entirely concur with the reasoning of the Master of the Rolls.

MacPHERSON v. BUICK MOTOR COMPANY
Court of Appeals, New York, March 14, 1916.
Reported in 217 New York Reports, 382.

Cardozo, J. The defendant is a manufacturer of automobiles. It sold an automobile to a retail dealer. The retail dealer resold to the plaintiff. While the plaintiff was in the car it suddenly collapsed. He was thrown out and injured. One of the wheels was made of defective wood, and its spokes crumbled into fragments. The wheel was not made by the defendant; it was bought from another manufacturer. There is evidence, however, that its defects could have been discovered by reasonable inspection, and that inspection was omitted. There is no claim that the defendant knew of the defect and wilfully concealed it. The case, in other words, is not brought within the rule of Kuelling v. Lean Mfg. Co., 183 N. Y. 78, 75 N. E. 1098, 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 303, 111 Am. St. Rep. 691, 5 Ann. Cas. 124. The charge is one, not of fraud, but of negligence. The question to be determined is whether the defendant owed a duty of care and vigilance to any one but the immediate purchaser.

The foundations of this branch of the law, at least in this state, were laid in Thomas v. Winchester, 6 N. Y. 397, 57 Am. Dec. 455. A poison was falsely labelled. The sale was made to a druggist, who in turn sold to a customer. The customer recovered damages from the seller who affixed the label. “The defendant’s negligence,” it was said, “put human life in imminent danger.” A poison, falsely labelled, is likely to injure any one who gets it. Because the danger is to be foreseen, there is a duty to avoid the injury. Cases were cited by way of illustration in which manufacturers were not subject to any duty irrespective of contract. The distinction was said to be that their conduct, though negligent, was not likely to result in injury to any one except the purchaser. We are not required to say whether the chance of injury was always as remote as the distinction assumes. Some of the illustrations might be rejected to-day. The principle of the distinction is, for present purposes, the important 252thing. Thomas v. Winchester became quickly a landmark of the law. In the application of its principle there may, at times, have been uncertainty or even error. There has never in this state been doubt or disavowal of the principle itself. The chief cases are well known, yet to recall some of them will be helpful. Loop v. Litchfield, 42 N. Y. 351, 1 Am. Rep. 513, is the earliest. It was the case of a defect in a small balance wheel used on a circular saw. The manufacturer pointed out the defect to the buyer, who wished a cheap article and was ready to assume the risk. The risk can hardly have been an imminent one, for the wheel lasted five years before it broke. In the meanwhile the buyer had made a lease of the machinery. It was held that the manufacturer was not answerable to the lessee. Loop v. Litchfield was followed in Losee v. Clute, 51 N. Y. 494, 10 Am. Rep. 638, the case of the explosion of a steam boiler. That decision has been criticized (Thompson on Negligence, 233; Shearman & Redfield on Negligence, [6th ed.] § 117); but it must be confined to its special facts. It was put upon the ground that the risk of injury was too remote. The buyer in that case had not only accepted the boiler, but had tested it. The manufacturer knew that his own test was not the final one. The finality of the test has a bearing on the measure of diligence owing to persons other than the purchaser. Beven, Negligence, (3d ed.) pp. 50, 51, 54; Wharton, Negligence, (2d ed.) § 134.

These early cases suggest a narrow construction of the rule. Later cases, however, evince a more liberal spirit. First in importance is Devlin v. Smith, 89 N. Y. 470, 42 Am. Rep. 311. The defendant, a contractor, built a scaffold for a painter. The painter’s servants were injured. The contractor was held liable. He knew that the scaffold, if improperly constructed, was a most dangerous trap. He knew that it was to be used by the workmen. He was building it for that very purpose. Building it for their use, he owed them a duty, irrespective of his contract with their master, to build it with care.

From Devlin v. Smith we pass over intermediate cases and turn to the latest case in this court in which Thomas v. Winchester was followed. That case is Statler v. Ray Mfg. Co., 195 N. Y. 478, 480, 88 N. E. 1063. The defendant manufactured a large coffee urn. It was installed in a restaurant. When heated, the urn exploded and injured the plaintiff. We held that the manufacturer was liable. We said that the urn “was of such a character inherently that, when applied to the purposes for which it was designed, it was liable to become a source of great danger to many people if not carefully and properly constructed.”

It may be that Devlin v. Smith and Statler v. Ray Mfg. Co. have extended the rule of Thomas v. Winchester. If so, this court is committed to the extension. The defendant argues that things imminently dangerous to life are poisons, explosives, deadly weapons—things whose normal function it is to injure or destroy. But whatever 253the rule in Thomas v. Winchester may once have been, it has no longer that restricted meaning. A scaffold (Devlin v. Smith, supra) is not inherently a destructive instrument. It becomes destructive only if imperfectly constructed. A large coffee urn (Statler v. Ray Mfg. Co., supra) may have within itself, if negligently made, the potency of danger, yet no one thinks of it as an implement whose normal function is destruction. What is true of the coffee urn is equally true of bottles of aerated water. Torgesen v. Schultz, 192 N. Y. 156, 84 N. E. 956, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 726, 127 Am. St. Rep. 894. We have mentioned only cases in this court. But the rule has received a like extension in our courts of intermediate appeal. In Burke v. Ireland, 26 App. Div. 487, 50 N. Y. Supp. 369, in an opinion by Cullen, J., it was applied to a builder who constructed a defective building; in Kahner v. Otis Elevator Co., 96 App. Div. 169, 89 N. Y. Supp. 185, to the manufacturer of an elevator; in Davies v. Pelham Hod Elevating Co., 65 Hun, 573, 20 N. Y. Supp. 523, affirmed in this court without opinion, 146 N. Y. 363, 41 N. E. 88, to a contractor who furnished a defective rope with knowledge of the purpose for which the rope was to be used. We are not required at this time either to approve or to disapprove the application of the rule that was made in these cases. It is enough that they help to characterize the trend of judicial thought.

Devlin v. Smith was decided in 1882. A year later a very similar case came before the Court of Appeal in England (Heaven v. Pender, 11 Q. B. D. 503). We find in the opinion of Brett, M. R., afterwards Lord Esher, the same conception of a duty, irrespective of contract, imposed upon the manufacturer by the law itself:

“Whenever one person supplies goods or machinery, or the like, for the purpose of their being used by another person under such circumstances that every one of ordinary sense would, if he thought, recognize at once that unless he used ordinary care and skill with regard to the condition of the thing supplied, or the mode of supplying it, there will be danger of injury to the person or property of him for whose use the thing is supplied, and who is to use it, a duty arises to use ordinary care and skill as to the condition or manner of supplying such thing.”

He then points out that for a neglect of such ordinary care or skill whereby injury happens, the appropriate remedy is an action for negligence. The right to enforce this liability is not to be confined to the immediate buyer. The right, he says, extends to the persons or class of persons for whose use the thing is supplied. It is enough that the goods “would in all probability be used at once ... before a reasonable opportunity for discovering any defect which might exist,” and that the thing supplied is of such a nature “that a neglect of ordinary care or skill as to its condition or the manner of supplying it would probably cause danger to the person or property of the person for whose use it was supplied, and who was about to use it.” 254On the other hand, he would exclude a case “in which the goods are supplied under circumstances in which it would be a chance by whom they would be used or whether they would be used or not, or whether they would be used before there would probably be means of observing any defect,” or where the goods are of such a nature that “a want of care or skill as to their condition or the manner of supplying them would not probably produce danger of injury to person or property.” What was said by Lord Esher in that case did not command the full assent of his associates. His opinion has been criticized “as requiring every man to take affirmative precautions to protect his neighbors as well as to refrain from injuring them.” Bohlen, Affirmative Obligations in the Law of Torts, 44 Am. Law Reg. (N. S.) 341. It may not be an accurate exposition of the law of England. Perhaps it may need some qualification even in our own state. Like most attempts at comprehensive definition, it may involve errors of inclusion and of exclusion. But its tests and standards, at least in their underlying principles with whatever qualification may be called for as they are applied to varying conditions, are the tests and standards of our law.

We hold, then, that the principle of Thomas v. Winchester is not limited to poisons, explosives, and things of like nature, to things which in their normal operation are implements of destruction. If the nature of a thing is such that it is reasonably certain to place life and limb in peril when negligently made, it is then a thing of danger. Its nature gives warning of the consequences to be expected. If to the element of danger there is added knowledge that the thing will be used by persons other than the purchaser, and used without new tests, then, irrespective of contract, the manufacturer of this thing of danger is under a duty to make it carefully. That is as far as we are required to go for the decision of this case. There must be knowledge of a danger, not merely possible, but probable. It is possible to use almost anything in a way that will make it dangerous if defective. That is not enough to charge the manufacturer with a duty independent of his contract. Whether a given thing is dangerous may be sometimes a question for the court and sometimes a question for the jury. There must also be knowledge that in the usual course of events the danger will be shared by others than the buyer. Such knowledge may often be inferred from the nature of the transaction. But it is possible that even knowledge of the danger and of the use will not always be enough. The proximity or remoteness of the relation is a factor to be considered. We are dealing now with the liability of the manufacturer of the finished product, who puts it on the market to be used without inspection by his customers. If he is negligent, where danger is to be foreseen, a liability will follow.

We are not required at this time to say that it is legitimate to go back of the manufacturer of the finished product and hold the manufacturers 255of the component parts. To make their negligence a cause of imminent danger, an independent cause must often intervene; the manufacturer of the finished product must also fail in his duty of inspection. It may be that in those circumstances the negligence of the earlier members of the series is too remote to constitute, as to the ultimate user, an actionable wrong. Beven on Negligence, (3d ed.) 50, 51, 54; Wharton on Negligence, (2d ed.) § 134; Leeds v. N. Y. Tel. Co., 178 N. Y. 118, 70 N. E. 219; Sweet v. Perkins, 196 N. Y. 482, 90 N. E. 50; Hayes v. Hyde Park, 153 Mass. 514, 516, 27 N. E. 522, 12 L. R. A. 249. We leave that question open. We shall have to deal with it when it arises. The difficulty which it suggests is not present in this case. There is here no break in the chain of cause and effect. In such circumstances, the presence of a known danger, attendant upon a known use, makes vigilance a duty. We have put aside the notion that the duty to safeguard life and limb, when the consequences of negligence may be foreseen, grows out of contract and nothing else. We have put the source of the obligation where it ought to be. We have put its source in the law.

From this survey of the decisions, there thus emerges a definition of the duty of a manufacturer which enables us to measure this defendant’s liability. Beyond all question, the nature of an automobile gives warning of probable danger if its construction is defective. This automobile was designed to go 50 miles an hour. Unless its wheels were sound and strong, injury was almost certain. It was as much a thing of danger as a defective engine for a railroad. The defendant knew the danger. It knew also that the car would be used by persons other than the buyer. This was apparent from its size; there were seats for three persons. It was apparent also from the fact that the buyer was a dealer in cars, who bought to resell. The maker of this car supplied it for the use of purchasers from the dealer just as plainly as the contractor in Devlin v. Smith supplied the scaffold for use by the servants of the owner. The dealer was indeed the one person of whom it might be said with some approach to certainty that by him the car would not be used. Yet the defendant would have us say that he was the one person whom it was under a legal duty to protect. The law does not lead us to so inconsequent a conclusion. Precedents drawn from the days of travel by stage-coach do not fit the conditions of travel to-day. The principle that the danger must be imminent does not change, but the things subject to the principle do change. They are whatever the needs of life in a developing civilization requires them to be.

In reaching this conclusion, we do not ignore the decisions to the contrary in other jurisdictions. It was held in Cadillac Co. v. Johnson, 221 Fed. 801, 137 C. C. A. 279, L. R. A. 1915E, 287, that an automobile is not within the rule of Thomas v. Winchester. There was, however, a vigorous dissent. Opposed to that decision is one of 256the Court of Appeals of Kentucky. Olds Motor Works v. Shaffer, 145 Ky. 616, 140 S. W. 1047, 37 L. R. A. (N. S.) 560, Ann. Cas. 1913B, 689. The earlier cases are summarized by Judge Sanborn in Huset v. J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co., 120 Fed. 865, 57 C. C. A. 237, 61 L. R. A. 303. Some of them, at first sight inconsistent with our conclusion, may be reconciled upon the ground that the negligence was too remote, and that another cause had intervened. But even when they cannot be reconciled the difference is rather in the application of the principle than in the principle itself. Judge Sanborn says, for example, that the contractor who builds a bridge, or the manufacturer who builds a car, cannot ordinarily foresee injury to other persons than the owner as the probable result. 120 Fed. 865, at page 867, 57 C. C. A. 237, at page 239, 61 L. R. A. 303. We take a different view. We think that injury to others is to be foreseen not merely as a possible, but as an almost inevitable result. See the trenchant criticism in Bohlen, supra, at page 351. Indeed, Judge Sanborn concedes that his view is not to be reconciled with our decision in Devlin v. Smith, supra. The doctrine of that decision has now become the settled law of this state, and we have no desire to depart from it.

In England the limits of the rule are still unsettled. Winterbottom v. Wright, 10 M. & W. 109, is often cited. The defendant undertook to provide a mail coach to carry the mail bags. The coach broke down from latent defects in its construction. The defendant, however, was not the manufacturer. The court held that he was not liable for injuries to a passenger. The case was decided on a demurrer to the declaration. Lord Esher points out in Heaven v. Pender, supra, at page 513, that the form of the declaration was subject to criticism. It did not fairly suggest the existence of a duty aside from the special contract which was the plaintiff’s main reliance. See the criticism of Winterbottom v. Wright, in Bohlen, supra, at pages 281, 283. At all events, in Heaven v. Pender, supra, the defendant, a dock owner, who put up a staging outside a ship, was held liable to the servants of the shipowner. In Elliot v. Hall, 15 Q. B. D. 315, the defendant sent out a defective truck laden with goods which he had sold. The buyer’s servants unloaded it, and were injured because of the defects. It was held that the defendant was under a duty “not to be guilty of negligence with regard to the state and condition of the truck.” There seems to have been a return to the doctrine of Winterbottom v. Wright in Earl v. Lubbock, [1905] 1 K. B. 253. In that case, however, as in the earlier one, the defendant was not the manufacturer. He had merely made a contract to keep the van in repair. A later case (White v. Steadman, [1913] 3 K. B. 340, 348) emphasizes that element. A livery stable keeper who sent out a vicious horse was held liable, not merely to his customer, but also to another occupant of the carriage, and Thomas v. Winchester was cited and followed, White v. Steadman, supra, at pages 348, 349. It was again cited and followed in 257Dominion Natural Gas Co. v. Collins, [1909] A. C. 640, 646. From these cases a consistent principle is with difficulty extracted. The English courts, however, agree with ours in holding that one who invites another to make use of an appliance is bound to the exercise of reasonable care. Caledonian Ry. Co. v. Mulholland, [1898] A. C. 216, 227; Indermaur v. Dames, L. R. 1 C. P. 274. That at bottom is the underlying principle of Devlin v. Smith. The contractor who builds the scaffold invites the owner’s workmen to use it. The manufacturer who sells the automobile to the retail dealer invites the dealer’s customers to use it. The invitation is addressed in the one case to determinate persons and in the other to an indeterminate class, but in each case it is equally plain, and in each its consequences must be the same.

There is nothing anomalous in a rule which imposes upon A., who has contracted with B., a duty to C. and D. and others according as he knows or does not know that the subject-matter of the contract is intended for their use. We may find an analogy in the law which measures the liability of landlords. If A. leases to B. a tumble-down house, he is not liable, in the absence of fraud, to B.’s guests who enter it and are injured. This is because B. is then under the duty to repair it, the lessor has the right to suppose that he will fulfill that duty, and, if he omits to do so, his guests must look to him. Bohlen, supra, at page 276. But if A. leases a building to be used by the lessee at once as a place of public entertainment, the rule is different. There injury to persons other than the lessee is to be foreseen, and foresight of the consequences involves the creation of a duty. Junkermann v. Tilyou R. Co., 213 N. Y. 404, 108 N. E. 190, L. R. A. 1915F, 700, and cases there cited.

In this view of the defendant’s liability there is nothing inconsistent with the theory of liability on which the case was tried. It is true that the court told the jury that “an automobile is not an inherently dangerous vehicle.” The meaning, however, is made plain by the context. The meaning is that danger is not to be expected when the vehicle is well constructed. The court left it to the jury to say whether the defendant ought to have foreseen that the car, if negligently constructed, would become “imminently dangerous.” Subtle distinctions are drawn by the defendant between things inherently dangerous and things imminently dangerous, but the case does not turn upon these verbal niceties. If danger was to be expected as reasonably certain, there was a duty of vigilance, and this whether you call the danger inherent or imminent. In varying forms that thought was put before the jury. We do not say that the court would not have been justified in ruling as a matter of law that the car was a dangerous thing. If there was any error, it was none of which the defendant can complain.

258We think the defendant was not absolved from a duty of inspection because it bought the wheels from a reputable manufacturer. It was not merely a dealer in automobiles. It was a manufacturer of automobiles. It was responsible for the finished product. It was not at liberty to put the finished product on the market without subjecting the component parts to ordinary and simple tests. Richmond & Danville R. R. Co. v. Elliott, 149 U. S. 266, 272, 13 Sup. Ct. 837, 37 L. Ed. 728. Under the charge of the trial judge nothing more was required of it. The obligation to inspect must vary with the nature of the thing to be inspected. The more probable the danger the greater the need of caution.

There is little analogy between this case and Carlson v. Phoenix Bridge Co., 132 N. Y. 273, 30 N. E. 750, where the defendant bought a tool for a servant’s use. The making of tools was not the business in which the master was engaged. Reliance on the skill of the manufacturer was proper and almost inevitable. But that is not the defendant’s situation. Both by its relation to the work and by the nature of its business, it is charged with a stricter duty.

Other rulings complained of have been considered, but no error has been found in them.

The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.

Willard Bartlett, C. J. (dissenting). The plaintiff was injured in consequence of the collapse of a wheel of an automobile manufactured by the defendant corporation which sold it to a firm of automobile dealers in Schenectady, who in turn sold the car to the plaintiff. The wheel was purchased by the Buick Motor Company, ready made, from the Imperial Wheel Company of Flint, Mich., a reputable manufacturer of automobile wheels which had furnished the defendant with 80,000 wheels, none of which had proved to be made of defective wood prior to the accident in the present case. The defendant relied upon the wheel manufacturer to make all necessary tests as to the strength of the material therein, and made no such test itself. The present suit is an action for negligence, brought by the subvendee of the motor car against the manufacturer as the original vendor. The evidence warranted a finding by the jury that the wheel which collapsed was defective when it left the hands of the defendant. The automobile was being prudently operated at the time of the accident, and was moving at a speed of only eight miles an hour. There was no allegation or proof of any actual knowledge of the defect on the part of the defendant, or any suggestion that any element of fraud or deceit or misrepresentation entered into the sale.

The theory upon which the case was submitted to the jury by the learned judge who presided at the trial was that, although an automobile is not an inherently dangerous vehicle, it may become such if equipped with a weak wheel; and that if the motor car in question, when it was put upon the market was in itself inherently dangerous by 259reason of its being equipped with a weak wheel, the defendant was chargeable with a knowledge of the defect so far as it might be discovered by a reasonable inspection and the application of reasonable tests. This liability, it was further held, was not limited to the original vendee, but extended to a subvendee like the plaintiff, who was not a party to the original contract of sale.

I think that these rulings, which have been approved by the Appellate Division, extend the liability of the vendor of a manufactured article further than any case which has yet received the sanction of this court. It has heretofore been held in this state that the liability of the vendor of a manufactured article for negligence arising out of the existence of defects therein does not extend to strangers injured in consequence of such defects, but is confined to the immediate vendee. The exceptions to this general rule which have thus far been recognized in New York are cases in which the article sold was of such a character that danger to life or limb was involved in the ordinary use thereof; in other words, where the article sold was inherently dangerous. As has already been pointed out, the learned trial judge instructed the jury that an automobile is not an inherently dangerous vehicle.

The late Chief Justice Cooley of Michigan, one of the most learned and accurate of American law writers, states the general rule thus:

“The general rule is that a contractor, manufacturer, vendor or furnisher of an article is not liable to third parties who have no contractual relations with him, for negligence in the construction, manufacture or sale of such article.” 2 Cooley on Torts, (3d ed.) 1486.

The leading English authority in support of this rule, to which all the later cases on the same subject refer, is Winterbottom v. Wright, 10 Meeson & Welsby, 109, which was an action by the driver of a stage-coach against a contractor who had agreed with the postmaster general to provide and keep the vehicle in repair for the purpose of conveying the royal mail over a prescribed route. The coach broke down and upset, injuring the driver, who sought to recover against the contractor on account of its defective construction. The Court of Exchequer denied him any right of recovery on the ground that there was no privity of contract between the parties, the agreement having been made with the postmaster general alone.

“If the plaintiff can sue,” said Lord Abinger, the Chief Baron, “every passenger or even any person passing along the road who was injured by the upsetting of the coach might bring a similar action. Unless we confine the operation of such contracts as this to the parties who enter into them the most absurd and outrageous consequences, to which I can see no limit, would ensue.”

The doctrine of that decision was recognized as the law of this state by the leading New York case of Thomas v. Winchester, 6 N. Y. 397, 408, 57 Am. Dec. 455, which, however, involved an exception to 260the general rule. There the defendant, who was a dealer in medicines, sold to a druggist a quantity of belladonna, which is a deadly poison, negligently labelled as extract of dandelion. The druggist in good faith used the poison in filling a prescription calling for the harmless dandelion extract, and the plaintiff for whom the prescription was put up was poisoned by the belladonna. This court held that the original vendor was liable for the injuries suffered by the patient. Chief Judge Ruggles, who delivered the opinion of the court, distinguished between an act of negligence imminently dangerous to the lives of others and one that is not so, saying:

“If A. build a wagon and sell it to B., who sells it to C., and C. hires it to D., who in consequence of the gross negligence of A. in building the wagon is overturned and injured, D. cannot recover damages against A., the builder. A.’s obligation to build the wagon faithfully arises solely out of his contract with B. The public have nothing to do with it.... So, for the same reason, if a horse be defectively shod by a smith, and a person hiring the horse from the owner is thrown and injured in consequence of the smith’s negligence in shoeing, the smith is not liable for the injury.”

In Torgesen v. Schultz, 192 N. Y. 156, 159, 84 N. E. 956, 18 L. R. A. (N. S.) 726, 127 Am. St. Rep. 894, the defendant was the vendor of bottles of aerated water which were charged under high pressure and likely to explode unless used with precaution when exposed to sudden changes of temperature. The plaintiff, who was a servant of the purchaser, was injured by the explosion of one of these bottles. There was evidence tending to show that it had not been properly tested in order to insure users against such accidents. We held that the defendant corporation was liable notwithstanding the absence of any contract relation between it and the plaintiff “under the doctrine of Thomas v. Winchester, supra, and similar cases based upon the duty of the vendor of an article dangerous in its nature or likely to become so in the course of the ordinary usage to be contemplated by the vendor, either to exercise due care to warn users of the danger or to take reasonable care to prevent the article sold from proving dangerous when subjected only to customary usage.”

The character of the exception to the general rule limiting liability for negligence to the original parties to the contract of sale, was still more clearly stated by Judge Hiscock, writing for the court in Statler v. Ray Manufacturing Co., 195 N. Y. 478, 482, 88 N. E. 1063, where he said that:

“In the case of an article of an inherently dangerous nature, a manufacturer may become liable for a negligent construction which, when added to the inherent character of the appliance, makes it imminently dangerous, and causes or contributes to a resulting injury not necessarily incident to the use of such an article if properly constructed, but naturally following from a defective construction.”

261In that case the injuries were inflicted by the explosion of a battery of steam-driven coffee urns, constituting an appliance liable to become dangerous in the course of ordinary usage.

The case of Devlin v. Smith, 89 N. Y. 470, 42 Am. Rep. 311, is cited as an authority in conflict with the view that the liability of the manufacturer and vendor extends to third parties only when the article manufactured and sold is inherently dangerous. In that case the builder of a scaffold 90 feet high, which was erected for the purpose of enabling painters to stand upon it, was held to be liable to the administratrix of a painter who fell therefrom and was killed, being at the time in the employ of the person for whom the scaffold was built. It is said that the scaffold, if properly constructed, was not inherently dangerous, and hence that this decision affirms the existence of liability in the case of an article not dangerous in itself, but made so only in consequence of negligent construction. Whatever logical force there may be in this view it seems to me clear from the language of Judge Rapallo, who wrote the opinion of the court, that the scaffold was deemed to be an inherently dangerous structure, and that the case was decided as it was because the court entertained that view. Otherwise he would hardly have said, as he did, that the circumstances seemed to bring the case fairly within the principle of Thomas v. Winchester.

I do not see how we can uphold the judgment in the present case without overruling what has been so often said by this court and other courts of like authority in reference to the absence of any liability for negligence on the part of the original vendor of an ordinary carriage to any one except his immediate vendee. The absence of such liability was the very point actually decided in the English case of Winterbottom v. Wright, supra, and the illustration quoted from the opinion of Chief Judge Ruggles in Thomas v. Winchester, supra, assumes that the law on the subject was so plain that the statement would be accepted almost as a matter of course. In the case at bar the defective wheel on an automobile, moving only eight miles an hour, was not any more dangerous to the occupants of the car than a similarly defective wheel would be to the occupants of a carriage drawn by a horse at the same speed, and yet, unless the courts have been all wrong on this question up to the present time, there would be no liability to strangers to the original sale in the case of the horse-drawn carriage.

The rule upon which, in my judgment, the determination of this case depends, and the recognized exceptions thereto, were discussed by Circuit Judge Sanborn, of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in the Eighth Circuit, in Huset v. J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co., 120 Fed. 865, 57 C. C. A. 237, 61 L. R. A. 303, in an opinion which reviews all the leading American and English decisions on the subject up to the time when it was rendered (1903). I have already discussed 262the leading New York cases, but as to the rest I feel that I can add nothing to the learning of that opinion or the cogency of its reasoning. I have examined the cases to which Judge Sanborn refers, but if I were to discuss them at length, I should be forced merely to paraphrase his language, as a study of the authorities he cites has led me to the same conclusion; and the repetition of what has already been so well said would contribute nothing to the advantage of the bench, the bar, or the individual litigants whose case is before us.

A few cases decided since his opinion was written, however, may be noticed. In Earl v. Lubbock, [1905] L. R. 1 K. B. Div. 253, the Court of Appeal in 1904 considered and approved the propositions of law laid down by the Court of Exchequer in Winterbottom v. Wright, supra, declaring that the decision in that case, since the year 1842, had stood the test of repeated discussion. The Master of the Rolls approved the principles laid down by Lord Abinger as based upon sound reasoning; and all the members of the court agreed that his decision was a controlling authority which must be followed. That the federal courts still adhere to the general rule, as I have stated it, appears by the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit, in March, 1915, in the case of Cadillac Motor Car Co. v. Johnson, 221 Fed. 801, 137 C. C. A. 279, L. R. A. 1915E, 287. That case, like this, was an action by a subvendee against a manufacturer of automobiles for negligence in failing to discover that one of its wheels was defective, the court holding that such an action could not be maintained. It is true there was a dissenting opinion in that case, but it was based chiefly upon the proposition that rules applicable to stage-coaches are archaic when applied to automobiles, and that if the law did not afford a remedy to strangers to the contract, the law should be changed. If this be true, the change should be effected by the Legislature and not by the courts. A perusal of the opinion in that case and in the Huset Case will disclose how uniformly the courts throughout this country have adhered to the rule and how consistently they have refused to broaden the scope of the exceptions. I think we should adhere to it in the case at bar, and therefore I vote for a reversal of this judgment.

Hiscock, Chase, and Cuddeback, JJ., concur with Cardozo, J., and Hogan, J., concurs in result. Willard Bartlett, C. J., reads dissenting opinion. Pound, J., not voting.

Judgment affirmed.^[175]

NEAL v. GILLETT
Supreme Court of Errors, Connecticut, June Term, 1855.
Reported in 23 Connecticut Reports, 437.

Action to recover for personal injury alleged to have been incurred through the negligence of the defendants. Plaintiff claimed that the defendants were guilty of gross negligence, as the cause of the injury; and that, if the jury should so find, the plaintiff was entitled to recover notwithstanding there had been on his part a want of mere ordinary care which might have essentially contributed to produce the injury complained of. The Court charged the jury in conformity to this claim of the plaintiff. Verdict for plaintiff. Motion for new trial.

Sanford, J. [Omitting opinion on another point.]^[176] The question presented upon the second point, is, whether a plaintiff is entitled to recover for an injury, produced by the combined operation of his own want of “ordinary care,” and the gross negligence of the defendant. The exact boundaries between the several degrees of care and their correlative degrees of carelessness, or negligence, are not always clearly defined or easily pointed out. We think, however, that by “ordinary care,” is meant “that degree of care which may reasonably be expected from a person in the party’s situation” (41 E. C. L. R. 425),^[177] that is, “reasonable care” (19 Conn. R. 572); and that “gross negligence” imports not a malicious intention or design to produce a particular injury, but a thoughtless disregard of consequences; the absence, rather than the actual exercise, of volition with reference to results.

What is the measure of “reasonable care” must of course depend upon the circumstances of the particular situation in which the party at the time is placed. But “reasonable care,” every one, in the enjoyment of his rights, and the performance of his duties, is bound to exercise at all times and under all circumstances. When he has done that, he is answerable to no one for any consequences which ensue, for he has done all his duty; when he has done less than that he is in fault, and if an injury ensue to another in consequence of such fault, 264he is responsible for it; if to himself, he must bear it. If in the enjoyment of their lawful rights by two persons, at the same time and place, reasonable care is exercised by both, and an injury accrues to one of them, it must be borne by the suffering party as a providential visitation. If such care is exercised by neither party, and an injury accrues to one of them, he must bear it, for he was himself in fault. And we hold that when the gist of the action is negligence merely,—whether gross or slight, the plaintiff is not entitled to recover, when his own want of ordinary, or reasonable care, has essentially contributed to his injury; because he is himself in fault, and because of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of ascertaining in what proportions the parties respectively, by their negligence, have contributed to the production of the injury, and whether it would have been produced at all but by the combined operation of the negligence of both. When the injury is intentional, and designed, other considerations apply.

For anything this Court can see, the negligence of the defendants, however gross, might have been entirely harmless, but for the plaintiff’s own wrongful contribution to the combined causes which produced his injury. And so too, for anything this Court can see, although the defendants’ negligence was gross, and fully adequate to the production of the injury, yet the plaintiff’s exercise of reasonable care would have saved him from its consequences.

In the recent case of Park v. O’Brien, 23 Conn. R. 339, this Court said, “It is necessary for the plaintiff, to prove, first, negligence on the part of the defendant, and, secondly, that the injury to the plaintiff occurred in consequence of that negligence. But in order to prove this latter point, the plaintiff must show that such injury was not caused, wholly, or in part, by his own negligence;^[178] for although the defendant was guilty of negligence, if the plaintiff’s negligence contributed essentially to the injury, it is obvious that it did not occur by 265reason of the defendant’s negligence.” “Hence, to say that the plaintiff must show the latter” [the want of the plaintiff’s concurring negligence], “is only saying that he must show that the injury was owing to the negligence of the defendant.”

The same reasonable doctrine is sanctioned by other decisions, in our own Court and elsewhere. Birge v. Gardiner, 19 Conn. R. 507; Beers v. Housatonic R. R. Co., 19 Conn. R. 566, and cases there cited.

We think, therefore, that the charge of the Court, on this point, was wrong, and that a new trial ought to be granted.

In this opinion the other judges concurred, except Ellsworth, J., who was disqualified.

PAYNE v. CHICAGO & ALTON RAILROAD COMPANY
Supreme Court, Missouri, June 25, 1895.
Reported in 129 Missouri Reports, 405.

Action for personal injuries alleged to be caused by the negligence of defendant. Answer: a general denial, and a plea of contributory negligence.^[180]

The judge, at the request of plaintiff, gave the following instruction:—

“No. 7. One of the defences in this case interposed by the defendant is that of negligence on the part of plaintiff, Claude Payne, directly contributing to the injuries of which plaintiff complains; and the court instructs the jury that the law devolves upon the defendant the burden of proving such negligence by a preponderance of the evidence, and it is not sufficient that the jury may believe from the evidence that the plaintiff was simply guilty of negligence, but that the negligence of plaintiff, and not that of the defendant, must be the proximate or immediate cause of the injury, to excuse the defendant from liability.”

In the Circuit Court plaintiff had judgment. Defendant appealed.

Macfarlane, J. Defendant complains of instruction 7 given the jury at the request of plaintiff. The complaint is that the instruction improperly defines contributory negligence.

Contributory negligence, as the word imports, implies the concurring negligence of both plaintiff and defendant. The phrase is defined by Beach as follows: “Contributory negligence, in its legal signification, 266is such an act or omission on the part of a plaintiff, amounting to a want of ordinary care, as, concurring or coöperating with the negligent act of the defendant, is a proximate cause or occasion of the injury complained of.” Beach, Cont. Neg. [2 ed.] sect. 7. The definition given by Shearman & Redfield in their work on Negligence (sect. 61) is in substance and effect the same.

If the negligence of either plaintiff or defendant is the sole cause of the injury there could be no contributory negligence in the case. The question for the jury is whether the plaintiff could “by the exercise of such care and skill as he was bound to exercise, have avoided the consequence of the defendant’s negligence.” Lord Blackburn, L. R. 3 App. Cas. 1207. See, also, 4 Am. & Eng. Encyclopedia of Law, 18 & 19. It is clear that there could be no contributory negligence unless there was also negligence of defendant to which that of plaintiff could contribute. Unless the negligence of defendant was the proximate cause of the injury, there could be no liability. Unless the negligence of plaintiff was a proximate cause of the injury, his action, on the ground of contributory negligence, would not be defeated.

Testing the instruction by these rules, it cannot be approved. It tells the jury that “the negligence of plaintiff, and not that of defendant, must be the proximate or immediate cause of the injury to excuse the defendant from liability.” They were told in effect that this result would follow though “plaintiff was simply guilty of negligence.” The jury may as well have been told that to defeat a recovery on the plea of contributory negligence, it was necessary to find that the negligence of plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of the injury. The instruction ignored entirely concurring or contributory negligence of both parties, which is one essential element of contributory negligence. There are no degrees which distinguish the negligence made necessary by the law to defeat a recovery. And negligence which is proximate or a cause of the injury is sufficient. It does not matter that the concurring and coöperating negligence of defendant was negligence, per se, such as the violation of an ordinance, as in this case, or statute law.

The instruction is also misleading wherein it informs the jury that in order for defendant to establish its plea of contributory negligence “it is not sufficient that the jury may believe from the evidence that plaintiff was simply guilty of negligence,” and as qualified or explained, by what follows, does not correctly declare the law. The negligence to defeat a recovery must be a proximate cause for the injury, but need not be the sole proximate cause.

As the evidence on the issue of contributory negligence was very clear, we think the errors in this instruction prejudicial and must cause a reversal.^[181]

[After citing decisions in other jurisdictions.] It will be seen from these cases that the question of liability does not depend absolutely on the absence of all negligence on the part of the plaintiff, but upon the relative degree of care or want of care as manifested by both parties; for all care or negligence is at best but relative, the absence of the highest possible degree of care showing the presence of some negligence, slight as it may be. The true doctrine, therefore, we think, is, that in proportion to the negligence of the defendant should be measured the degree of care required of the plaintiff; that is to say, the 268more gross the negligence manifested by the defendant, the less degree of care will be required of the plaintiff to entitle him to recover.... We say, then, that in this, as in all like cases, the degree of negligence must be measured and considered, and whenever it shall appear that the plaintiff’s negligence is comparatively slight and that of the defendant gross, he shall not be deprived of his action.^[182]

In all actions hereafter brought against any such common carrier^[183] by railroad under or by virtue of any of the provisions of this Act to recover damages for personal injuries to an employee, or where such injuries have resulted in his death, the fact that the employee may have been guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employee: Provided, That no such employee who may be injured or killed shall be held to have been guilty of contributory negligence in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee.^[184] (Act of April 22, 1908, c. 149, § 3, 35 Stat. L. 66.)

England, Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1906, § 1 (c.)

If it is proved that the injury to a workman is attributable to the serious and wilful misconduct of that workman, any compensation claimed in respect of that injury shall, unless the injury results in death or serious and permanent disablement, be disallowed.^[185]

THE MAX MORRIS
Supreme Court of the United States, November 17, 1890.
Reported in 137 United States Reports, 1.

The case, as stated by the court, was as follows:—

This was a suit in Admiralty, brought in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, by Patrick Curry against the steamer Max Morris.^[186]

The libel alleged that on the 27th of October, 1884, the libellant was lawfully on board of that vessel, being employed to load coal upon 270her by the stevedore who had the contract for loading the coal; that, on that day, the libellant, while on the vessel, fell from her bridge to the deck, through the negligence of those in charge of her, in having removed from the bridge the ladder usually leading therefrom to the deck, and in leaving open, and failing to guard, the aperture thus left in the rail on the bridge; that the libellant was not guilty of negligence; and that he was injured by the fall and incapacitated from labor. He claimed $3000 damages.

The answer alleged negligence on the part of the libellant and an absence of negligence on the part of the claimant.

The District Court, held by Judge Brown, entered a decree in favor of the libellant for $150 damages, and $32.33 as one-half of the libellant’s costs, less $47.06 as one-half of the claimant’s costs, making the total award to the libellant $135.27. The opinion of the District Judge is reported in 24 Fed. Rep. 860. It appeared from that that the judge charged to the libellant’s own fault all his pain and suffering and all mere consequential damages, and charged the vessel with his wages, at $2 per day, for seventy-five working days, making $150.

The claimant appealed to the Circuit Court, on the ground that the libel should have been dismissed. It was stipulated between the parties that the facts as stated in the opinion of the District Judge should be taken as the facts proved in the case, and that the appeal should be heard on those facts. Judge Wallace, who heard the case on appeal in the Circuit Court, delivered an opinion, in August, 1886, which is reported in 28 Fed. Rep. 881, affirming the decree of the District Court. No decree was made on that decision, but the case came up again in the Circuit Court on the 14th of March, 1887, the Court being held by Mr. Justice Blatchford and Judge Wallace, when a certificate was signed by them stating as follows: “The libellant was a longshoreman, a resident of the city and county of New York, and was, at the time when the said accident occurred, employed as longshoreman, by the hour, by the stevedore having the contract to load coal on board the steamship Max Morris. The injuries to the libellant were occasioned by his falling through an unguarded opening in the rail on the after-end of the lower bridge. The Max Morris was a British steamship, hailing from Liverpool, England. The defendant contends, as a matter of defence to said libel, that the injuries complained of by libellant were caused by his own negligence. The libellant contends that the injuries were occasioned entirely through the fault of the vessel and her officers. The Court finds, as a matter of fact, that the injuries to the libellant were occasioned partly through his own negligence and partly through the negligence of the officers of the vessel. It now occurs, as a question of law, whether the libellant, under the above facts, is entitled to a decree for divided damages. On this question the opinions of the judges are in conflict.” On motion of the claimant, the question in difference was certified to this 271Court, and a decree was entered by the Circuit Court affirming the decree of the District Court and awarding to the libellant a recovery of $135.27, with interest from the date of the decree of the District Court, and $26.30 as the libellant’s costs in the Circuit Court, making a total of $172. From that decree the claimant has appealed to this Court. Rev. Stat. §§ 652, 693; Dow v. Johnson, 100 U. S. 158.

Mr. Justice Blatchford, after stating the case as above reported, delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question discussed in the opinions of Judge Brown and Judge Wallace, and presented to us for decision, is whether the libellant was debarred from the recovery of any sum of money, by reason of the fact that his own negligence contributed to the accident, although there was negligence also in the officers of the vessel. The question presented by the certificate is really that question, although stated in the certificate to be whether the libellant, under the facts presented, was entitled to a decree “for divided damages.” It appears from the opinion of the District Judge that he imposed upon the claimant “some part of the damage” which his concurrent negligence occasioned, while it does not appear from the record that the award of the $150 was the result of an equal division of the damages suffered by the libellant, or a giving to him of exactly one-half, or of more or less than one-half, of such damages.

The particular question before us has never been authoritatively passed upon by this Court, and is, as stated by the District Judge in his opinion, whether, in a Court of admiralty, in a case like the present, where personal injuries to the libellant arose from his negligence concurring with that of the vessel, any damages can be awarded, or whether the libel must be dismissed, according to the rule in common-law cases.

The doctrine of an equal division of damages in admiralty, in the case of a collision between two vessels, where both are guilty of fault contributing to the collision, had long been the rule in England, but was first established by this Court in the case of The Schooner Catherine v. Dickinson, 17 How. 170, and has been applied by it to cases where, both vessels being in fault, only one of them was injured, as well as to cases where both were injured, the injured vessel, in the first case, recovering only one-half of its damages, and, in the second case, the damages suffered by the two vessels being added together and equally divided, and the vessel whose damages exceeded such one-half recovering the excess against the other vessel. In the case of The Schooner Catherine v. Dickinson, supra, both vessels being held in fault for the collision, it was said by the Court, speaking by Mr. Justice Nelson, p. 177, that the well-settled rule in the English admiralty was “to divide the loss,” and that “under the circumstances usually attending these disasters” the Court thought “the rule dividing the loss the most just and equitable, and as best tending to induce care and vigilance on both sides, in the navigation.”

272[In Atlee v. Packet Co., 21 Wallace, 389, p. 395, Miller, J., said:] “But the plaintiff has elected to bring his suit in an admiralty Court, which has jurisdiction of the case, notwithstanding the concurrent right to sue at law. In this Court the course of proceeding is in many respects different and the rules of decision are different. The mode of pleading is different, the proceeding more summary and informal, and neither party has a right to trial by jury. An important difference as regards this case is the rule for estimating the damages. In the common-law Court the defendant must pay all the damages or none. If there has been on the part of the plaintiffs such carelessness or want of skill as the common law would esteem to be contributory negligence, they can recover nothing. By the rule of the admiralty Court, where there has been such contributory negligence, or, in other words, when both have been in fault, the entire damages resulting from the collision must be equally divided between the parties. This rule of the admiralty commends itself quite as favorably in its influence in securing practical justice as the other; and the plaintiff who has the selection of the forum in which he will litigate cannot complain of the rule of that forum.” This Court, therefore, treated the case as if it had been one of a collision between two vessels.

Some of the cases referred to show that this Court has extended the rule of the division of damages to claims other than those for damages to the vessels which were in fault in a collision.

The rule of the equal apportionment of the loss where both parties were in fault would seem to have been founded upon the difficulty of determining, in such cases, the degree of negligence in the one and the other. It is said by Cleirac (Us et Coutumes de la Mer, p. 68) that such rule of division is a rustic sort of determination, and such as arbiters and amicable compromisers of disputes commonly follow, where they cannot discover the motives of the parties, or when they see faults on both sides.

As to the particular question now presented for decision, there has been a conflict of opinion in the lower Courts of the United States.

All these were cases in admiralty, and were not cases of collision between two vessels. They show an amelioration of the common-law rule, and an extension of the admiralty rule in a direction which we think is manifestly just and proper. Contributory negligence, in a case like the present, should not wholly bar recovery. There would have been no injury to the libellant but for the fault of the vessel; and while, on the one hand, the Court ought not to give him full compensation for his injury, where he himself was partly in fault, it ought not, on the other hand, to be restrained from saying that the fact of his negligence should not deprive him of all recovery of damages. As stated by the District Judge in his opinion in the present case, the more equal distribution of justice, the dictates of humanity, the safety 273of life and limb and the public good, will be best promoted by holding vessels liable to bear some part of the actual pecuniary loss sustained by the libellant, in a case like the present, where their fault is clear, provided the libellant’s fault, though evident, is neither wilful, nor gross, nor inexcusable, and where the other circumstances present a strong case for his relief. We think this rule is applicable to all like cases of marine tort founded upon negligence and prosecuted in admiralty, as in harmony with the rule for the division of damages in cases of collision. The mere fact of the negligence of the libellant as partly occasioning the injuries to him, when they also occurred partly through the negligence of the officers of the vessel, does not debar him entirely from a recovery.

The necessary conclusion is, that the question whether the libellant, upon the facts found, is entitled to a decree for divided damages, must be answered in the affirmative, in accordance with the judgment below. This being the only question certified, and the amount in dispute being insufficient to give this Court jurisdiction of the whole case, our jurisdiction is limited to reviewing this question. Chicago Union Bank v. Kansas City Bank, 136 U. S. 223. Whether, in a case like this, the decree should be for exactly one-half of the damages sustained, or might, in the discretion of the Court, be for a greater or less proportion of such damages, is a question not presented for our determination upon this record, and we express no opinion upon it.

Scott, Collisions at Sea where both Ships are in Fault, 13 Law Quarterly Review, 17.

If minor or collateral differences be disregarded, there are amongst civilized nations four different ways of dealing with collision damage where both ships are in fault.

1. To mass the total damage and divide it equally between the two ships.^[188]

This is the British rule, and has been the American rule....

2742. To leave the loss where it falls.

This is the rule in Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, and those of the South American States which have derived their law from Spain, and was the rule in Great Britain in our Courts of Common Law previous to the Judicature Act, 1873.

3. To divide the loss proportionally to the value of the vessels in collision.

A kind of general average principle obtaining in Turkey and Egypt.

4. To divide the loss proportionally to the faults of the two vessels.

This is the rule of France, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, and Roumania.

See Franck, Collisions at Sea in Relation to International Maritime Law, 12 Law Quarterly Review, 260.

England, Maritime Conventions act (1911), § 1.

1. (1) Where, by the fault of two or more vessels, damage or loss is caused to one or more of those vessels, to their cargoes or freight, or to any property on board, the liability to make good the damage or loss shall be in proportion to the degree in which each vessel was in fault:

Provided that—

(a) if, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, it is not possible to establish different degrees of fault, the liability shall be apportioned equally; and

(b) nothing in this section shall operate so as to render any vessel liable for any loss or damage to which her fault has not contributed.

BUTTERFIELD v. FORRESTER
In the King’s Bench, April 22, 1809.
Reported in 11 East, 60.

This was an action on the case for obstructing a highway, by means of which obstruction the plaintiff, who was riding along the road, was thrown down with his horse, and injured, &c. At the trial before Bayley, J., at Derby, it appeared that the defendant, for the purpose of making some repairs to his house, which was close by the roadside at one end of the town, had put up a pole across this part of the road, a free passage being left by another branch or street in the same direction. That the plaintiff left a public house not far distant from the place in question at 8 o’clock in the evening in August, when they were just beginning to light candles, but while there was light enough left to discern the obstruction at one hundred yards distance; and the witness who proved this, said that if the plaintiff had not been riding very hard he might have observed and avoided it; the plaintiff, however, who was riding violently, did not observe it, but rode against it, and fell with his horse and was much hurt in consequence of the accident; and there was no evidence of his being intoxicated at the time. On this evidence Bayley, J., directed the jury, that if a person riding with reasonable and ordinary care could have seen and avoided the obstruction; and if they were satisfied that the plaintiff was riding along 275the street extremely hard, and without ordinary care, they should find a verdict for the defendant, which they accordingly did.

Vaughan, Serjt., now objected to this direction, on moving for a new trial; and referred to Buller’s Ni. Pri. 26,^[189] where the rule is laid down, that “if a man lay logs of wood across a highway, though a person may with care ride safely by, yet if by means thereof my horse stumble and fling me, I may bring an action.”

Bayley, J. The plaintiff was proved to be riding as fast as his horse could go, and this was through the streets of Derby. If he had used ordinary care he must have seen the obstruction; so that the accident appeared to happen entirely from his own fault.

Lord Ellenborough, C. J. A party is not to cast himself upon an obstruction which had been made by the fault of another, and avail himself of it, if he do not himself use common and ordinary caution to be in the right. In cases of persons riding upon what is considered to be the wrong side of the road, that would not authorize another purposely to ride up against them. One person being in fault will not dispense with another’s using ordinary care for himself. Two things must concur to support this action: an obstruction in the road by the fault of the defendant, and no want of ordinary care to avoid it on the part of the plaintiff.

DAVIES v. MANN
In the Exchequer, November 4, 1842.
Reported in 10 Meeson & Welsby, 546.

Case for negligence. The declaration stated, that the plaintiff theretofore, and at the time of the committing of the grievance thereinafter mentioned, to wit, on, &c., was lawfully possessed of a certain donkey, which said donkey of the plaintiff was then lawfully in a certain highway, and the defendant was then possessed of a certain wagon and of certain horses drawing the same, which said wagon and horses of the defendant were then under the care, government, and direction of a certain then servant of the defendant, in and along the said highway; nevertheless the defendant, by his said servant, so carelessly, negligently, unskilfully, and improperly governed and directed his said wagon and horses, that by and through the carelessness, negligence, unskilfulness, and improper conduct of the defendant, by his said servant, the said wagon and horses of the defendant then ran and struck with great violence against the said donkey of the plaintiff, and thereby then wounded, crushed, and killed the same, &c.

The defendant pleaded not guilty.

At the trial, before Erskine, J., at the last Summer Assizes for the county of Worcester, it appeared that the plaintiff, having fettered the 276fore-feet of an ass belonging to him, turned it into a public highway, and at the time in question the ass was grazing on the off side of a road about eight yards wide, when the defendant’s wagon, with a team of three horses, coming down a slight descent, at what the witness termed a smartish pace, ran against the ass, knocked it down, and the wheels passing over it, it died soon after. The ass was fettered at the time, and it was proved that the driver of the wagon was some little distance behind the horses. The learned judge told the jury, that though the act of the plaintiff, in leaving the donkey on the highway so fettered as to prevent his getting out of the way of carriages travelling along it, might be illegal, still, if the proximate cause of the injury was attributable to the want of proper conduct on the part of the driver of the wagon, the action was maintainable against the defendant; and his Lordship directed them, if they thought that the accident might have been avoided by the exercise of ordinary care on the part of the driver, to find for the plaintiff. The jury found their verdict for the plaintiff, damages 40s.

Godson now moved for a new trial, on the ground of misdirection. The act of the plaintiff in turning the donkey into the public highway was an illegal one, and, as the injury arose principally from that act, the plaintiff was not entitled to compensation for that injury which, but for his own unlawful act, would never have occurred. [Parke, B. The declaration states that the ass was lawfully on the highway, and the defendant has not traversed that allegation; therefore it must be taken to be admitted.] The principle of law, as deducible from the cases is, that where an accident is the result of faults on both sides, neither party can maintain an action. Thus, in Butterfield v. Forrester, 11 East, 60, it was held that one who is injured by an obstruction on a highway, against which he fell, cannot maintain an action, if it appear that he was riding with great violence and want of ordinary care, without which he might have seen and avoided the obstruction. So, in Vennall v. Garner, 1 C. & M. 21, in case for running down a ship, it was held, that neither party can recover when both are in the wrong; and Bayley, B., there says, “I quite agree that if the mischief be the result of the combined negligence of the two, they must both remain in statu quo, and neither party can recover against the other.” Here the plaintiff, by fettering the donkey, had prevented him from removing himself out of the way of accident; had his fore-feet been free no accident would probably have happened. Pluckwell v. Wilson, 5 Car. & P. 375; Luxford v. Large, Ibid. 421, and Lynch v. Nurdin, 1 Ad. & E. (N. S.) 29^[190]; 4 P. & D. 672, are to the same effect.

Lord Abinger, C. B. I am of opinion that there ought to be no rule in this case. The defendant has not denied that the ass was lawfully in the highway, and therefore we must assume it to have been 277lawfully there; but even were it otherwise, it would have made no difference, for as the defendant might, by proper care, have avoided injuring the animal, and did not, he is liable for the consequences of his negligence, though the animal may have been improperly there.

Parke, B. This subject was fully considered by this Court in the case of Bridge v. The Grand Junction Railway Company, 3 M. & W. 246, where, as appears to me, the correct rule is laid down concerning negligence, namely, that the negligence which is to preclude a plaintiff from recovering in an action of this nature, must be such as that he could, by ordinary care, have avoided the consequences of the defendant’s negligence. I am reported to have said in that case, and I believe quite correctly, that “the rule of law is laid down with perfect correctness in the case of Butterfield v. Forrester, that, although there may have been negligence on the part of the plaintiff, yet unless he might, by the exercise of ordinary care, have avoided the consequences of the defendant’s negligence, he is entitled to recover; if by ordinary care he might have avoided them, he is the author of his own wrong.” In that case of Bridge v. Grand Junction Railway Company, there was a plea imputing negligence on both sides; here it is otherwise; and the judge simply told the jury, that the mere fact of negligence on the part of the plaintiff in leaving his donkey on the public highway, was no answer to the action, unless the donkey’s being there was the immediate cause of the injury; and that, if they were of opinion that it was caused by the fault of the defendant’s servant in driving too fast or, which is the same thing, at a smartish pace, the mere fact of putting the ass upon the road would not bar the plaintiff of his action. All that is perfectly correct; for, although the ass may have been wrongfully there, still the defendant was bound to go along the road at such a pace as would be likely to prevent mischief. Were this not so, a man might justify the driving over goods left on a public highway, or even over a man lying asleep there, or the purposely running against a carriage going on the wrong side of the road.

Gurney, B., and Rolfe, B., concurred.

Gilbert, J.^[192] ... The defendant in error was a miner of the age of 34 years, and was in the full possession of his senses. According to his own testimony, he walked upon the railroad track a distance of more than half a mile without once looking back or stopping to listen for an approaching train. In so doing, it must be held that he was guilty of gross negligence, which, irrespective of negligence in the failure of the engineer to discover him on the track, is sufficient to bar his right of recovery. It was no excuse for his failure to take such precautions that the wind was blowing in his face, or that the noise of a waterfall may have deadened the sound of an approaching train. Those circumstances only rendered the use of his senses the more imperative. It was his duty continually to exercise vigilance.

On the authority of Inland & Seaboard Coasting Co. v. Tolson, 139 U. S. 551–558, 11 Sup. Ct. 653, 35 L. Ed. 270; Grand Trunk Ry. Co. v. Ives, 144 U. S. 408–429, 12 Sup. Ct. 679, 36 L. Ed. 485; and Bogan v. Carolina Central Ry. Co., 129 N. C. 154, 39 S. E. 808, 55 L. R. A. 418, the defendant in error invokes the doctrine that the contributory negligence of the party injured will not defeat the action, if it be shown that the defendant might, by the exercise of reasonable care and prudence, have avoided the consequences of the injured party’s negligence. In the first of these decisions, the doctrine was applied in a case where the plaintiff, a wharfinger, was standing with his foot between the timbers of a wharf, to deliver freight to a vessel which was about to make a landing there, and which struck the wharf with such force as to crush his foot. But the court held that the doctrine was applicable, for the reason that the jury might well have been of opinion that, while there was some negligence on the plaintiff’s part in standing where and as he did, yet the officers of the boat knew just where and how he stood, and might have avoided injuring him, if they had used reasonable care to prevent the steamboat from striking the wharf with unusual and unnecessary violence. In the Ives Case, the plaintiff’s intestate was killed while attempting to cross a railroad track. There was evidence of negligence on the part of the railroad company. On the part of the plaintiff’s intestate there was no evidence as to what precaution he took before placing himself in the place of danger, except that, at a distance of about seventy-six feet from the track, he stopped several minutes, presumably to listen for trains; that while there a train passed; and that, soon after it had passed, and while the noise caused by it was still quite distinct, he proceeded across the track and was struck by another train. The court held that the question of contributory negligence of the plaintiff’s intestate was properly left to the jury, as one to be determined under all the circumstances of the 279case, but incidentally proceeded to affirm the rule above quoted, citing Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. 546; Inland & Seaboard Coasting Co. v. Tolson, and other cases. There was no evidence in the Ives Case that the plaintiff’s intestate was seen by those who were managing the train in time to have avoided the accident. The court, in that case, however, reaffirmed the rule that a traveller, on going upon a railroad track, ought to make vigilant use of his senses of sight and hearing, and listen for signals, and look in the different directions from which a train might come, and said:—

“If by neglect of this duty he suffers injury from a passing train, he cannot recover of the company, although it may itself be chargeable with negligence, or have failed to give the signals required by statute, or be running at the time at a speed exceeding the legal rate.”

It cannot be contended that in the Ives Case the Supreme Court intended to lay down the broad rule that no contributory negligence of the party injured will defeat his right to recover, if it be shown that the defendant might, by the exercise of reasonable care and prudence, have avoided the consequences of that negligence. To so hold would be to destroy the whole doctrine of contributory negligence. As applied to the present case, it would mean that the plaintiff in error was bound to know that the defendant in error was upon its track, and that he would not step aside in time to avoid the train. Such is not the doctrine of cases such as Northern Pacific Railroad v. Freeman^[193] and the other decisions which we have cited above. The doctrine of “the last clear chance,” so invoked by the defendant in error, originated in Davies v. Mann, in which it was held that the plaintiff’s want of ordinary care in that case did not constitute contributory negligence, because it was a remote cause or mere condition of the injury, and did not proximately contribute to it, and because the negligence of the defendant arose subsequently to that of the plaintiff, and the latter’s negligence was so obvious as to have been discoverable by the exercise of ordinary care. That doctrine has no application to a case where the plaintiff voluntarily places himself in a place of danger from which he has present means of escape, and continues there without exercising precautions which an ordinarily prudent man would exercise. We have nothing here to do with the law applicable to a case where the injured person is found in a place of danger, as upon a railroad trestle, from which he is powerless to extricate himself on the approach of a train, and where his situation is discovered, or ought to have been discovered, by those in charge of the train.

JONES v. CHARLESTON & WESTERN CAROLINA RAILWAY COMPANY
Supreme Court, South Carolina, April Term, 1901.
Reported in 61 South Carolina Reports, 556.

Action under statute by administrator of Susan V. Jones to recover for her death. Mrs. Jones was killed by a train backing down upon her while she was walking on the railroad track. Plaintiff’s evidence tended to show that the track at that place had been accustomed to be used by the public as a walkway with the knowledge and acquiescence of the defendant company. Mrs. Jones, 280when killed, was on a trestle. The train was backing down behind her, at a speed of from five to ten miles an hour. There was evidence on plaintiff’s part that no bell was rung, no whistle blown, no warning given of the approach of the train; also that there was no lookout on the train, and no rear-end lights.

Defendant requested the following instruction (No. 6):—

“Even if the defendant was guilty of negligence in the backing of its train, and such negligence was a proximate cause of the injury, if the jury also believe that the said Susan V. Jones showed a want of ordinary care in walking down the track that night, under all the circumstances, and such carelessness was a proximate cause of the injury, she was guilty of contributory negligence, and the plaintiff would not be entitled to recover.”

The judge qualified this instruction by adding:—

“If the deceased, Mrs. Jones, was guilty of negligence in acting as you may find from the testimony that she acted, and if her conduct, her negligence, together with the negligence of the railroad company, contributed to her injury as the proximate cause, then the railroad company would not be responsible, unless the railroad company could have avoided injuring her notwithstanding her negligence.”

The judge charged the jury, in accordance with plaintiff’s ninth request, as follows:—

“Contributory negligence is a matter of defence, and must be proved by defendant by a preponderance of the evidence; but unless the contributory negligence was the proximate cause of the accident, and if in spite of such contributory negligence the accident could have been avoided by the use of ordinary care on the part of the defendant, then plaintiff is still entitled to recover.”

Verdict for plaintiff and judgment thereon. Defendant appealed.^[194]

Jones, J.... The testimony being undisputed that Mrs. Jones, plaintiff’s intestate, was walking down the railroad track at the time of the injury, the defendant was entitled to have the sixth request to charge above mentioned in the tenth exception submitted to the jury as entirely correct. The remarks by the court down to the clause, “unless the railroad company could have avoided injuring her notwithstanding her negligence,” were not improper nor inconsistent with the request, but the addition of such qualification was erroneous and wholly inconsistent with the well-settled principles governing contributory negligence. The same error was made in the charge excepted to in the eleventh exception above, when the court instructed the jury, “but unless the contributory negligence was the proximate cause of the accident, and if in spite of such contributory negligence (that is, negligence which contributed as a proximate cause), the accident could have been avoided by the use of ordinary care on the part of the defendant, then the plaintiff is still entitled to recover.” The charge destroyed the defence of contributory negligence. In every case where there is contributory negligence the defendant could have avoided the injury by ordinary care, for the simple reason that there can be no such thing as contributory negligence unless the defendant be negligent. The error complained of is the same error which was condemned in Cooper v. Ry. Co., 56 S. C. 94. The law in this state is settled that contributory negligence as defined in Cooper’s case, supra, to any extent, will always defeat plaintiff’s 281recovery, unless the injury is wantonly or wilfully inflicted; for the law cannot measure how much of the injury is due to the plaintiff’s own fault, and will not recompense one for injury resulting to himself from his own misconduct. The objection to the charge is that it instructed the jury that although plaintiff’s negligence contributed to her injury as a proximate cause, she could recover if the defendant by ordinary care could have avoided the injury. Is it not manifest that such a rule would abolish contributory negligence as a defence? The qualifying terms, “unless the railroad company could have avoided injuring her notwithstanding her negligence,” would necessarily mislead a jury; for they would at once say the railroad company could have avoided the injury by not being negligent in the manner alleged in the complaint, by having suitable rear end lights, by a reasonable lookout, by loud warning of the train’s approach, by running at such slow speed as to enable any one warned to get off the track; and then utterly ignore the defendant’s plea and evidence of contributory negligence, because of the instruction that plaintiff, notwithstanding her negligence which proximately caused her injury, could still recover, if the defendant could have avoided the injury. The jury ought to have been instructed without qualification, that if plaintiff was negligent and that negligence contributed as a proximate cause to her injury, she could not recover, unless the injury was wantonly or wilfully inflicted.

The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed, and the case remanded for a new trial.

CORDINER v. LOS ANGELES TRACTION COMPANY
District Court of Appeals, Second District, California, April 16, 1907.
Reported in 4 California Appellate Decisions, 480.

Shaw, J. Neither of the defendants questioned the right of plaintiff to recover such damages as she had sustained in the collision, but each contended that the other should be held responsible therefor; and with the view of having the jury pass upon the question, the Los Angeles Railway Company asked the court to instruct the jury, in effect, that notwithstanding the negligence of its motorman in driving his car upon the crossing, still if the traction motorman could, after he saw that it was beyond the power of the motorman of the Los Angeles Railway car to avoid the accident, have, by proper care, prevented the collision, then the negligence of the defendant Los Angeles Traction Company was the proximate cause of the injury. In other words, while admitting that plaintiff’s injury resulted from the collision due to the joint or concurrent acts of negligence of defendants, she must be confined in her recovery for such damages to a judgment rendered against the defendant who had the “last clear chance” to avoid the collision and neglected to act upon it. Appellant seeks to apply the well-established principle that “he who last has a clear opportunity of avoiding the accident, by the exercise of proper care to avoid injuring another, must do so.” Esrey v. S. Pacific Co., 103 Cal. 541. This rule is only applicable to cases where the defence is based upon the contributory negligence of plaintiff due to his want of care in placing himself in a position of danger, and where he may, notwithstanding his negligence, recover 282from a defendant, who by the exercise of proper care could have avoided the injury. We are unable to perceive why this rule should apply to plaintiff, who was in no way chargeable, by imputation or otherwise, with negligence; nor are we referred to any authority which supports the proposition. Indeed, all the authorities recognize the right of recovery against either or both of the defendants whose concurring acts of negligence united in producing the injury. 1 Shearman & Redfield on Neg. p. 122; 1 Thompson on Neg. p. 75; Doeg v. Cook, 126 Cal. 213; Tompkins v. Clay St. Ry. Co., 66 Cal. 163; Pastene v. Adams, 49 Cal. 87.^[195]

STILES v. GEESEY
Supreme Court, Pennsylvania, May 30, 1872.
Reported in 71 Pennsylvania State Reports, 439.

Before Thompson, C. J., Read, Agnew, Sharswood and Williams, JJ.

Error to the Court of Common Pleas of York County.

Action on the case by Jacob B. Geesey against Thomas Stiles, for alleged injury by the negligence of William Stiles, son of defendant, by which plaintiff’s horse and carriage were damaged.^[196]

Plaintiff’s wife, driving in a light carriage of plaintiff’s, hitched her horse to a tree on the road, and went into a friend’s house. The carriage projected into the travelled part of the road. Whilst the carriage was so left, the defendant’s son, William Stiles, was driving his father’s team with a loaded wagon along the road. He got off to do something to his wagon; and seeing an acquaintance in a neighboring barn, stopped a moment to exchange a few words with him, the team moving on slowly at the time with the load up the hill, keeping the travelled track of the road till the front horse was just behind plaintiff’s carriage standing unattended where it was left. At this point of time William Stiles was behind his own wagon, at some distance from it; and did not see the obstruction in the road in time to avoid a collision. The wagon collided with the carriage. Stiles halloed “Whoa,” and his horses stopped. In the collision, the plaintiff’s horse was fatally injured.

The third point of the plaintiff, which was affirmed in the charge to the jury by Fisher, P. J., is as follows:—

“That Thomas Stiles cannot excuse the negligence of William Stiles by showing that the plaintiff’s property was placed where it received the injury by want of ordinary care by Mrs. Geesey, if, in the opinion of the jury such want is imputable to her, should the jury believe that William Stiles was chargeable with negligence in leaving his team and permitting it to go along the highway unattended.”

283Read, J. [After stating the facts.] We have taken in brief, the defendant’s statement of his defence, which fairly raises the question of contributory negligence. “It is an incontestable principle that where the injury complained of is the product of mutual or concurring negligence, no action for damages will lie. The parties being mutually in fault there can be no apportionment of the damages. The law has no scales to determine in such cases whose wrong-doing weighed most in the compound that occasioned the mischief:” per Woodward, J., 12 Harris, 469.

“The question presented to the Court or the jury is never one of comparative negligence, as between the parties; nor does very great negligence on the part of a defendant so operate to strike a balance of negligence as to give a judgment to a plaintiff whose own negligence contributes in any degree to the injury.” Wilds v. Hudson River Railroad Co., 24 N. Y. 432.

The third error assigned is that the Court erred in their charge to the jury on the plaintiff’s third point, which was as follows: “That Thomas Stiles cannot excuse the negligence of William Stiles by showing that the plaintiff’s property was placed where it received the injury, by want of ordinary care by Mrs. Geesey, if in the opinion of the jury such want is imputable to her, should the jury believe William Stiles was chargeable with negligence, in leaving his team and permitting it to go along the highway unattended,” which point the Court affirmed, holding that although there was contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff, he was entitled to recover from the defendant on account of his negligence. This was a binding instruction upon the jury, leaving nothing for them to inquire into practically, except the negligence of the defendant. In this the Court committed a clear error, and the judgment must be reversed, and venire de novo awarded.

RADLEY v. LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY
In the House of Lords, December 1, 1876.
Reported in Law Reports, 1 Appeal Cases, 754.

This was an appeal against a decision of the Court of Exchequer Chamber.

The appellants were the plaintiffs in an action brought in the Court of Exchequer, in which they claimed to recover damages for the destruction of a bridge occasioned, as they alleged, by the negligence of the defendants’ servants. The plaintiffs were owners of the Sankey Brook Colliery, in the county of Lancaster, which was situated near a branch line of the defendants’ railway. There was a siding belonging to the plaintiffs, which communicated with the railway, and 284the defendants’ servants were in the habit of taking trucks loaded with coals from this siding, in order to run them on the railway to forward them to their destination, and also of bringing back empty trucks and running them from the railway on to the siding. On Saturday after working hours, when all the colliery men had gone away, the defendants’ servants ran some of the plaintiffs’ empty trucks from the railway upon the siding and there left them. In that position they remained. One of the watchmen employed by the plaintiffs knew that they were there, but nothing was done to remove them to a different place. In the first of these trucks had been placed a truck which had broken down, and the height of the two trucks combined was nearly eleven feet. There was, in advance of the spot where the trucks had been left, a bridge placed over a part of the siding, the span of which bridge was about eight feet from the ground. On Sunday afternoon the defendants’ servants brought a long line of empty trucks belonging to the plaintiffs, and ran them on the line of the siding, pushing on the first set of trucks in front. Some resistance was perceived, and the pushing force of the engine employed was increased, and the result was, as the two trucks at the head of the line could not pass under the bridge, they struck with great force against it and broke it down.^[197] For the damage thereby occasioned this action was brought. The defence was contributory negligence; it being insisted that the plaintiffs ought to have moved the first set of trucks to a safe place, or at all events, not to have left the truck with the disabled truck in it so as to be likely to occasion mischief. At the trial before Mr. Justice Brett, at the Summer Assizes at Liverpool, in 1873, the learned judge told the jury that “you must be satisfied that the plaintiffs’ servants did not do anything which persons of ordinary care, under the circumstances, would not do, or that they omitted to do something which persons of ordinary care would do.... It is for you to say entirely as to both points; but the law is this, the plaintiffs must have satisfied you that this happened by the negligence of the defendants’ servants, and without any contributory negligence of their own, in other words that it was solely by the negligence of the defendants’ servants. If you think it was, then your verdict will be for the plaintiffs. If you think it was not solely by the negligence of the defendants’ servants, your verdict must be for the defendants.”^[198] The jurors having, on this direction, stated that they thought there was contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiffs, the learned judge directed that the verdict should be entered for the defendants, but reserved leave for the plaintiffs to move.

285A rule having been obtained for a new trial, it was after argument before Barons Bramwell and Amphlett made absolute.^[199] On appeal to the Exchequer Chamber the decision was, by Justices Blackburn, Mellor, Lush, Brett, and Archibald (diss. Justice Denman), reversed.^[200] This appeal was then brought.^[201]

Lord Penzance. My Lords, the action out of which this appeal arises is an action charging the defendants with negligence (through their servants) in so managing the shunting of some empty coal-wagons as to knock down a bridge and some staging and some colliery head-gearing, which stood upon it, and belonged to the plaintiffs.

The first question on the appeal is, whether the Court of Exchequer Chamber was right in holding that there was any evidence, proper to be submitted to the jury, tending to the conclusion that the plaintiffs themselves had been guilty of some negligence in the matter, and that such negligence had contributed to produce the accident and injury of which they complained.

The general facts of the case, the particular facts which gave rise to the imputation of negligence, and the contention of both sides as to the fair result of these facts, are stated in the judgment of the Court of Exchequer delivered by Baron Bramwell. His Lordship here read the statement from Mr. Baron Bramwell’s judgment.^[202]

It may be admitted that this is a fair and full statement of the arguments and considerations on the one side, and on the other, upon which the question of the plaintiffs’ negligence had to be decided. But it had to be decided by the jurors, and not by the Court, and I am unable to perceive any reason why the learned judge did wrong in submitting these arguments and considerations to their decision accordingly. The bare statement of them is enough to show that there were in the case facts and circumstances sufficient at least to raise the question of negligence, whether they were a sufficient proof of negligence or not.

The decision, therefore, of the Exchequer Chamber upon this matter ought, I think, to be upheld.

The remaining question is whether the learned judge properly directed the jury in point of law. The law in these cases of negligence is, as was said in the Court of Exchequer Chamber, perfectly well settled and beyond dispute.

The first proposition is a general one, to this effect, that the plaintiff in an action for negligence cannot succeed if it is found by the jury that he has himself been guilty of any negligence or want of ordinary care which contributed to cause the accident.

But there is another proposition equally well established, and it is a qualification upon the first, namely, that though the plaintiff may have been guilty of negligence, and although that negligence may, in 286fact, have contributed to the accident, yet if the defendant could in the result, by the exercise of ordinary care and diligence, have avoided the mischief which happened, the plaintiffs’ negligence will not excuse him.

This proposition, as one of law, cannot be questioned. It was decided in the case of Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. 546, supported in that of Tuff v. Warman, 5 C. B. (N. S.) 573; 27 L. J. C. P. 322, and other cases, and has been universally applied in cases of this character without question.

The only point for consideration, therefore, is whether the learned judge properly presented it to the mind of the jury.

It seems impossible to say that he did so. At the beginning of his summing-up he laid down the following as the propositions of law which governed the case: It is for the plaintiffs to satisfy you that this accident happened through the negligence of the defendants’ servants, and as between them and the defendants, that it was solely through the negligence of the defendants’ servants. They must satisfy you that it was solely by the negligence of the defendants’ servants, or, in other words, that there was no negligence on the part of their servants contributing to the accident; so that, if you think that both sides were negligent, so as to contribute to the accident, then the plaintiffs cannot recover.

This language is perfectly plain and perfectly unqualified, and in case the jurors thought there was any contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiffs’ servants, they could not, without disregarding the direction of the learned judge, have found in the plaintiffs’ favor, however negligent the defendants had been, or however easily they might with ordinary care have avoided any accident at all.

The learned judge then went on to describe to the jury what it was that might properly be considered to constitute negligence, first in the conduct of the defendants, and then in the conduct of the plaintiffs; and having done this, he again reverted to the governing propositions of law, as follows: “There seem to be two views. It is for you to say entirely as to both points. But the law is this, the plaintiff must have satisfied you that this happened by the negligence of the defendants’ servants, and without any contributory negligence of their own; in other words, that it was solely by the negligence of the defendants’ servants. If you think it was, then your verdict will be for the plaintiffs. If you think it was not solely by the negligence of the defendants’ servants, your verdict must be for the defendants.”

This, again, is entirely without qualification, and the undoubted meaning of it is, that if there was any contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiffs, they could in no case recover. Such a statement of the law is contrary to the doctrine established in the case of Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. 546, and the other cases above alluded to, and in no part of the summing-up is that doctrine anywhere to be found. 287The learned counsel were unable to point out any passage addressed to it.

It is true that in part of his summing-up the learned judge pointed attention to the conduct of the engine-driver, in determining to force his way by violence through the obstruction, as fit to be considered by the jury on the question of negligence; but he failed to add that if they thought the engine-driver might at this stage of the matter by ordinary care have avoided all accident, any previous negligence of the plaintiffs would not preclude them from recovering.

In point of fact the evidence was strong to show that this was the immediate cause of the accident, and the jury might well think that ordinal care and diligence on the part of the engine-driver would, notwithstanding any previous negligence of the plaintiffs in leaving the loaded-up truck on the line, have made the accident impossible. This substantial defect of the learned judge’s charge is that that question was never put to the jury.

On this point, therefore, I propose to move that your Lordships should reverse the decision of the Exchequer Chamber, and direct a new trial.

The Lord Chancellor (Lord Cairns). My Lords, I have had the advantage of considering the opinion which has just been expressed to your Lordships in this case by my noble and learned friend, and, concurring as I do with every word of it, I do not think it is necessary that I should do more than say that I hope your Lordships will agree to the motion which he has proposed.

Lord Blackburn. My Lords, I agree entirely with the noble Lord who has first spoken as to what were the proper questions for the jury in this case, and that they were not decided by the jury. I am inclined to think that the learned judge did in part of his summing-up sufficiently ask the proper questions, had they been answered, but unfortunately he failed to have an answer from the jury to those questions, it appearing by the case that the only finding was as to the plaintiffs’ negligence.

I agree, therefore, in the result that there should be a new trial.

Lord Gordon. My Lords, I entirely concur in the motion which has been submitted to your Lordships by my noble and learned friend on the other side of the House. The question is one which has given rise to some difficulty in the courts of Scotland, but I think that it is very likely that the opinion which has been expressed in this case will be regarded as a very useful authority for guiding their decisions.^[203]

Case. Demurrer to the declaration.

Carpenter, J. The declaration alleges that by the defendants’ careless management of their engine and cars, the plaintiffs’ horse was frightened, and caused to run upon and injure Ursula Clapp, who was without fault; that Clapp brought her action therefor against the plaintiffs, and recovered judgment for damages, which they paid; that the defendants had notice of, and were requested to defend, the suit. The defendants demur. Inasmuch as Clapp could not have recovered against the plaintiffs unless they were in fault (Brown v. Collins, 53 N. H. 442; Lyons v. Child, 61 N. H. 72), it must be taken that their negligence co-operated with that of the defendants to produce the injury. If the plaintiffs were not liable in that action because their negligence was not, and the defendants’ negligence was, the cause of the accident, the objection is not now open to the defendants. Littleton v. Richardson, 34 N. H. 179. In relation to Clapp, both parties were wrong-doers. She could pursue her remedy against either or both of them at her election. Burrows v. March Gas Co., L. R. 5 Ex. 67, 71.

One of several wrong-doers, who has been compelled to pay the damages caused by the wrong, has in general no remedy against the others. He cannot make his own misconduct the ground of an action in his favor. To this proposition there are, it has been said, so many exceptions, that it can hardly, with propriety, be called a general rule. Bailey v. Bussing, 28 Conn. 455. Its application is restricted to cases where the person seeking redress knew, or is presumed to have known, that the act for which he has been mulcted in damages was unlawful. Jacobs v. Pollard, 10 Cush. 287, 289; Coventry v. Barton, 17 Johns. 142. In many instances several parties may be liable in law to the person injured, while as between themselves some of them are not wrong-doers at all; and the equity of the guiltless to require the actual wrong-doer to respond for all the damages, and the equally innocent to contribute his proportion, is complete. Wooley v. Batte, 2 C. & P. 417; Pearson v. Skelton, 1 M. & W. 504; Betts v. Gibbins, 2 A. & E. 57; Adamson v. Jarvis, 4 Bing. 66; Avery v. Halsey, 14 Pick. 174; Gray v. Boston Gas Light Co., 114 Mass. 149; Churchill v. Holt, 127 Mass. 165, and 131 Mass. 67; Bailey v. Bussing, supra; Smith v. Foran, 43 Conn. 244. These cases, instead of being exceptions to the rule, seem rather not to fall within it. The right of recovery rests in the one case upon the principle that he who without fault on his part is injured by another’s wrongful act is entitled to indemnity, and in the 289other upon the doctrine of contribution. One of two masters, who is compelled to pay damages by reason of his servant’s negligence, may have contribution from the other because he has removed a burden common to both. They may recover indemnity of the servant, because as against him they are without fault, and are directly injured by his misconduct. One who is so far innocent that he can recover for an injury to his person or property, may also recover whatever sum he, by reason of his relation to the wrong, has been compelled to pay to a third person. If the plaintiffs could recover for an injury to their horse, caused by the accident, they may recover the sum which they paid to Clapp.

The declaration is general. It does not disclose the particulars of the plaintiffs’ negligence, by reason of which Clapp recovered against them. Under it, cases differing widely in their facts and legal aspects may be proved. Among others possible, it may be shown that the horse was in the charge of the plaintiffs’ servants, who might have prevented its fright or its running after the fright, or if they could do neither, that they might nevertheless have avoided the injury to Clapp; or it may appear that the plaintiffs’ negligence consisted solely in permitting the horse, whether attended or unattended by their servants, to be at the place where it was at the time of the fright. The generality of the declaration does not render it bad in law. Corey v. Bath, 35 N. H. 531. If the plaintiffs are entitled to judgment upon any state of facts provable under it, the demurrer must be overruled. Whether the plaintiffs can recover in any case, and if so, in what cases, possible to be proved under the declaration, are speculative or hypothetical questions, of which none may, and all cannot, arise. They involve substantially the whole subject of the law relating to mutual negligence. The case might properly be discharged without considering them (Smith v. Cudworth, 24 Pick. 196), and the parties required to present by the pleadings, or by a verdict, the facts upon which their rights depend. A brief consideration, however, of the general questions involved, may, it is thought, facilitate a trial, and save expense to the parties.

Ordinary care is such care as persons of average prudence exercise under like circumstances. Tucker v. Henniker, 41 N. H. 317; Sleeper v. Sandown, 52 N. H. 244; Aldrich v. Monroe, 60 N. H. 118. Every one in the conduct of his lawful business is bound to act with this degree of care, and if he fails to do so is responsible for the consequences. It follows that a person injured by reason of his want of ordinary care, or (since the law makes no apportionment between actual wrong-doers) by the joint operation of his own and another’s negligence, is remediless. This general rule of law justly applied to the facts determines, it is believed, the rights of the parties in all actions for negligence. In its application, the law, as in various other cases, deals with the immediate cause,—the cause as distinguished from the occasion,—and 290looks at the natural and reasonably to be expected effects. Cowles v. Kidder, 24 N. H. 383; Hooksett v. Company, 44 N. H. 108; McIntire v. Plaisted, 57 N. H. 608; Solomon v. Chesley, 59 N. H. 243; China v. Southwick, 12 Me. 238; Lowery v. Western U. Tel. Co., 60 N. Y. 198; Rigby v. Hewitt, 5 Exch. 243; Blyth v. Birmingham Waterworks Co., 11 Exch. 781; Bank of Ireland v. Evans’s Charities, 5 H. L. Ca. 389, 410, 411; Ionides v. Marine Ins. Co., 14 C. B. N. S. 259; Romney Marsh v. Trinity House, L. R. 5 Ex. 204; Holmes v. Mather, L. R. 10 Ex. 268; Sharp v. Powell, L. R. 7 C. P. 253; Pearson v. Cox, 2 C. P. Div. 369; Tutein v. Hurley, 98 Mass. 211; Bro. Leg. Max. 215.

Actions for negligence may, for convenience of consideration, be separated into four classes, namely,—where, upon the occasion of the injury complained of (1) the plaintiff, (2) the defendant, or (3) neither party was present, and (4) where both parties were present. In all of them it may happen that both parties were more or less negligent. Actions upon the statute of highways are a common example of the first class. The negligence of the defendant, however great, does not relieve the plaintiff from the duty of exercising ordinary care. If, notwithstanding the defective condition of the highway, this degree of care on the part of the plaintiff would prevent the accident, his and not the defendant’s negligence, though but for the latter it could not happen, is, in the eye of the law, its sole cause. Farnum v. Concord, 2 N. H. 394; Butterfield v. Forrester, 11 East, 60. In this class of cases, an injury which the plaintiff’s negligence contributes to produce could not happen without it. The not uncommon statement that the plaintiff cannot recover if his negligence contributes in any degree to cause the injury, is strictly correct, although the word “contribute” may be, as Crompton, J., in Tuff v. Warman, 5 C. B. N. S. 584, says it is, “a very unsafe word to use,” and “much too loose.” The result is the same whether the plaintiff acts with full knowledge of the danger, or, by reason of a want of proper care, fails to discover it seasonably. If he is not bound to anticipate, and in advance provide for, another’s negligence, he may not wilfully or negligently shut his eyes against its possibility. He is bound to be informed of everything which ordinary care would disclose to him. He can no more recover for an injury caused by driving into a dangerous pit, of which he is ignorant, but of which ordinary care would have informed him, than for one caused by carelessly driving into a known pit. Norris v. Litchfield, 35 N. H. 271; Clark v. Barrington, 41 N. H. 44; Tucker v. Henniker, 41 N. H. 317; Winship v. Enfield, 42 N. H. 213, 214; Underhill v. Manchester, 45 N. H. 220.

The defendant’s negligence being found or conceded, the remaining question is, whether the plaintiff, by the exercise of ordinary care, could have escaped the injury. If he could not, he is free from fault, and is entitled to recover. If he could, he not only cannot recover for 291his own injury, but is himself liable to the other party, if the latter is injured; and the case becomes one of the second class, of which Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. 546, is an instance. The defendant is liable here for the same reason that, as plaintiff, he could not recover,—that is to say, because ordinary care on his part would have prevented the injury. The fact that one has carelessly exposed his property in a dangerous situation does not absolve his neighbors from the obligation of conducting themselves in regard to it with ordinary care. An injury which that degree of care would prevent is caused by the want of it, and not by the owner’s negligence in leaving his property in a perilous position. A surgeon, called to set a leg carelessly broken, cannot successfully urge, in answer to a suit for mal-practice, that the patient’s negligence in breaking his leg caused the crooked or shortened limb. Lannen v. Albany Gas-light Co., 44 N. Y. 459, 463; Hibbard v. Thompson, 109 Mass. 286, 289. So far as the question of civil liability is concerned, there is no distinction, except it may be in the measure of damages (Fay v. Parker, 53 N. H. 342, Bixby v. Dunlap, 56 N. H. 456), between wilful and negligent wrongs. One who, without reasonable necessity, kills his neighbor’s ox, found trespassing in his field, is equally liable whether he does it purposely or carelessly. Aldrich v. Wright, 53 N. H. 398; McIntire v. Plaisted, 57 N. H. 606; Cool. Torts, 688–694. Mann would be no more liable for wilfully shooting the fettered ass which Davies has carelessly left in the public highway, than he is for the running over it, which, by ordinary care, he could avoid. The owner’s negligence, in permitting the ox to stray and in leaving the ass fettered in the street, although without it the injury would not happen, is no more the cause, in a legal sense, of the negligent than of the wilful wrong. In each case alike,—as in that of the broken leg,—it merely affords the wrong-doer an opportunity to do the mischief. Bartlett v. Boston Gas-light Co., 117 Mass. 533; Clayards v. Dethick, 12 Q. B. 439, 445.

Knowledge, or its equivalent, culpable ignorance, and ignorance without fault of the situation, are circumstances by which, among others, the requisite measure of vigilance is determined. Griffin v. Auburn, 58 N. H. 121, 124; Palmer v. Dearing, 93 N. Y. 7; Robinson v. Cone, 22 Vt. 213. The question of contributory negligence is not involved. The wrong, if any, is the negligent injury of property carelessly exposed to danger. The only question is, whether the defendant could have prevented it by ordinary care. If he could not, he is without fault, and not liable. If he could, his negligence is, in law, the sole cause of the injury. Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. 546; Radley v. London, &c. Railway, 1 App. Ca. 754; Mayor of Colchester v. Brooke, 7 Q. B. 377; Isbell v. N. Y. & N. H. Railroad, 27 Conn. 393; Trow v. Vt. Central Railroad, 24 Vt. 487; Harlan v. St. Louis, &c. Railroad, 64 Mo. 480; Kerwhacker v. Cleveland, &c. Railroad, 3 Ohio St. 172.

292The law is not affected by the presence or the absence of the parties, nor by the difficulty of applying it to complicated facts. To warrant a recovery where both parties are present at the time of the injury, as well as in other cases, ability on the part of the defendant must concur with non-ability on the part of the plaintiff to prevent it by ordinary care. Their duty to exercise this degree of care is equal and reciprocal; neither is exonerated from his obligation by the present or previous misconduct of the other. The law no more holds one responsible for an unavoidable, or justifies an avoidable, injury to the person of one who carelessly exposes himself to danger, than to his property, similarly situated in his absence. He who cannot prevent an injury negligently inflicted upon his person or property by an intelligent agent, “present and acting at the time” (State v. Railroad, 52 N. H. 528, 557; White v. Winnisimmet Co., 7 Cush. 155, 157; Robinson v. Cone, 22 Vt. 213), is legally without fault, and it is immaterial whether his inability results from his absence, previous negligence, or other cause. On the other hand, his neglect to prevent it, if he can, is the sole or co-operating cause of the injury. No one can justly complain of another’s negligence, which, but for his own wrongful interposition, would be harmless. Parker v. Adams, 12 Met. 415.

Cases of this class assume a great variety of aspects. While all are governed by the fundamental principle, that he only who by ordinary care can and does not prevent an injury, is responsible in damages, it is impossible to formulate a rule in language universally applicable. A statement of the law correct in its application to one state of facts may be inaccurate when applied to another. Instructions to the jury proper and sufficient in a case of the first class, would be not only inappropriate but incorrect in one of the second class. The doctrine laid down in Tuff v. Warman, 5 C. B. N. S. 573, 585, however just and well suited to the evidence in that case, was held erroneous as applied to the facts in Murphy v. Deane, 101 Mass. 455, 464–466, and, as a general proposition, seems indefensible.

An accident may result from a hazardous situation caused by the previous negligence of one or both parties. If, at the time of the injury, the defendant is unable to remove the danger which his negligence has created, the case becomes, in substance, one of the first class; the plaintiff can recover or not, according as, by ordinary care, he can or cannot protect himself from the natural consequences of the situation. If the plaintiff, in like manner, is unable to obviate the danger which his prior negligence has produced, the case becomes, substantially, one of the second class; he can recover or not, according as the defendant, by the same degree of care, can or cannot avoid the natural consequences of such negligence. If due care on the part of either at the time of the injury would prevent it, the antecedent negligence of one or both parties is immaterial, except it may be as one of the circumstances by which the requisite measure of care is to 293be determined. In such a case the law deals with their behavior in the situation in which it finds them at the time the mischief is done, regardless of their prior misconduct. The latter is incuria, but not incuria dans locum injuriae,—it is the cause of the danger; the former is the cause of the injury. Metropolitan Railway v. Jackson, 3 App. Ca. 193, 198; Dublin, &c. Railway v. Slattery, 3 App. Ca. 1155, 1166; Davey v. London, &c. Railway, 12 Q. B. Div. 70, 76; Churchill v. Rosebeck, 15 Conn. 359, 363–365.

If a person, who by his carelessness is put in a position perilous to himself and to others, while in that position does all that a person of average prudence could, he is guilty of no wrong towards another who embraces the opportunity negligently to injure him, or who receives an injury which proper care on his part would prevent. It would doubtless be esteemed gross carelessness to navigate the Atlantic in a vessel without a rudder, but if the owner, while sailing his rudderless ship with ordinary care, is negligently run down by a steamer, the latter must pay the damages, and can recover none if it is injured. Dowell v. Steam Navigation Co., 5 E. & B. 195; Haley v. Earle, 30 N. Y. 208; Hoffman v. Union Ferry Co., 47 N. Y. 176. If the vessel, by reason of its lack of a rudder, runs upon and injures the steamer, both being in the exercise of ordinary care at the time, the former must pay the damages. He who by his negligence has produced a dangerous situation is responsible for an injury resulting from it to one who is without fault.

If, at the time of the injury, each of the parties, or, in the absence of antecedent negligence, if neither of them could prevent it by ordinary care, there can be no recovery. The comparatively rare cases of simultaneous negligence will ordinarily fall under one or the other of these heads. If the accident results from the combined effect of the negligence of both parties, that of neither alone being sufficient to produce it, proof by the plaintiff that due care on the part of the defendant would have prevented it will not entitle him to recover, because like care on his own part would have had the same effect. If the misconduct of each party is an adequate cause of the injury, so that it would have occurred by reason of either’s negligence without the co-operating fault of the other, proof by the plaintiff that by due care he could not have prevented it will not entitle him to recover, because no more could the defendant have prevented it by like care. Murphy v. Deane, 101 Mass. 464, 465; Churchill v. Holt, 131 Mass. 67. In each case alike they are equally in fault. To warrant a recovery, the plaintiff must establish both propositions, namely, that by ordinary care he could not, and the defendant could, have prevented the injury. State v. Railroad, 52 N. H. 528; Bridge v. Grand Junction Railway, 3 M. & W. 244; Dowell v. Steam Navigation Co., 5 E. & B. 195; Tuff v. Warman, 5 C. B. N. S. 573; Davey v. London, &c. Railway, 12 Q. B. Div. 70; Munroe v. Leach, 7 Met. 274; Lucas v. New Bedford, 294&c. Railroad, 6 Gray, 64; Murphy v. Deane, 101 Mass. 455; Hall v. Ripley, 119 Mass. 135; Button v. Hudson, &c. Railroad, 18 N. Y. 248; Austin v. N. J. Steamboat Co., 43 N. Y. 75; Barker v. Savage, 45 N. Y. 194; Cool. Torts, 674, 675, and cases cited.

In the comparatively unfrequent cases of the third class, a negligent plaintiff can seldom, if ever, recover. Where both parties are careless, they are usually, if not always, equally in fault; ordinary care on the part of either would prevent the injury. Not being present on the occasion of the accident, neither can, in general, guard against the consequences of the other’s negligence. Blyth v. Topham, Cro. Jac. 158; Sybray v. White, 1 M. & W. 435; Williams v. Groucott, 4 B. & S. 149; Lee v. Riley, 18 C. B. N. S. 722; Wilson v. Newberry, L. R. 7 Q. B. 31; Lawrence v. Jenkins, L. R. 8 Q. B. 274; Firth v. Bowling Iron Co., 3 C. P. Div. 254; Crowhurst v. Amersham Burial Board, 4 Ex. Div. 5; Bush v. Brainard, 1 Cow. 78; Lyons v. Merrick, 105 Mass. 71; Page v. Olcott, 13 N. H. 399.

If there are actions for negligence of such a character that the rights of the parties are not determinable by the application of these principles, the present case is not one of them. If, notwithstanding the defendants’ negligence, the plaintiffs, by ordinary care, could have prevented the fright of the horse, or its running, after the fright, or, in the absence of ability to do either, if they could have avoided the running upon and injury to Clapp, their misconduct, and not that of the defendants, was the cause of the accident, and they cannot recover. On the other hand, if the plaintiffs’ carelessness consisted solely in permitting the horse to be where it was at the time, and ordinary care by the defendants would have prevented its fright, or, if the plaintiffs, by proof of any state of facts competent to be shown under the declaration, can make it appear that at the time of the occurrence they could not, and the defendants could, by such care have prevented the accident, they are entitled to recover.

OATES v. METROPOLITAN STREET RAILWAY COMPANY
Supreme Court, Missouri, May 21, 1902.
Reported in 168 Missouri Reports, 535, 547–549.

Marshall, J.... Instructions three and seven given for the defendant sharply drew a distinction between the negligence of the defendant and the contributory negligence of the plaintiff. Those instructions declared the law to be that the defendant was not liable unless its negligence was the direct cause of the injury, while the plaintiff was not entitled to recover if his negligence “but contributes to the injury.” That is, that the defendant was liable only for direct negligence, while the plaintiff was cut off from recovery if he was guilty of any negligence, however slight or remote or indirect it may have been.

295The law is that a defendant is liable if his negligence was the direct and proximate cause of the injury, unless the plaintiff has also been guilty of such negligence as directly contributed to the happening of the injury, and the defendant is not liable no matter how negligent he may have been if the plaintiff’s negligence has thus contributed to the injury, for the doctrine of comparative negligence has never obtained in this State. Hurt v. Railroad, 94 Mo. 264. In each instance the negligence and the contributory negligence must be direct, that is, must have entered into and formed a part of the efficient cause of the accident. Hoepper v. Hotel Co., 142 Mo. 388; Beach on Contr. Neg. (2 ed.), sec. 24; Matthews v. Toledo, 21 Ohio Cir. Ct. Rep. 69; Dunkman v. Railroad, 16 Mo. App. 548; Corcoran v. Railroad, 105 Mo. 399; Murray v. Railroad, 101 Mo. 236; Kellny v. Railroad, 101 Mo. 67; Hicks v. Railroad, 46 Mo. App. 403; Pinnell v. Railroad, 49 Mo. App. 170; Meyers v. Railroad, 59 Mo. 223.

Mere negligence, without any resulting damage, no more bars a plaintiff’s recovery than it creates a liability against a defendant. Dickson v. Railroad, 124 Mo. 140. Remote negligence which does not become an efficient cause, neither creates nor bars a liability. Kennedy v. Railroad, 36 Mo. 351; Meyers v. Railroad, 59 Mo. 223. It is only where the plaintiff’s negligence contributes directly to his injury that it precludes his recovery therefor, Moore v. Railroad, 126 Mo. 265. And the plaintiff’s contributory negligence must mingle with the defendant’s negligence as a direct and proximate cause in order to bar a recovery. Nolan v. Shickle, 69 Mo. 336; Frick v. Railroad, 75 Mo. 542.

These instructions were, therefore, erroneous, and as the jury was misdirected and as the plaintiff had made out a prima facie case, he was entitled to have the law properly declared to the jury, and the trial court did right in granting a new trial.^[204]

Carpenter, J., in NIEBOER v. DETROIT ELECTRIC RAILWAY
(1901) 128 Michigan, 486, 491, 492.^[205]

Carpenter, J. “... The law by which it is determined whether or not the contributory negligence of the plaintiff bars recovery is very uncertain. The adjudicated cases are by no means harmonious, and there is an irreconcilable conflict between the principles announced by eminent judges and the text-book writers. It has been stated that the plaintiff cannot recover if the injury complained of would not have occurred without his negligence. It has also been stated that plaintiff’s negligence will not bar his recovery if due care on the part of the defendant would have prevented the injury. If the first statement is correct, contributory negligence always prevents a recovery; if the second statement is correct, contributory negligence never prevents recovery. The truth is that the first statement can be correctly applied only in cases of simultaneous negligence, as in the case of an injury to a person while crossing a railway in consequence of his own and the railway company’s negligence. The second statement can be correctly applied only in cases of successive 296negligence, as in the famous Donkey Case, of Davies v. Mann, 10 Mees. & W. 546, where defendant negligently ran into and injured the plaintiff’s donkey, which plaintiff had negligently permitted to go unattended on the highway. The test almost universally approved is whether or not plaintiff’s negligence is the proximate cause of his injury. If it is, he cannot recover; if it is not, he can. Even this test has been criticised on the ground that the term ‘proximate’ is misleading. I think this criticism just and important. The word ‘proximate’ is ordinarily used to indicate the relation between defendant’s negligence and the plaintiff’s injury. As so used, it has not the same meaning that it has when used to indicate the relation between plaintiff’s negligence and plaintiff’s injury. To illustrate, suppose in the case of Davies v. Mann, above referred to, that, as a result of the collision between the cart and the donkey, a third person had been injured; I think all will agree that the owner of the donkey, as well as the owner of the cart, would have been liable. See Lynch v. Nurdin, 1 Q. B. (N. S.) 29. And we have already seen that the negligence of the owner of the donkey was not so related to the collision as to preclude recovery in a suit by him against the owner of the cart. As used in relation to contributory negligence, the term ‘proximate’ simply means that in some way the relation between plaintiff’s negligence and his injury is more remote than that between defendant’s negligence and the injury.”^[206]

DROWN v. NORTHERN OHIO TRACTION COMPANY
Supreme Court, Ohio, May 7, 1907.
Reported in 76 Ohio State Reports, 234.

Action for damage done to plaintiff’s buggy by an electric car which came up behind it and hit it. Answer: denying that defendant was negligent, and alleging negligence on plaintiff’s part.

On the trial, it appeared that Hardy, plaintiff’s driver, drove upon the track without looking behind to see if a car was coming.

Defendant requested the following instructions:—

(3) If the jury find from the evidence that the plaintiff, through his agent, Hardy, and the defendant were both negligent, and that the negligence of 297both directly contributed to cause the injury complained of in plaintiff’s petition, then your verdict should be for the defendant.

(4) If the jury find that the negligence of both plaintiff’s agent and the defendant combined so as to directly cause the injury complained of by plaintiff, then your verdict should be for the defendant.

These requests to instruct were refused.

The court, among other instructions, charged in substance as follows:—

If you find that the motorman could, by the exercise of ordinary care, have seen the plaintiff and stopped the car, and that by reason of the failure to stop the car Hardy’s team was knocked down and injured, it would be such negligence on the part of the defendant as would entitle the plaintiff to recover, provided Hardy was free from contributory negligence on his part.

If Hardy was on this track driving south, and you find that he was negligent in being on it as he was, his failure to look or failure to watch to avoid injury, if he was negligent, would not prevent him from recovering in this suit, if the motorman, after discovering him in that position, could have, by the use of reasonable and ordinary care, avoided the injury by stopping the car. [This was a restatement in concrete form of an abstract proposition already stated in the charge.]

In the Common Pleas Court there was a verdict for plaintiff and judgment thereon. The Circuit Court reversed the judgment of the Common Pleas. Plaintiff brought error.^[207]

Davis, J. Under the issues in this case, evidence was introduced tending to prove that the plaintiff’s agent was guilty of negligence directly contributing to the injury to plaintiff’s property. If the driver of the plaintiff’s team, immediately upon entering Main Street, and without afterwards looking to the north, as he admits, drove southward upon the track until the car coming from the north overtook and collided with the buggy, he was negligent; because the street was open and unobstructed for from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet from the point at which he entered upon it, and it was not necessary for him to go upon the street railway track, and because, the night being dark, he unnecessarily put himself in a place of obvious danger and continued therein until the moment of the accident, without looking out for an approaching car or doing anything whatever to avoid injury, apparently risking his life and the property of his principal upon the presumption that the defendant’s employees would make no mistakes nor be guilty of any negligence. If, on the other hand, he drove along the street until he came to the obstruction and then turned out upon the track to go around it without again looking, as his own testimony shows that he did not, and was then almost in the same instant struck by the car, he was negligent. Upon either hypothesis, assuming that the defendant was negligent in not keeping a proper lookout, or was otherwise not exercising ordinary care to prevent collision with persons lawfully on its track, the plaintiff could not recover, if it should appear in the case that the negligence of both is contemporaneous and continuing until after the moment of the accident, because, in such case the negligence of each is a direct cause of the injury without which it would not have occurred, rendering it impracticable in all such instances, if not impossible, to apportion the responsibility and the damages. Suppose, for example, that not only the buggy and horses 298had been injured, but the defendant’s car also, by what standard could the extent of liability of either party be determined? Timmons v. The Central Ohio Railroad Co., 6 Ohio St. 105; Village of Conneaut v. Naef, 54 Ohio St. 529, 531. In short, there can be no recovery in such a case unless the whole doctrine of contributory negligence, a doctrine founded in reason and justice, should be abolished.

Under these circumstances, therefore, it was not sufficient to say to the jury that if they should find that the motorman who had charge of the car which struck the team, could by the exercise of ordinary care have seen the team and could have stopped the car and that by reason of the failure to do so the team was injured, it would be such negligence by the defendant as would entitle the plaintiff to recover, provided that the plaintiff’s driver was “free from contributory negligence.” The defendant had the right to have the jury specifically instructed, as it requested, that if the jury should find from the evidence that both the plaintiff and the defendant, through their agents, were negligent, and that the negligence of both combined so as to directly cause the injury complained of, then the verdict should be for the defendant. The court refused to so instruct the jury, and the circuit court correctly held that the refusal to so charge was erroneous.

The error in refusing the defendant’s request to charge, was extended and made much more prejudicial when the court, after giving instructions as to contributory negligence by the plaintiff in very general terms, proceeded to impress upon the jury, by repetition and with some emphasis, the doctrine known as “the last chance.” This doctrine is logically irreconcilable with the doctrine of contributory negligence, and accordingly it has been vigorously criticised and warmly defended. Probably, as in many such controversies, the truth lies in middle ground; but it is certain that the rule is applicable only in exceptional cases, and the prevalent habit of incorporating it in almost every charge to the jury in negligence cases, in connection with, and often as a part of, instructions upon the subject of contributory negligence, is misleading and dangerous.

This confusion seems to arise either from misapprehension of the law or a want of definite thinking. The doctrine of the “last chance” has been clearly defined by a well-known text-writer as follows: “Although a person comes upon the track negligently, yet if the servants of the railway company, after they see his danger, can avoid injuring him, they are bound to do so. And, according to the better view with reference to injuries to travellers at highway crossings—as distinguished from injuries to trespassers and bare licensees upon railway tracks at places where they have no legal right to be—the servants of the railway company are bound to keep a vigilant lookout in front of advancing engines or trains, to the end of discovering persons exposed to danger on highway crossings; and the railway company will be liable for running over them if, by maintaining such a lookout and by using reasonable care and exertion to check or stop its train, it could avoid injury to them.” 2 Thompson, Negligence, sec. 1629. The italics are the author’s. Now, it must be apparent upon even a slight analysis of this rule that it can be applied only in cases where the negligence of the defendant is proximate and that of the plaintiff remote; for if the plaintiff and the defendant both be negligent and the negligence of both be concurrent and directly contributing to produce the accident, then the case is one of contributory negligence pure and simple. But if the plaintiff’s negligence merely put him in the place of danger and stopped 299there, not actively continuing until the moment of the accident, and the defendant either knew of his danger, or by the exercise of such diligence as the law imposes on him would have known it, then, if the plaintiff’s negligence did not concurrently combine with defendant’s negligence to produce the injury, the defendant’s negligence is the proximate cause of the injury and that of the plaintiff is a remote cause. This is all there is of the so-called doctrine of “the last clear chance.” A good illustration is found in the case of Railroad Co. v. Kassen, 49 Ohio St. 230. Kassen walked through the rear car of the train on which he was a passenger to the rear platform, from which he either stepped off or fell off upon the track, where he lay for about two hours, when he was run over by another train. It was held that, although Kassen may have been negligent in going upon the rear platform and stepping or falling off, yet since the railroad company knew of his peril and had ample time to remove him or to notify the trainmen on the later train, its negligence in not doing so was the proximate cause of Kassen’s death and the negligence of Kassen was remote. In that case the proximate cause and the remote cause were so clearly distinguishable, and it is so very evident from the opinion and the syllabus that this distinction was the real ground of the judgment of the court, that it is somewhat surprising that the doctrine of last chance as stated in that case should have been so often misinterpreted as a qualification of the doctrine of contributory negligence.

It is clear, then, that the last chance rule should not be given as a hit or miss rule in every case involving negligence. It should be given with discrimination. Since the plaintiff can recover only upon the allegations of his petition, if there is no charge in the petition that the defendant after having notice of the plaintiff’s peril could have avoided the injury to plaintiff, and there is no testimony to support such charge, the giving of such a charge would be erroneous. There is no such allegation in the petition in this case. But further, there is testimony tending to prove that the plaintiff’s team was driven upon the street railway track in the night time, ahead of the car, and that it continued on the track for a distance of two hundred and fifty feet until struck by the car, without taking any precaution to avoid accident. Assuming that the defendant was negligent in not seeing the buggy on the track and in not avoiding the accident, yet the plaintiff’s negligence was continuous and was concurrent at the very moment of the collision. It proximately contributed to the collision, for without it the collision would not have occurred. There was no new act of negligence by the defendant, which was independent of the concurrent negligence and which made the latter remote. Therefore there was no place in the case for the doctrine of “the last clear chance.”

[Remainder of opinion omitted.]

McLain, J., in FULLER v. ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY
(1911) 100 Mississippi, 705, 716.

McLain, J.... The rule is settled beyond controversy or doubt, first that all that is required of the railroad company as against a trespasser is the abstention from wanton or willful injury, or that conduct which is characterized as gross negligence; second, although the injured party may be guilty of contributory negligence, yet this is no defense if the injury were willfully, 300wantonly, or recklessly done or the party inflicting the injury was guilty of such conduct as to characterize it as gross; and, third, that the contributory negligence of the party injured will not defeat the action if it is shown that the defendant might by the exercise of reasonable care and prudence have avoided the consequence of the injured party’s negligence. This last principle is known as the doctrine of the “last clear chance.” The origin of this doctrine is found in the celebrated case of Davies v. Mann, 10 Mees. & W. 545.... It is impossible to follow this case through its numerous citations in nearly every jurisdiction subject to Anglo-American jurisprudence. For the present it will be sufficient to say that the principle therein announced has met with practically almost universal favor. It has been severely criticised by some text-writers.... The law as enunciated in that case has come to stay....

An analytical examination of the adjudged cases upon this subject will demonstrate the correctness of the above analysis, and, in addition, establish the soundness and technical accuracy announced in Davies v. Mann, supra. This case has been criticised most severely ... by courts of high authority, but these courts have utterly and entirely failed to appreciate the base upon which the principle is bottomed, and in repudiating the principle do so upon the idea that Davies v. Mann establishes the much-abused comparative negligence doctrine, a doctrine repudiated by this court, but established in this state by Laws 1910, ch. 135, p. 125. (But this statute has no reference to the instant case because passed subsequent to the injuries complained of.) In order for the injured party’s negligence to bar recovery, all of the authorities hold that it must be the proximate cause; otherwise, it is not contributory. Now, when it is fully understood that the negligence of the injured party must be the proximate cause in order to bar the remedy (and, as said above, all authorities everywhere, ancient and modern, so affirm), the principle announced in Davies v. Mann must, from necessity, be the correct and true rule. If the proximate and immediate cause of the injury—the causa causans—is the controlling and determining factor in ascertaining whether the injured party has the right to recover or whether the injuring party is not liable, then it must follow, as night the day, that the party who has the last opportunity to avoid the injury is the one upon whom the blame shall fall. To express the idea differently: If the injured party’s negligence be remote, and not proximate, he can recover against the party who is guilty of negligence proximately contributing or causing the injury. The North Carolina courts have perhaps more satisfactorily and more clearly elucidated this question than have any opinions that have come under the writer’s eye. In Smith v. N. & S. R. R. Co., 114 N. C. 728, 19 S. E. 863, 923, 25 L. R. A. 287, it is said that the rule in Davies v. Mann simply furnishes a means for ascertaining whether the plaintiff’s negligence is a remote or proximate cause of the injury; that, before the introduction of this rule, any negligence on the part of the plaintiff, which in any degree contributes to the injury, was judicially treated as the proximate cause, and constituted contributory negligence which barred recovery. The same is clearly stated in Nashua Iron & Steel Co. v. W. & N. R. R. Co., 62 N. H. 159, 163, et seq. The antecedent negligence of the injured party, having been thus relegated to the position of a condition or remote cause of the accident, it cannot be regarded as contributory, since it is well established that negligence, in order to be contributory, must be at least one of the proximate causes.^[208]

Lord O’Brien, L. C. J.:—

The facts which give rise to the controversy we have to determine, in this case, are comprised within a narrow compass. The plaintiff, on a Saturday morning, was coming into the town of Drogheda in a car driven by himself. Coming near the town he, as he alleged, was overtaken by the horse and car of Mrs. Morgan. She desired to pass. He says he made way for her, and, in doing so, ran against a heap of stones on the road, and his car was upset and he was injured. It appears that there were two heaps of stones on the road. They had been, immediately before the collision, thrown on the road in order that they might be spread on the road. The man who brought the load, and had thrown them on the road, was a servant of the defendants. The intention was to spread them immediately on the road. The man who brought them was in fact, at the time of the accident, engaged in spreading the heap next the town, some little distance from the heap where the accident occurred. Now the first heap, where the accident occurred, was placed on the road in such a position that there was between it and the right side of the road a space of 12 feet, and between this heap and the left side of the road, 6 feet. That is to say, on the right side there was a space sufficient for two cars to pass simultaneously, and on the left a space for one car to pass. The plaintiff’s case was that, Mrs. Morgan overtaking him, he made room for her, pulled to the left, and without any default of his, his car ran upon the heap and was capsized. His case was that Mrs. Morgan caught him exactly where the heap was, and, in endeavoring to avoid her, and without any default or negligence on his part, the accident occurred. Now, three questions were left to the jury:—

1. Were the defendants, by their workmen, guilty of negligence? Yes.

2. Was the plaintiff guilty of negligence? Yes.

And if so—

3. Could the defendants, by the exercise of ordinary care, have avoided the consequence of the plaintiff’s negligence? Yes.

I have invariably refused, in these negligence cases, to leave questions in this form to a jury. This formula appears to me calculated to perplex and embarrass a jury. No doubt this formula is used, and judges do their best to explain it, but I fear that when juries take up the questions in the jury-room, the explanation has not the desired effect. Chief Justice Monahan consistently refused to put the questions in this shape to the jury. I have always tried these cases on two questions: 1st, Were the defendants guilty of negligence? and, 2d, if so, was the defendant’s negligence the real, direct, and immediate cause of the misfortune? Now, the jury in the present case answered the questions submitted to them in the way I have read. I am of opinion that the answer to the question finding that the plaintiff was guilty of negligence, determines the matter in favor of the defendants. It is quite plain, in my opinion, that his negligence was a direct contributory cause of the accident. It was a cause which brought him on the heap of stones. Assuming that there was negligence on the part of the defendants in having the stones there, still his negligence must have contributed to his running up against 302them. He either did not keep a sufficient lookout, or his unskilful driving brought him on the stones. Getting on the stones, through negligence, was at least a contributory cause of the accident. It directly contributed to the accident. If there be two causes directly contributing to the accident, one the negligence of the defendant and the other the negligence of the plaintiff, the result is a verdict for the defendant.

BRITISH COLUMBIA ELECTRIC RAILWAY COMPANY v. LOACH
In the Privy Council, July 26, 1915.
Reported in [1916] Appeal Cases, 719.

Lord Sumner. This is an appeal from a judgment of the Court of Appeal of British Columbia in favor of the administrator of the estate of Benjamin Sands, who was run down at a level crossing by a car of the appellant railway company and was killed. One Hall took Sands with him in a cart, and they drove together on to the level crossing, and neither heard nor saw the approaching car till they were close to the rails and the car was nearly on them. There was plenty of light and there was no other traffic about. The verdict, though rather curiously expressed, clearly finds Sands guilty of negligence in not looking out to see that the road was clear. It was not suggested in argument that he was not under a duty to exercise reasonable care, or that there was not evidence for the jury that he had disregarded it. Hall, who escaped, said that they went “right on to the track,” when he heard Sands, who was sitting on his left, say “Oh,” and looking up saw the car about fifty yards off. He says he could then do nothing, and with a loaded wagon and horses going two or three miles an hour he probably could not. It does not seem to have been suggested that Sands could have done any good by trying to jump off the cart and clear the rails. The car knocked cart, horses, and men over, and ran some distance beyond the crossing before it could be stopped. It approached the crossing at from thirty-five to forty-five miles an hour. The driver saw the horses as they came into view from behind a shed at the crossing of the road and the railway, when they would be ten or twelve feet from the nearest rail, and he at once applied his brake. He was then 400 feet from the crossing. If the brake had been in good order it should have stopped the car in 300 feet. Apart from the fact that the car did not stop in time, but overran the crossing, there was evidence for the jury that the brake was defective and inefficient and that the car had come out in the morning with the brake in that condition. The jury found that the car was approaching at an excessive speed and should have been brought under complete control, and although they gave as their reason for saying so the presence of possible passengers at the station 303by the crossing, and not the possibility of vehicles being on the road, there can be no mistake in the matter, and their finding stands. It cannot be restricted, as the trial judge and the appellants sought to restrict it, to a finding that the speed was excessive for an ill-braked car, but not for a properly-braked car, or to a finding that there was no negligence except the “original” negligence of sending the car out ill-equipped in the morning.

Clearly if the deceased had not got on to the line he would have suffered no harm, in spite of the excessive speed and the defective brake, and if he had kept his eyes about him he would have perceived the approach of the car and would have kept out of mischief. If the matter stopped there, his administrator’s action must have failed, for he would certainly have been guilty of contributory negligence. He would have owed his death to his own fault, and whether his negligence was the sole cause or the cause jointly with the railway company’s negligence would not have mattered.

It was for the jury to decide which portions of the evidence were true, and, under proper direction, to draw their own inferences of fact from such evidence as they accepted. No complaint was made against the summing-up, and there has been no attempt to argue before their Lordships that there was not evidence for the jury on all points. If the jury accepted the facts above stated, as certainly they well might do, there was no further negligence on the part of Sands after he looked up and saw the car, and then there was nothing that he could do. There he was, in a position of extreme peril and by his own fault, but after that he was guilty of no fresh fault. The driver of the car, however, had seen the horses some perceptible time earlier, had duly applied his brakes, and if they had been effective he could, as the jury found, have pulled up in time. Indeed, he would have had 100 feet to spare. If the car was 150 feet off when Sands looked up and said “Oh,” then each had the other in view for fifty feet before the car reached the point at which it should have stopped. It was the motorman’s duty, on seeing the peril of Sands, to make a reasonable use of his brakes in order to avoid injuring him, although it was by his own negligence that Sands was in danger. Apparently he did his best as things then were, but partly the bad brake and partly the excessive speed, for both of which the appellants were responsible, prevented him from stopping, as he could otherwise have done. On these facts, which the jury were entitled to accept and appear to have accepted, only one conclusion is possible. What actually killed Sands was the negligence of the railway company, and not his own, though it was a close thing.

Some of the judges in the Courts below appear to have thought that because the equipment of the car with a defective brake was the original cause of the collision, and could not have been remedied after Sands got on the line, no account should be taken of it in considering 304the motorman’s failure to avoid the collision after he knew that Sands was in danger. “You cannot charge up the same negligence under different heads,” said Murphy, J., at the trial; “you cannot charge it up twice.” “On the question of ultimate negligence,” he observed, “that negligence must arise on the conditions as existing at the time of the accident. It would, of course, be absurd to say the company had any opportunity between the time that this rig appeared upon the track and the collision to remedy any defect in the brake. If there was such a defect I think it was original negligence and not what may possibly be termed ‘ultimate negligence.’”

In the Court of Appeal Macdonald, C. J. A., delivering a dissentient judgment in favor of the present appellants, said: “Where one party negligently approaches a point of danger, and the other party, with like obligation to take care, negligently approaches the same point of danger, if there arises a situation which could be saved by one and not by the other, and the former then negligently fail to use the means in his power to save it, and injury is caused to the latter, that failure is designated ultimate negligence, in the sense of being the proximate cause of the injury. In this case it is sought to carry forward, as it were, an anterior negligent omission of the defendants, though continuing, it is true, up to the time of the occurrence, and to assign to it the whole blame for the occurrence, although by no effort of the defendants or their servants could the situation at that stage have been saved.”

So, too, McPhillips, J. A., also dissenting, said: “Upon the evidence, whether it was because of defective brakes or any of the acts of negligence found against the defendants, none of them were acts of negligence arising after the act of contributory negligence of the deceased, and cannot be held to be acts of negligence which, notwithstanding the later negligence of the deceased, warrant judgment going for the plaintiff.... The motorman after he saw the vehicle could not have stopped the car ... therefore, as nothing could be then done by the motorman to remedy the ineffective brake, the want of care of the deceased was the direct and effective contributory cause of the accident resulting in his death.”

These considerations were again urged at their Lordships’ bar under somewhat different forms. It was said (1) that the negligence relied on as an answer to contributory negligence must be a new negligence, the initial negligence which founded the cause of action being spent and disposed of by the contributory negligence. Further, it was said (2) that if the defendants’ negligence continued up to the moment of the collision, so did the deceased’s contributory negligence, and that this series, so to speak, of replications and rebutters finally merged in the accident without the deceased ever having been freed from the legal consequence of his own negligence having contributed to it.

305The last point fails because it does not correspond with the fact. The consequences of the deceased’s contributory negligence continued, it is true, but, after he had looked, there was no more negligence, for there was nothing to be done, and, as it is put in the classic judgment in Tuff v. Warman, (1858) 5 C. B. (N. S.) 573, 585, his contributory negligence will not disentitle him to recover “if the defendant might by the exercise of care on his part have avoided the consequences of the neglect or carelessness of the plaintiff.”

As to the former point, there seems to be some ambiguity in the statement. It may be convenient to use a phraseology which has been current for some time in the Canadian Courts, especially in Ontario, though it is not precise. The negligence which the plaintiff proves to launch his case is called “primary” or “original” negligence. The defendant may answer that by proving against the plaintiff “contributory negligence.” If the defendant fails to avoid the consequences of that contributory negligence and so brings about the injury, which he could and ought to have avoided, this is called “ultimate” or “resultant” negligence. The opinion has been several times expressed, in various forms, that “original” negligence and “ultimate” negligence are mutually exclusive, and that conduct which has once been relied on to prove the first cannot in any shape constitute proof of the second.

Here lies the ambiguity. If the “primary” negligent act is done and over, if it is separated from the injury by the intervention of the plaintiff’s own negligence, then no doubt it is not the “ultimate” negligence in the sense of directly causing the injury. If, however, the same conduct which constituted the primary negligence is repeated or continued, and is the reason why the defendant does not avoid the consequences of the plaintiff’s negligence at and after the time when the duty to do so arises, why should it not be also the “ultimate” negligence which makes the defendant liable?

This matter was much discussed in Brenner v. Toronto Ry. Co., 13 Ont. L. R. 423, when Anglin, J., delivered a very valuable judgment in the Divisional Court. The decision of the Divisional Court was reversed on appeal, 15 Ont. L. R. 195, (1908) 40 Can. S. C. R. 540, but on other grounds, and in their comments on the decision of the Divisional Court, Duff, J., in the Supreme Court, and also Chancellor Boyd in Rice v. Toronto Ry. Co., (1910) 22 Ont. L. R. 446, 450, and Hunter, C. J., in Snow v. Crow’s Nest Pass Coal Co., (1907) 13 B. C. Rep. 145, 155, seem to have missed the point to which Anglin, J., had specially addressed himself.

The facts of that case were closely similar to those in the present appeal, and it was much relied on in argument in the court below. Anglin, J., following the decision in Scott v. Dublin and Wicklow Ry. Co., (1861) 11 Ir. C. L. Rep. 377, 394, observed as follows, 13 Ont. L. R. 437, 439, 440: “Again, the duty of the defendants to the 306plaintiff, breach of which would constitute ‘ultimate’ negligence, only arose when her danger was or should have been apparent. Prior to that moment there was an abstract obligation incumbent upon them to have their car equipped with efficient emergency appliances ready and in condition to meet the requirements of such an occasion. Had an occasion for the use of emergency appliances not arisen, failure to fulfil that obligation would have given rise to no cause of action. Upon the emergency arising, that abstract obligation became a concrete duty owing to the plaintiff to avoid the consequences of her negligence by the exercise of ordinary care.... Up to that moment there was no such breach of duty to the plaintiff. In that sense the failure of the defendants to avoid the mischief, though the result of an antecedent want of care, was negligence which occurred, in the sense of becoming operative, immediately after the duty, in the breach of which it consisted, arose. It effectively intervened between the negligence of the plaintiff and the happening of the casualty. But there is a class of cases where a situation of imminent peril has been created, either by the joint negligence of both plaintiff and defendant, or it may be, by that of the plaintiff alone, in which, after the danger is or should be apparent, there is a period of time, of some perceptible duration, during which both or either may endeavor to avert the impending catastrophe.... If, notwithstanding the difficulties of the situation, efforts to avoid injury duly made would have been successful, but for some self-created incapacity which rendered such efforts inefficacious, the negligence that produced such a state of disability is not merely part of the inducing causes—a remote cause or a cause merely sine qua non—it is, in very truth, the efficient, the proximate, the decisive cause of the incapacity, and therefore of the mischief.... Negligence of a defendant incapacitating him from taking due care to avoid the consequences of the plaintiff’s negligence, may, in some cases, though anterior in point of time to the plaintiff’s negligence, constitute ‘ultimate’ negligence, rendering the defendant liable notwithstanding a finding of contributory negligence of the plaintiff....”

Their Lordships are of opinion that, on the facts of the present case, the above observations apply and are correct. Were it otherwise the defendant company would be in a better position, when they had supplied a bad brake but a good motorman, than when the motorman was careless but the brake efficient. If the superintendent engineer sent out the car in the morning with a defective brake, which, on seeing Sands, the motorman strove to apply, they would not be liable, but if the motorman failed to apply the brake, which, if applied, would have averted the accident, they would be liable.

The whole law of negligence in accident cases is now very well settled, and, beyond the difficulty of explaining it to a jury in terms of the decided cases, its application is plain enough. Many persons are 307apt to think that, in a case of contributory negligence like the present, the injured man deserved to be hurt, but the question is not one of desert or the lack of it, but of the cause legally responsible for the injury. However, when once the steps are followed the jury can see what they have to do, for the good sense of the rules is apparent. The inquiry is a judicial inquiry. It does not always follow the historical method and begin at the beginning. Very often it is more convenient to begin at the end, that is at the accident, and work back along the line of events which led up to it. The object of the inquiry is to fix upon some wrong-doer the responsibility for the wrongful act which has caused the damage. It is in search not merely of a causal agency but of the responsible agent. When that has been done, it is not necessary to pursue the matter into its origins; for judicial purposes they are remote. Till that has been done there may be a considerable sequence of physical events, and even of acts of responsible human beings, between the damage done and the conduct which is tortious and is its cause. It is surprising how many epithets eminent judges have applied to the cause, which has to be ascertained for this judicial purpose of determining liability, and how many more to other acts and incidents, which for this purpose are not the cause at all. “Efficient or effective cause,” “real cause,” “proximate cause,” “direct cause,” “decisive cause,” “immediate cause,” “causa causans,” on the one hand, as against, on the other, “causa sine qua non,” “occasional cause,” “remote cause,” “contributory cause,” “inducing cause,” “condition,” and so on. No doubt in the particular cases in which they occur they were thought to be useful or they would not have been used, but the repetition of terms without examination in other cases has often led to confusion, and it might be better, after pointing out that the inquiry is an investigation into responsibility, to be content with speaking of the cause of the injury simply and without qualification.

In the present case their Lordships are clearly of opinion that, under proper direction, it was for the jury to find the facts and to determine the responsibility, and that upon the answers which they returned, reasonably construed, the responsibility for the accident was upon the appellants solely, because, whether Sands got in the way of the car with or without negligence on his part, the appellants could and ought to have avoided the consequences of that negligence, and failed to do so, not by any combination of negligence on the part of Sands with their own, but solely by the negligence of their servants in sending out the car with a brake whose inefficiency operated to cause the collision at the last moment, and in running the car at an excessive speed, which required a perfectly efficient brake to arrest it. Their Lordships will accordingly humbly advise His Majesty that the appeal should be dismissed with costs.^[209]

Prentice, J. It is clear and unquestioned that there was evidence, justifying its submission to the jury, tending to establish the defendant’s negligence in the premises directly contributing to produce the fatal injury which the plaintiff’s intestate suffered. The verdict for the defendant was directed upon the ground that the plaintiff had failed to present evidence, sufficient to go to the jury, tending to establish the intestate’s freedom from contributory negligence. Plaintiff’s counsel in his brief formally takes issue with this conclusion of the court, asserting that the evidence was such as entitled the plaintiff to go to the jury upon the question of the intestate’s negligence. It is apparent, however, that little reliance is placed upon this particular claim, and that the contention that the court erred must fail unless the appeal which is made to the so-called doctrine of “the last clear chance,” otherwise known as supervening or intervening negligence, is well made. This appeal is urged with vigor, so that the plaintiff’s main contention, which alone calls for serious consideration, is that, notwithstanding the intestate’s failure to use ordinary care, the defendant is liable through the operation of the doctrine referred to, which, it is said, the court disregarded.

The notion appears to be more or less prevalent that this so-called doctrine is a discovery of recent years, that it embodies a new legal principle, and that this principle is one which invades the domain formerly assigned to contributory negligence, and sets limitations upon the operation of this latter doctrine so long and so deeply imbedded in English and American jurisprudence. This is by no means true as respects either the age or the character and scope of the principle which it embodies. The names by which it has come to be known are indeed of recent origin, and perhaps its present vogue and the misconception which prevails as to its true place in the law of negligence are due in part to its thus being given an independent status in the terminology of the law. In fact, the principle is no modern discovery. It runs back to the famous “Donkey Case” of Davies v. Mann, 10 Mees. & W. 546, decided in 1842. It was distinctly recognized by this court in 1858 in Isbell v. New York & N. H. R. Co., 27 Conn. 393. It was then not only recognized, but its true place in the law was assigned to it. It was shown to be no independent principle operating by the side of, and possibly overstepping the bounds of, other principles, but merely a logical and inevitable corollary of the long accepted doctrine of actionable negligence as 309affected by contributory negligence. The definition of its place, which was made in the clear-cut language of Judge Ellsworth, inexorably forbade that it could by possibility run counter in its application to the contributory negligence rule. This fundamental principle we have steadily adhered to. Smith v. Connecticut Ry. & Ltg. Co., 80 Conn. 268, 270, 67 Atl. 888; Elliott v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co., 83 Conn. 320, 322, 76 Atl. 298, 84 Conn. 444, 447, 80 Atl. 283.

There are, indeed, cases which give countenance to a different view upon this latter subject. But their dicta, oftentimes, not to say generally, uttered without an apparent comprehension of their logical consequence, would create havoc with the law, and leave it guideless, or with two conflicting guides. A sober second thought is, however, fast correcting this mistake, so that there has already come to be a general concurrence of the well-considered authorities in the view which has been taken in this jurisdiction.

The contributory negligence rule has no practical application save in cases where the defendant has been guilty of actionable negligence. It proceeds upon the theory that whenever a person injured has contributed essentially to his injury by his own negligent conduct, the law will not give him redress, even against another who may have been directly instrumental in producing the result. To furnish a basis for its application there must have been a concurrence of negligent conduct. This negligent conduct, furthermore, must have been of such a character and so related to the result as to entitle it to be considered an efficient or proximate cause of it. If there is a failure to use due care on the part of either party at such a time, in such a way or in such a relation to the result that it cannot fairly be regarded as an efficient or proximate cause, the law will take no note of it. Causa proxima, non remota, spectatur.

It thus logically follows that, although a plaintiff may have failed to exercise reasonable care in creating a condition, or in some other way, which cannot be fairly said to have been the proximate cause of the injuries of which he complains, the contributory negligence rule cannot be invoked against him. The question with respect to negligent conduct on the part of a person injured through the negligence of another, as affecting the former’s right to recover, thus becomes resolved in every case into one as to whether or not that conduct of his was a proximate cause of the injury. If it was, then the contributory negligence rule is applicable, and the plaintiff will by its operation be barred from recovery. If it was not, that rule has no pertinence to the situation, since there was no concurrence of negligence, without which there can be no contributory negligence in the legal sense. It is conduct of the latter kind—that is, conduct careless in itself, but not connected with the injury as a proximate cause of it—to which the so-called doctrine of “the last clear chance” relates, and that doctrine embraces within its purview such conduct only.

310This being so, it may well be questioned whether the doctrine deserves a classification and a name as of an independent principle. But if, for convenience sake or other reason, it is to be dignified in that way, it is apparent that there is no manner of inconsistency between it and the contributory-negligence rule, and that the domain of the latter rule is in no way invaded or narrowed by a full recognition of it. It follows that the decisive question in each case, where a plaintiff injured is found to have been at fault in the premises from his failure to exercise the required degree of care, resolves itself into one as to whether that fault was or was not a proximate cause of the injury, and that the answer to that question will infallibly determine whether or not it will bar a recovery.

Thus far we have had the way marked out for us by the clearly defined doctrine of former opinions. But the proposition just stated, which is thus supported, while sufficient for the determination of many cases and furnishing a helpful guide in most others, does not resolve all the difficulties which may be encountered. It leaves the question open as to when negligent conduct in a person injured in his person or property is to be regarded as a proximate cause of the injury. How close must be the causal connection between the negligence and the injury? It is at this point that any real uncertainty or trouble arises under the doctrine of this jurisdiction.

The negligence referred to in the claimed rule is, of course, that which the law so denominates, to wit, want of due care which is a proximate cause of harm. The proposition is not dealing with a lack of due care which the law ignores. When it speaks of the negligence ceasing, negligence in the legal sense is meant. It may in a given sense cease in the sense that prudent conduct takes its place. It may for all legal purposes cease through the relegation of it, as events progress, to the domain of remote cause. In other words, it ceases when, and only when, the conditions of contributory negligence disappear. The claimed test thus solves no problems. It only brings one back, in doubtful cases, to the inquiry whether the plaintiff’s conduct, lacking in due care, was of such a character, or so related to the injury, that it ought to be regarded as a proximate cause of it, as the real test which must be applied.

The impossibility of framing any general abstract statement which will suffice to resolve the difficulties which may be presented under varying conditions, or to anticipate all such conditions, is apparent. We shall undertake no such task. There are, however, certain sets of conditions, of not infrequent occurrence, concerning which general conclusions may be made safely and profitably.

There is, for instance, the occasional case where, after the plaintiff’s peril, to which he has carelessly exposed himself or his property, becomes 311known to the defendant, the latter introduces into the situation a new and independent act of negligence without which there would have been no injury. Such was the case of Smith v. Connecticut Ry. & Ltg. Co., 80 Conn. 268, 270, 67 Atl. 888, and it was there held, in accordance with sound reason, that this new negligence was to be regarded as the sole proximate cause of the accident which ensued. The rule for that type of case is thus furnished.

Cases of another class occasionally arise, where it is disclosed that the plaintiff has by his lack of care placed himself in a position of danger from which he either cannot, or cannot reasonably, escape after the discovery of his danger. Here, again, there can be no hesitation in saying, that if the defendant, after his discovery that the plaintiff is in the situation described, fails to use reasonable care—and that is care proportioned to the danger—to save him from harm, and harm results from such failure, the defendant’s want of care will be regarded as the sole proximate cause, and the plaintiff’s a remote cause only.

The situation just stated is not infrequently changed, in that means of escape were open to the plaintiff by the exercise of reasonable care, but it was apparent to the defendant, in season to have avoided the doing of harm by the exercise of due care, that the plaintiff would not avail himself of them. Here it is assumed that the situation of exposure had been created and established by the plaintiff’s action before the period of time began within which the defendant, acting reasonably, might have saved him, and that within that period the plaintiff did nothing to create or materially change that situation by active conduct which was not marked by reasonable care. Under the assumption he remains passive, in so far at least as negligent action is concerned, and can be regarded as careless only in this that he did not awake to his surroundings and do what he reasonably could to avoid the threatened consequences of a situation which he had already negligently brought about. In such cases the humane, and, to our mind, the better reason, all things considered, leads to the conclusion to which our former opinions, already cited, commit us, and which a large number of cases elsewhere approve, that the want of care on the part of the plaintiff will be regarded as a remote and not a proximate cause.

Another important variation is oftentimes introduced into the situation, in that the plaintiff continued as an active agent in producing the conditions under which his injury was received down to the time of its occurrence, or at least until it was too late for the defendant, with knowledge of his peril, to have saved him by the exercise of reasonable care under the circumstances. This variation imports into the situation an important factor. The plaintiff, during the period named, is not merely passively permitting an already fixed condition to remain unchanged. He is an actor upon the scene. He 312is, by acts of his volition, bringing into the situation which confronts the defendant changed conditions and, in the fullest sense, co-operating with the latter in bringing about the ultimate result. In such case his conduct must be regarded as a concurring efficient cause. It is, in the fullest sense, a proximate and not a remote one, making his negligence contributory.

It is said, however, that there are cases, and undoubtedly there are, where it is reasonably apparent to the one who inflicts the injury that the injured one is careless of his safety, and that, in continuance of his carelessness, he is about to place himself in a position of danger, which he subsequently does, and where the former thereafter, having a reasonable opportunity to save him from harm, fails to do so; and it is contended that in such cases the conduct of the injured person should be regarded as a remote cause only of the resulting harm. We are unable to discover any logical reason for such a conclusion, or any place at which a practical or certain line of division can be drawn between that careless conduct of a man, playing some part in an injury to him, which the law will regard as having that causal connection with the injury which makes it a proximate cause, and that careless conduct which will not be so regarded, if the contention under consideration is to be approved. The conduct of the man who inflicts the injury under such general conditions may indeed be such that it is open to the charge of wilfulness or wantonness. If so, the case is not one of negligence, and the defense of contributory negligence would not be available. Rowen v. New York, N. Y. & H. R. Co., 59 Conn. 364, 371, 21 Atl. 1073. If the conduct is not wilful or wanton, it is negligent only. Thus treated, it forms one factor of negligence in the situation. The plaintiff’s want of care is another factor, and it certainly has something substantial to do in bringing about the result reached. Upon what theory or foundation in reason it can be said that, under the circumstances assumed, it is not an efficient cause of that result co-operating concurrently with the other cause to be found in the other party’s negligence, we are unable to discover. The causal connection is plain to be seen, and the act of causation is that of a positive act of volition. The two actors upon the scene owe precisely the same duty to be reasonably careful. Dexter v. McCready, 54 Conn. 171, 174, 5 Atl. 855. Neither occupies in that regard a superior position, and the one who suffers can claim no precedence over his fellow actor or at the hands of the law. To say that no matter if one be negligent in going forward into danger, or in creating new conditions or complicating them, the law will protect him and cast upon the other party the responsibility for the result, is to ignore the fundamental principle of contributory negligence and bring the law upon that subject into hopeless confusion, and merit for it the condemnation which Thompson has so forcibly expressed. 1 Thompson on Negligence, §§ 230, 233. The well-considered cases which have 313directly dealt with this subject agree with us, we think, in our view that active continuing negligence of the kind assumed is to be regarded as contributory in the legal sense. Butler v. Rockland, T. & C. Street Ry. Co., 99 Me. 149, 160, 58 Atl. 775; Murphy v. Deane, 101 Mass. 455, 465; Dyerson v. Union Pacific R. Co., 74 Kan. 528, 87 Pac. 680; Little v. Superior Rapid Transit Ry. Co., 88 Wis. 402, 409, 60 N. W. 705; Green v. Los Angeles Terminal Ry. Co., 143 Cal. 31, 47, 76 Pac. 719; Olson v. Northern Pacific Ry. Co., 84 Minn. 258, 87 N. W. 843.

We have thus far dealt with cases in which actual knowledge on the part of the defendant of the plaintiff’s peril enters into the assumption of facts. Suppose, however, that such knowledge is not established, but facts are shown from which it is claimed that the defendant ought in the exercise of due care to have known of it. What shall be said of such a situation?

In so far as imputed or constructive knowledge may be embraced in the assumption, the simple answer is to be found in the legal principle that full and adequate means of knowledge, present to a person when he acts, are, under ordinary circumstances, treated as the equivalent of knowledge. Post v. Clark, 35 Conn. 339, 342.

But our assumption reaches outside of the domain of knowledge, either actual or constructive. It suggests, in the use of the phrase “ought in the exercise of due care to have known,” frequently met with in the books, the existence of a duty to exercise due care to acquire knowledge, and the query is, whether the law recognizes the existence of such a duty to the extent of making it a foundation for responsibility for conduct akin to that which flows from conduct with actual or constructive knowledge.

We have frequently held that the character of one’s conduct in respect to care is to be determined in view of what he should have known as well as of what he did in fact know. Snow v. Coe Brass Mfg. Co., 80 Conn. 63, 66 Atl. 881. In these cases the question has been as to one’s duty for his own self-protection. That duty, according to established principles, involves the making of reasonable use of one’s senses under the penalty of forfeiture of all claim for redress in the event that harm results. Popke v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co., 81 Conn. 724, 71 Atl. 1098.

But how about a duty of acquiring knowledge, owed to others for their safety, which, not being performed, will furnish a basis of liability? In Elliott v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co., 83 Conn. 320, 76 Atl. 298, we recognized that such a duty might exist. That case involved the conduct of a locomotive engineer operating his engine at a grade-crossing, and we approved a charge which gave to the knowledge which the engineer, under the conditions, ought, in the use of due care, to have had, the same effect as actual knowledge. The duty imposed upon him was one to be watchful in order that needless 314harm might not come to persons who might be using the crossing, from the dangerous instrument of his calling. The duty was one toward others, which the circumstances and conditions must be regarded as fairly creating. For a like reason a similar duty rests upon other persons and under other conditions, in greater or lesser measure. Whether it exists, and the extent of it, depends upon the circumstances of each situation. A circumstance of chief significance, perhaps, is one which concerns the character of that about which the person is engaged in respect to its being calculated, under the conditions, to work injury to others. And so it is that a locomotive engineer, a motorman of a trolley-car running in a highway, or a chauffeur driving an automobile, is under a duty to be watchful for the protection of others which another man under other conditions would not owe to his fellows. Unreasonableness in one’s conduct, as a foundation for responsibility to others, cannot justly be established upon the basis of knowledge not possessed. It can with propriety be predicated upon negligence in not having acquired more knowledge. Negligence in this respect, as in all others, implies the existence of a duty to make use of means of knowledge. This duty must be found in the circumstances, and caution must be exercised in order that it, with its consequences, be not raised where the circumstances do not fairly impose it, or be extended beyond the limits which the circumstances fairly justify.^[210]

George W. Wheeler, J. (dissenting). Just prior to the accident the defendant’s car was being negligently operated. Assuming the decedent walked either diagonally toward and upon the track, or close to it, without using his senses to learn of the approaching car, and that there was no excuse for his failure, he was negligent. If the accident occurred while decedent and defendant were negligent and decedent’s negligence was a proximate cause of the accident, and there was nothing more to the case, there could be no recovery. But if the defendant’s motorman saw, or could by the exercise of reasonable care have seen, the decedent either approaching the track and about to place himself in danger, or walking so near the track as to be in danger, apparently heedless and unconscious of his peril, he owed to the deceased the duty of warning him and of observing such precautions as might avoid running into him. This was the case before the jury. We hold knowledge and the means of knowledge of one having a duty to know equivalent. Elliott v. New York, N. H. & H. R. Co., 83 Conn. 320, 76 Atl. 298. This duty originated after the negligence of the motorman and of the deceased, and after the latter’s peril and his unconsciousness of it might have been discovered by the motorman. If its performance would have avoided the injury to the deceased, its breach was the proximate cause of the accident, and his negligence in placing himself in the place of peril a condition, or the remote cause, 315of it. Of course, if he had not gone upon the track he would not have been injured; if he was negligent in going upon the track without using his senses, that was not the proximate cause of the accident, but the failure of the defendant to avoid the accident after it had the opportunity of avoidance and after it knew of the decedent’s peril and his unconsciousness of it.

In each case of discovered peril caused by one’s negligence the question is, did the defendant have the opportunity after such discovery, and was it his duty, to have avoided the accident? Whether the conduct of the motorman was gross negligence, or ordinary negligence, the breach of duty was the same in kind, though differing in degree. If one walks upon a railway track drunk, or in a reverie, or otherwise careless; or if one stands or lies on or so near the railway track as to be in danger and unconscious of it; or if one is in a position of peril through his own negligence from which he is unable to extricate himself, the person knowing or having the means and the duty to know of his presence owes him the duty of avoiding injuring him. One who is negligently in a position of danger and unconscious of it is in no different situation than if he were incapable of extricating himself from his peril.

The few authorities which hold the antecedent negligence of the deceased in getting into peril is concurrent with the defendant’s negligence so as to bar a recovery, make meaningless the rule of duty compelling the defendant to use reasonable care to avoid the accident after discovery of the peril. A legal duty without a corresponding obligation is an anomaly. When we relieve the motorman of liability for failure to avoid an accident, he may operate his car at a negligent speed, without having it under control, without keeping an outlook, without giving warning of approach, and neither having nor using the ordinary instrumentalities of equipment for avoiding injury to travellers, and so long as his conduct is not gross negligence it carries with it no liability.

The opinion of the court classifies in five groups the several kinds of cases which have been thought to be within the “last clear chance” doctrine. In group one, the defendant, instead of doing his duty, does something which is a new act of negligence. In group two, the peril is one from which the plaintiff cannot, or cannot reasonably, extricate himself. Each group supports a recovery. In group three, means of escape were open to the plaintiff down to the accident, but he remained unconscious of his peril. The opinion holds that if the plaintiff remains passive after exposing himself to peril and does nothing to materially change that condition, there may be a recovery. But in group four, assuming the same facts as in group three, the court holds that if the plaintiff after exposing himself to peril, instead of permitting the fixed condition to remain unchanged continues as an active agent in producing the conditions under which the injury 316was received down to its occurrence, or until it was too late for the defendant to avoid the accident, there can be no recovery. In group five, the defendant knows, or ought to know, that the injured one is careless and is about to expose himself to danger of which he is unconscious, and after such knowledge has the opportunity to avoid injury to him, and in such case the court holds there can be no recovery.

We have attempted to show that the breach of duty of the defendant in each of these several groups is the same, and was a new act of negligence of the defendant, viz.: the failure of the defendant to avoid injuring the plaintiff after he knew of his peril when he was either unconscious of it or incapable of extricating himself from it, and that this breach was the proximate cause of the accident while the plaintiff’s prior negligence was the remote cause.

The distinction between active and passive negligence made in groups three and four, is new to our law, as well as to the law of negligence generally prevailing in this country and in England. On analysis it does not seem logical. A is crossing a trolley track when hailed by a friend; he stops upon the track to talk and negligently fails to use his senses to discover an approaching car. The motorman could have seen A in his place of peril, unconscious of his danger, and in time, with the exercise of reasonable care to have avoided injuring him; instead he drives on his car and kills A. The opinion would hold A negligent in being upon the track without using his senses to keep out of the way of the oncoming car, but that as he remained passive and did nothing to change his situation of peril after the motorman had the opportunity to have avoided the accident, he may recover. But if A, instead of stopping on the track had gone on his way across or upon the track and been struck, his negligence would have been active and continued to the accident and would have been concurrent with that of the motorman. It must be conceded that the breach of the motorman’s duty would have been the same in each case: a failure to use reasonable care to avoid the accident. We see no reason why it should be available in the one case and not in the other. In neither case has the plaintiff’s negligence changed. It never became passive or nonexistent. It remained to the time of the accident. It ceased, in a legal sense, to be a proximate cause of the accident. A was relieved of its consequences because the negligence of the motorman in failing to avoid the accident intervened and became its proximate cause. If this distinction holds, and A be upon a trolley track intoxicated and asleep, his negligence is passive; if awake and walking his negligence is active.^[211]

Plaintiff was struck by a train while attempting to use a crossing provided by the Railroad Company for persons having business with a manufacturing company. From a point twenty-two feet from the nearest rails there was an unobstructed view of the track in the direction from which the train came. The accident happened near noon on a bright and clear day. Generally the engine bell was rung, while the whistle was sometimes sounded, for this crossing. Plaintiff knew it was usual to ring the bell. In this instance a danger whistle was sounded at, or immediately before, the time when plaintiff was struck; but there was evidence tending to prove that no other warning of the approach of the train was given. Plaintiff testified that he did not look or listen for an approaching train; and that he did not look because he expected to hear the bell or whistle if one was coming. The engineer testified that, when about one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet from the crossing, he saw plaintiff approaching the track; and that he kept watch of plaintiff until he got within a few feet of the track, when he whistled.^[212]

A nonsuit was ordered, subject to exception.

Parsons, J.... It is urged that the plaintiff relied upon the ringing of the bell, and that the failure to give the warning signals (of which there was some evidence which must here be taken to be true) excused him from the exercise of vigilance. Though the plaintiff testified that he did not look to see if a train was approaching because he expected to hear the whistle or bell if there was, it cannot be claimed that he was consciously at the time placing any reliance thereon, for he further testifies that he had no thought of a train coming and did not listen for the bell. As his counsel state in their brief, “There was no positive effort, no conscious ‘harking’ or ‘listening’ to ascertain if the train was coming.” But assuming that it might be found as a fact that he did rely on the awakening of his consciousness by the performance of the railroad’s duty of warning, the failure of the defendants to perform their duty did not release him from his. The obligation to use care was equally imposed upon each. If the defendants’ negligence excused the plaintiff from his duty of care, the plaintiff’s negligence with equal reason would excuse the defendants. If the plaintiff had the right to assume the defendants would perform their duty, and, relying thereon, approach the crossing without exercising care, the defendants had the right to assume that the plaintiff would perform his duty, and omit the warning of bell and whistle. The duty of care rested on each equally. If neither performed that 318duty both are in fault, and neither can recover of the other. The collision in this case resulted, it may be, because neither party performed their duty. If either had, there might and probably would have been no accident. The rights and liabilities of the parties consequent upon their acts resulting in the collision are not affected by the fact that subsequently one is plaintiff and the other defendant in a suit growing out of the collision. Their several responsibility is fixed at the time by their acts or failure to act. A suit by the engineer against Gahagan for personal injury resulting from the collision would present precisely the same legal question as that we now have. It would hardly be urged that the engineer was not guilty of contributory negligence in failing to ring the bell because he relied upon Gahagan’s performance of his duty of stopping and allowing the train to go by. The negligence of neither is an excuse for concurrent want of care in the other, because for an injury resulting from the concurrent negligence of both neither can recover. Nashua Iron and Steel Co. v. Railroad, 62 N. H. 159, 163.

The rule is laid down in Railroad Co. v. Houston, 95 U. S. 697, 702, also a crossing case, as follows: “The failure of the engineer to sound the whistle or ring the bell, if such were the fact, did not relieve the deceased from the necessity of taking ordinary precautions for her safety. Negligence of the company’s employees in these particulars was no excuse for negligence on her part.”

It is not claimed that after the plaintiff stepped upon the track almost immediately in front of the approaching train the defendants could have prevented the injury, or that the employees in charge of the train, when the danger thus became imminent, did not do all that could be done to prevent the collision. At any time before this the plaintiff could have avoided the collision. There was no moment when the defendants could, while the plaintiff could not, have prevented the injury. The plaintiff’s act in stepping upon the track, without precaution to ascertain whether he could safely do so, was the last act in point of time in the causation producing the injury. As there was no evidence upon which it could reasonably be found that the plaintiff’s action in this respect was the exercise of care, he cannot recover unless upon the evidence some negligent act or omission of the defendants’ employees could be found to be the sole proximate cause of the injury.

The plaintiff’s negligent occupation of the track did not authorize the defendants to run upon and injure him, if by care they could have avoided it. Ordinarily, the negligent act or omission which fails to avoid the consequences of the plaintiff’s negligence is the last act in time in the series leading to the injury. Such was the case in the cases cited; the negligent occupation of the track by the plaintiffs 319preceded the negligence of the defendants in failing to observe and guard against the danger so produced. But as ordinary care may require vigilance to guard against a dangerous situation reasonably to be apprehended, as well as actually imminent, it cannot always follow that the last negligent act in point of time is necessarily the proximate cause of the injury. If the engineer knew or ought to have known that the plaintiff’s negligence would place him upon the crossing when the train reached it, the engineer was equally bound to avoid the collision as if he saw the plaintiff actually on the track. The question is one of evidence merely. The mere fact that the person when first seen is on the track is not decisive. If a person on foot is seen crossing the track at such distance ahead that it could not reasonably be apprehended that the train would reach him in this position, the engineer would not be in fault for not preparing to avoid a danger not reasonably to be expected. In the present case there is evidence that when the plaintiff was first seen by the engineer the collision could have been prevented. If the engineer knew or ought to have known then that the plaintiff would be upon the crossing when the train reached it, and could have avoided the collision, his failure to do so is the proximate cause of the injury.

As there was evidence the collision might then have been prevented by him, the sole remaining question is whether upon the evidence reasonable men might find the engineer ought then to have foreseen the plaintiff’s negligence. The bare fact that the plaintiff was seen approaching the track is not sufficient to authorize such a finding. If it were, the rule heretofore laid down and found to be approved by the authorities and the reason of the case, that it is the duty of the highway traveller to stop and allow the train to pass, would be reversed. It would become the duty of the train to stop and wait for the person on foot to go by. This would be unreasonable, impracticable, and put an end to the modern system of rapid transportation demanded by the public, and to effectuate which railroads are authorized by the state.

“The company’s servants may ordinarily presume that a person apparently of full age and capacity, who is walking on the track at some distance before the engine, will leave it in time to save himself from harm; or if approaching the track, that he will stop if it becomes dangerous for him to cross it. This presumption will not be justified under some circumstances, as when the person who is on the track appears to be intoxicated, asleep, or otherwise off his guard.” Pierce R. R. 331; 2 Shearm. & Red. Neg. s. 483; Chicago, etc. R. R. v. Lee, 68 Ill. 576, 581; Terre Haute, etc. R. R. v. Graham, 46 Ind. 239, 245; Lake Shore, etc. R. R. v. Miller, 25 Mich. 274, 278, 280; Boyd v. Railway, 105 Mo. 371, 381, 382. The presumption is founded upon the general principle of right acting and the instinct of self-preservation. Huntress v. Railroad, 66 N. H. 185; Lyman v. Railroad, 66 N. H. 200; 2 Thomp. Neg. 1601.

320The case discloses no evidence apparent to the engineer taking the present case out of the rule.

Aside from the plaintiff’s own statement and the fact of the subsequent collision, the case contains no evidence that the plaintiff, when seen by the engineer approaching the crossing, was not alert to the situation, or tending to produce a belief that he would voluntarily rush into danger without care. Until he stepped upon the track his only danger consisted in the fact of his mental obliviousness to his duty of taking care. So defining his danger, the claim of his counsel, that if the engineer knew the plaintiff’s danger he could have avoided the injury and is in fault for not doing so, is sound; but to submit to the jury the question of fact whether the engineer ought to have known the status of the plaintiff’s mind in season to have prevented the accident, not only in the absence of evidentiary facts tending to prove such knowledge but in the face of all the facts open only to a contrary inference, would be a violation of the familiar and elementary rule that in judicial trials facts are to be found upon evidence, not conjecture. Deschenes v. Railroad, 69 N. H. 285.

The evidence upon which counsel mainly rely, tending to show that when seen by the engineer Gahagan’s face was not turned toward the train and that his appearance did not indicate whether he saw the train or not, does not tend to establish that he proposed to rush carelessly into known danger, or that he would go upon the track without care to ascertain if a train was approaching. That Gahagan knew the crossing, its danger, and his approach to it, was conceded. Hence, in the face of this admitted fact, although this evidence may have some tendency to prove the contrary, the jury could not find that Gahagan did not know he was approaching a place of danger, or that the engineer ought to have inferred a fact which it is conceded did not exist. As there is no evidence that the defendants ought to have known the plaintiff’s danger in season to have avoided the results of his negligence, they cannot be found guilty of negligence for not doing so.

Keith, P., in NORFOLK & W. R. CO. v. DEAN’S ADM’X
(1907) 107 Virginia, 505, 506, 507, 513.

Keith, P. The Circuit Court ... rests the case solely upon the second count in the declaration, in which the case presented is that, after it became apparent to the crew in charge of defendant company’s train that intestate of plaintiff was on the track in front of the engine, that he was unconscious of his danger, and would take no measures to protect himself, the crew failed to use any measure to prevent the accident. Such being the issue to be determined, it is needless to consider so much of the evidence as relates to the use of 321the track as a public passway, or as to whether or not the person injured was a licensee or a trespasser. He was a human being, and when his dangerous position was seen and known, and that he himself was unconscious of his peril, and would take no measures for his own protection, it became the duty of the railroad company to do all that could be done consistent with its higher duties to others to save him from the consequences of his own act, regardless of whether he was guilty of contributory negligence or not. Seaboard & Roanoke R. Co. v. Joyner’s Adm’r, 92 Va. 355, 23 S. E. 773.

This being the narrow issue to be decided, it becomes necessary to consider the evidence bearing upon it with care....

[The learned judge then considered the testimony. He found that there was no failure of duty on the part of the train men; and he held that the demurrer to the evidence should have been sustained. He quoted, with approval, the following statements of the law.]

In N. & W. Ry. Co. v. Harman, 83 Va. 577, 8 S. E. 258, it is said that “if a person seen upon the track is an adult, and apparently in the possession of his or her faculties, the company has a right to presume that he will exercise his senses and remove himself from his dangerous position; and if he fails to do so, and is injured, the fault is his own, and there is, in the absence of wilful negligence on its part, no remedy against the company for the results of an injury brought upon him by his own recklessness.”

In Rangeley v. Southern Ry. Co., 95 Va. 715, 30 S. E. 386, it is said that a railroad company has the right to assume that a grown person seen on its track will get out of the way of an approaching train, and the company is not liable unless it is shown that after the company, in the exercise of ordinary care, could have discovered that he was not going to get off the track, it could have avoided the injury.

O’KEEFE, Adm’x, v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY
Supreme Court, Iowa, October 21, 1871.
Reported in 32 Iowa Reports, 467.

Appeal from Polk District Court.

Action by an administratrix to recover damages for the death of her husband, Dennis O’Keefe, alleged to have been killed by being run over on the defendant’s road, through the negligence of the defendant’s agents and employees. Defence in denial, and also that the death was caused by the drunkenness and negligence of the plaintiff’s intestate. There was a jury trial, resulting in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff for $1000. The defendant appeals.

Cole, J. [Omitting statement of evidence.] After the evidence was closed, the defendant asked the court to instruct the jury as follows: “If you are satisfied from the evidence that Dennis O’Keefe, plaintiff’s intestate, was, a short time before the alleged injury, in a state of intoxication; that in such condition he went upon defendant’s 322railroad and laid himself down upon the track, or fell down unable to support himself because of such intoxication; that remaining in that condition a passing train crushed one of his legs; that after the injury he was yet under the influence of intoxicating liquors drank before the injury; that the injured limb was amputated and death ensued, you will find for the defendant, unless you further find from a preponderance of the evidence that defendant or its agents had knowledge that he was thus lying in time to prevent the accident,” to which the court added, and then gave it, “or, could have known with the exercise of ordinary caution.” This modification was excepted to at the time, and is now assigned as error.

The well-established law of this state is, that in an action to recover damages for the negligent act of the defendant, the plaintiff will not be entitled to recover if his own negligence contributed directly to the injury. In other words, this court recognizes and applies the doctrine of “contributory negligence,” and not the doctrine of “comparative negligence.” The latter doctrine obtains only in Illinois and Georgia, while the former obtains in the other states, and also in the Federal courts. The modification complained of ignored the doctrine of contributory negligence, and substantially told the jury that plaintiff might recover without regard to his negligence, if the defendant could have prevented the injury with the exercise of ordinary caution. The doctrine of the modification goes even farther than that of comparative negligence; for, by the latter, a plaintiff can only recover when he shows the defendant’s negligence to have been greater, by comparison, than his, while by the modification the plaintiff might recover if the defendant did not exercise ordinary caution, although the plaintiff’s intestate may have been guilty of a much greater negligence in laying himself down, in a condition of intoxication, near to or upon the track. A similar modification was made to the second instruction. In each there was error.

PICKETT v. WILMINGTON & WELDON RAILROAD COMPANY
Supreme Court, North Carolina, September Term, 1895.
Reported in 117 North Carolina Reports, 616.

Avery, J.^[213] The most important question presented by the appeal is whether the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that if the plaintiff’s intestate deliberately laid down upon the track and either carelessly or intentionally fell asleep there, the defendant was not liable, unless the engineer actually saw that he was lying there in time, by the reasonable use of appliances at his command, to have stopped the train before it reached him.

323In Gunter v. Wicker, 85 N. C. 310, this court gave its sanction to the principle first distinctly formulated in Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. (Ex.) 545, that “Notwithstanding the previous negligence of the plaintiff, if at the time the injury was done it might have been avoided by the exercise of reasonable care and prudence on the part of the defendant, an action will lie for damages.” This doctrine was subsequently approved in Saulter v. Steamship Co., 88 N. C. 123; Turrentine v. Railroad, 92 N. C. 638; Meredith v. Iron Co., 99 N. C. 576; Roberts v. Railroad, 88 N. C. 560; Farmer v. Railroad, Ibid. 564; Bullock v. Railroad, 105 N. C. 180; Wilson v. Railroad, 90 N. C. 69; Snowden v. Railroad, 95 N. C. 93; Carlton v. Railroad, 104 N. C. 365; Randall v. Railroad, 104 N. C. 108; Bullock v. Railroad, 105 N. C. 180, and it was repeatedly declared in those cases that it was negligence on the part of the engineer of a railway company to fail to exercise reasonable care in keeping a lookout not only for stock and obstructions but for apparently helpless or infirm human beings on the track, and that the failure to do so supervening after the negligence of another, where persons or animals were exposed to danger, would be deemed the proximate cause of any resulting injury.

[As to argument for defendant.] But the reasons and the authorities relied upon emanate generally from courts which hold that both persons and animals upon a track are trespassers and entitled to consideration only where actually seen in time to save them....

It cannot be denied that, in a number of the states which have adopted the doctrine of Davies v. Mann, it has also been held that both man and beast were trespassers when they went upon a railway track and except at public crossings or in towns it was not the duty of the engineer to exercise care in looking to his front with a view to the protection of either. Where the law does not impose the duty of watchfulness it follows that the failure to watch is not an omission, of duty intervening between the negligence of the plaintiff in exposing himself and the accident, unless he be actually seen in time to avert it. The negligence of the corporation grows out of omission of a legal duty and there can be no omission where there is no duty prescribed.

We are of opinion that, when by the exercise of ordinary care an engineer can see that a human being is lying apparently helpless from any cause on the track in front of his engine in time to stop the train by the use of the appliances at his command and without peril to the safety of persons on the train, the company is liable for any injury resulting from his failure to perform his duty. If it is the settled law of North Carolina (as we have shown) that it is the duty of an engineer on a moving train to maintain a reasonably vigilant outlook along the track in his front, then the failure to do so is an omission of a legal duty. If by the performance of that duty an accident might have been averted, notwithstanding the previous negligence of another, then, under the doctrine of Davies v. Mann, and Gunter v. Wicker,^[214] the breach of duty was the proximate cause of any injury growing out of such accident, and where it is a proximate cause the company is liable to respond in damages. Having adopted the principle that one whose duty it is to see does see, we must follow it to its logical results. The court committed no error of which the defendant could justly complain in stating the general rule which we have been discussing.

Plaintiff sued for damages caused by being struck by the tender of an engine.

Plaintiff, an employee of the R. R. Co., had occasion to cross the track. As he was about to step upon the track, he was struck by the tender of a locomotive which was backing east at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles an hour without giving a signal of its approach and without keeping a lookout along the track. The track was straight for a quarter of a mile west. It was a clear day, and there was nothing to have prevented the plaintiff from seeing the engine and tender if he had looked.^[215]

At the trial, the court rendered judgment against plaintiff upon his petition and preliminary statement to the jury which disclosed the above facts. Plaintiff brought error.

Mason, J.

Finally it is contended in behalf of the plaintiff that, even admitting his own want of care to have been such as would ordinarily bar a recovery, still he had a right to submit to the jury the question whether the employees in charge of the engine by the use of reasonable diligence could have discovered his negligence in time to avert the accident, and that an affirmative answer would have entitled him to a verdict.

In a number of cases it has been held that if the engineer by the exercise of reasonable diligence could have learned that danger was imminent but did not do so, the liability of the company will be determined in all respects as though he had in fact become aware of it, the constructive knowledge being apparently deemed the equivalent of actual knowledge. It is difficult or impossible to reconcile the decisions upon this and related questions, or to derive from them any generally accepted statement either of principle or result. Many of them are collected and discussed in chapter ix of volume i of Thompson’s Commentaries on the Law of Negligence, especially in sections 222 to 247.

There seems, however, to be no sufficient reason why the mere fact that a defendant is negligent in failing to discover a plaintiff’s negligence, or his danger, should in and of itself exclude all consideration of contributory negligence. Take the not unusual situation of a train being negligently operated, let us say by being run at too high a speed and without proper signals of warning being given. Now, any one injured as a result of such negligence has prima facie a right to recover. But, if his own negligence has contributed to his injury, then ordinarily his right is barred. How is the situation altered if the railroad employees add to their negligence in regard to speed and signals the negligence of failing to keep a sufficient lookout? The negligence is of the same sort; and, if the contributory negligence of the person injured prevents a recovery when 325but the two elements of negligence are present, consistency requires that it should have the same effect although a third element is added. If in the present case the plaintiff was entitled to recover in spite of his own negligence it must be because the order of its occurrence with respect to that of the defendant made the latter the proximate cause of the injury. This indeed is his contention, and to support it reliance is placed upon the following text, which was quoted with approval in Railway Co. v. Arnold, 67 Kan. 260, 72 Pac. 857, and the substance of which is to be found also in volume xx of the American and English Encyclopædia of Law, at page 137:—

“And upon the principle that one will be charged with notice of that which by ordinary care he might have known, it is held that if either party to an action involving the questions of negligence and contributory negligence should, by the exercise of ordinary care, have discovered the negligence of the other, after its occurrence, in time to foresee and avoid its consequences, then such party is held to have notice; and his negligence in not discovering the negligence of the other, under such circumstances, is held the sole proximate cause of a following injury.” (7 A. & E. Encycl. of L. 387.)

This may be accepted as a correct statement of a principle of universal application, according with both reason and authority, provided the words “after its occurrence” be interpreted to mean after the person concerned had ceased to be negligent. The rule that under the circumstances stated the neglect of one party to discover the omission of the other is to be held to be the sole proximate cause of a resulting injury is not an arbitrary but a reasonable one. The test is, What wrongful conduct occasioning an injury was in operation at the very moment it occurred or became inevitable? If just before that climax only one party had the power to prevent the catastrophe, and he neglected to use it, the legal responsibility is his alone. If, however, each had such power, and each neglected to use it, then their negligence was concurrent and neither can recover against the other. As is said in the paragraph from which the foregoing quotation is made, “it is only when the negligence of one party is subsequent to that of the other that the rule can be invoked.” In a note printed in volume ii of the supplement to the American and English Encyclopædia of Law, at page 64, many recent cases are cited bearing on the subject, and it is said:—

“This so-called exception to the rule of contributory negligence (i. e., the doctrine of ‘the last clear chance’) will not be extended to cases where the plaintiff’s own negligence extended up to and actually contributed to the injury. To warrant its application there must have been some new breach of duty on the part of the defendant subsequent to the plaintiff’s negligence.”

In the present case it may be granted that the negligence of the plaintiff began when he walked between the track and the ice-box on the way to get the bucket, and that the employees in charge of the engine were themselves negligent in not discovering this negligence on his part and the peril to which it exposed him, and taking steps to protect him. But his negligence as well as theirs continued up to the moment of the accident, or until it could not possibly be averted. His opportunity to discover and avoid the danger was at least as good as theirs. His want of care existing as late as theirs was a concurring cause of his injury, and bars his recovery. This determination is entirely consistent with what Mr. Thompson in his work above cited has styled the “last clear chance” doctrine, as is obvious from a consideration of the terms in which it is stated. As originally announced it was thus phrased:—

326“The party who has the last opportunity of avoiding accident is not excused by the negligence of any one else. His negligence, and not that of the one first in fault, is the sole proximate cause of the injury.” (1 Shear. & Red. Law of Neg., 5th ed., § 99.)

Mr. Thompson rewords it as follows:—

“Where both parties are negligent, the one that had the last clear opportunity to avoid the accident, notwithstanding the negligence of the other, is solely responsible for it—his negligence being deemed the direct and proximate cause of it.” (1 Thomp. Com. Law Neg. § 240.)

Expressions are to be found in the reports seemingly at variance with the conclusion here reached, but for the most part the decisions holding a defendant liable for failure to discover and act upon the plaintiff’s negligence were made in cases which were in fact like Railway Co. v. Arnold, 67 Kan. 260, 72 Pac. 857, or were decided upon the theory that they fell within the same rule. There the plaintiff’s decedent while riding a bicycle was through his own fault run into by a street car; he clung to the fender, was carried some seventy-five feet, then fell under the wheels, and was killed. A judgment against the street-car company was upheld only upon the theory that after he had reached a position of danger from which he could not extricate himself—that is, after his negligence had ceased—the defendant’s employees were negligent in failing to discover his peril and stop the car.

In Robinson v. Cone, 22 Vt. 213, 54 Am. Dec. 67, the writer of the opinion said:—

“I should hesitate to say that if it appeared that the want of ordinary care on the part of the plaintiff, at the very time of the injury, contributed either to produce or to enhance the injury, he could recover; because it seems to me that is equivalent to saying that the plaintiff, by the exercise of ordinary care at the time, could have escaped the injury.” (Page 223.)

The principle thus intimated was embodied in a decision in French v. The Grand Trunk Railway Co., 76 Vt. 441, 58 Atl. 722, where it was said:—

“It is true that when a traveller has reached a point where he cannot help himself, cannot extricate himself, and vigilance on his part will not avert the injury, his negligence in reaching that position becomes the condition and not the proximate cause of the injury, and will not preclude a recovery; but it is equally true that if a traveller, when he reaches the point of collision, is in a situation to help himself, and by a vigilant use of his eyes, ears, and physical strength to extricate himself and avoid injury, his negligence at that point will prevent a recovery, notwithstanding the fact that the trainmen could have stopped the train in season to have avoided injuring him. In such a case the negligence of the plaintiff is concurrent with the negligence of the defendant, and the negligence of each is operative at the time of the accident. When negligence is concurrent and operative at the time of the collision, and contributes to it, there can be no recovery.” (Page 447.)

To the same effect are these extracts:—

[As to the rule holding the defendant liable notwithstanding the contributory negligence of the plaintiff.]

Of the same rule it was said in O’Brien v. McGlinchy, 68 Me. 552:

“This rule applies usually in cases where the plaintiff or his property is in some position of danger from a threatened contact with some agency under the control of the defendant when the plaintiff cannot and the defendant can prevent 327an injury.... But this principle would not govern where both parties are contemporaneously and actively in fault, and by their mutual carelessness an injury ensues to one or both of them.” (Pages 557, 558.)

In Smith v. Railroad, 114 N. C. 728, 19 S. E. 863, 25 L. R. A. 287, the general rule was thus concretely stated:—

“Applying the rule which we have stated to accidents upon railroad tracks, it may be illustrated as follows: First, there must be a duty imposed upon the engineer, as otherwise there can be no negligence to which the negligence of the injured party is to contribute. The duty under consideration is to keep a vigilant lookout ... in order to discover and avoid injury to persons who may be on the track and who are apparently in unconscious or helpless peril. When such a person is on the track and the engineer fails to discover him in time to avoid a collision, when he could have done so by the exercise of ordinary care, the engineer is guilty of negligence. The decisive negligence of the engineer is when he has reached that point when no effort on his part can avert the collision. Hence, if A, being on the track and after this decisive negligence, fails to look and listen and is in consequence run over and injured, his negligence is not concurrent merely but really subsequent to that of the engineer, and he cannot recover, as he and not the engineer has ‘the last clear opportunity of avoiding the accident.’ If, however, A is on the track ... and while there, and before the decisive negligence of the engineer, he by his own negligence becomes so entangled in the rails that he cannot extricate himself in time to avoid the collision, and his helpless condition could have been discovered had the engineer exercised ordinary care, then the negligence of A would be previous to that of the engineer, and the engineer’s negligence would be the proximate cause, he, and not A, having the last clear opportunity of avoiding the injury. The same result would follow in the case of a wagon negligently stalled, when no effort of the owner could remove it, and there are other cases to which the principle is applicable.” (Pages 755, 756.)

The principle running through these cases is reasonable and is consistent with the general rules that have met with practically universal acceptance. Applied to the facts of this case it requires an affirmance of the judgment.

All the Justices concurring.

Baker, J., IN CLEVELAND R. CO. v. KLEE
(1900) 154 Indiana, 430, 434, 435.

Baker, J. It is alleged in the fifth paragraph: “That on or about the 22d day of June, 1894, this plaintiff, a child nine years of age, was on the said crossing of Georgia and Helen streets and upon said track of said defendant in said Georgia Street; and while in said position and place, the defendant through and by its said employees and servants, ran said locomotive against this plaintiff and negligently dragged this plaintiff without fault or negligence on his part, a long distance, to wit, two hundred feet; that the defendant knew that it had run its locomotive against this plaintiff at said crossing; and knew that it had knocked this plaintiff down in front of its said locomotive upon its said track; and knew that this plaintiff was dragging in front of said locomotive on said track; but that this defendant negligently failed to stop said locomotive before this plaintiff was injured, although by the exercise of due care and caution it could have stopped said locomotive before this plaintiff was injured; 328but negligently dragged this plaintiff as aforesaid, without fault or negligence on the part of this plaintiff, and negligently injured this plaintiff in his body, back, and limbs.” The injury for which compensation is sought in this paragraph was not sustained in the collision at the crossing, but was wholly inflicted after appellant knew that appellee was being dragged along the track in front of the engine. By the exercise of due care appellant could have stopped the engine before appellee was injured, but failed to do so. Appellee, after being struck and while being dragged along the track, was free from fault contributing to his injury. These allegations constitute a cause of action. Though the paragraph confesses, by not denying, that appellee was guilty of negligence in being upon the track, that negligence was only the remote condition, not the proximate cause, of the injury complained of; for the injury resulted, after the collision, entirely from occurrences in which it is alleged that appellant was negligent and appellee was not.

HOLMES v. MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY
Supreme Court, Missouri, November 27, 1907.
Reported in 207 Missouri Reports, 149.

Action by C. W. Holmes and wife to recover for the death of their child, F. G. Holmes. The child, eight years old, was struck and killed by a locomotive engine at the crossing of an avenue. Two points in conflict were, whether defendant was negligent, and whether the child was contributorily negligent.

The following instruction was given at plaintiff’s request: “(4) If the jury believe from the evidence that Freeborn G. Holmes was a boy of immature age, and had not the capacity of an adult, and that he exercised such care as ought reasonably to have been expected for one of his age and capacity, then he was not guilty of contributory negligence.”

To this instruction defendant excepted.

An instruction given at the request of defendant was, that, if the child failed to exercise such care and caution as an ordinarily prudent boy of his age and capacity should have exercised under the circumstances, and by reason thereof contributed to his own death, then your verdict must be for the defendant, regardless of all other facts in the case.

Verdict for plaintiff. Judgment for plaintiff in Circuit Court. Defendant appealed.^[216]

Valliant, J.... In the brief for defendant, pages 61 and 139, the idea is advanced that the only theory on which the plaintiffs’ judgment could be sustained would be that the defendant is liable for the consequences of the reckless conduct of the deceased child. That is a misconception of the theory on which the defendant’s liability rests. The defendant is liable only for its own negligence, and if its plea of contributory negligence is not sustained, still, it is not charged with the consequence of the child’s negligence; but it is only not excused thereby for the result of its own negligence. It is not always essential to a plaintiff’s recovery, in an action for tort, that the evidence should show that the accident was the result of the defendant’s negligence alone. A defendant 329may be liable if his negligence contributes with that of a third person to produce the injury complained of; in such case he is not held liable for the negligence of the third person, but only for his own negligence, without the contributing force of which the negligence of the third person would not have caused the injury. But the policy of the law is such that ordinarily a defendant guilty of negligence is relieved from the liability for his own conduct if the person injured was himself guilty of negligence that contributed to the result. On that theory the defendant’s act is none the less negligent, and he is none the less culpable, but the law will not allow a plaintiff to recover when he himself, or the person for whose injury he sues, was also guilty of negligence contributing with that of defendant to the result. There is reason and justice in that policy of the law; it is an admonition to every one to exercise due care for his own safety, and it authorizes another to presume that he will do so, and, so presuming, adjust his own conduct. But common experience tells us that a child may be too young and immature to observe the care necessary to his own preservation and therefore when a person comes in contact with such a child, if its youth and immaturity are obvious, he is chargeable with knowledge of that fact and he cannot indulge the presumption that the child will do what is necessary to avoid an impending danger. Therefore one seeing such a child in such a position is guilty of negligence if he does not take into account the fact that it is a child and regulate his own conduct accordingly.^[217] An act in relation to a person of mature years might be free from the imputation of negligence while an act of like character in view of a child would be blameworthy. Therefore when the law says to the defendant although the act of the deceased child contributed with your act to produce the result, yet, because of his youth and immaturity, he is not adjudged guilty of negligence, it does not charge the defendant with the consequence of the child’s conduct, but it only does not, for that reason, excuse him for its [his] own negligence.

If the defendant in such case had been guilty of no negligence there would have been no accident.

Gantt, C. J., and Burgess, Lamm, and Woodson, JJ., concur. Fox and Graves, JJ., dissent.

CULBERTSON v. CRESCENT CITY RAILROAD CO.
Supreme Court, Louisiana, April 6, 1896.
Reported in 48 Louisiana Annual Reports, Part 2, 1376.

Plaintiff sued for the killing of his son, 6 years and 11 months old, who was hit by a car at a street crossing.

In the District Court, there was a verdict for plaintiff, and judgment thereon. Defendant appealed.^[218]

Breaux, J. [After stating the claims of both parties, and reciting the testimony of plaintiff’s witnesses and of part of defendant’s witnesses.]

The motorman and the conductor substantially testify that everything was done to prevent the accident; that the boy darted in front of the car and, that the motorman quickly stopped the car.

330After as careful and close an analysis of the evidence as it was possible for us to make, we think that the weight of the testimony is with the defendant.

Plaintiff’s theory that the little boy was standing on the track, between the rails, and that the motorman ought to have seen him, is not sustained by the evidence of his own witnesses; they do not testify, with any degree of certainty, where he was just preceding the accident. The witnesses for the defendant agree in stating that he was not on the track, and that the accident was occasioned by the sudden act of the child.

Granted as contended by the plaintiff that the motorman did not see the child before he was knocked down by the fender: if the child had escaped his attention, because of his sudden and unanticipated act itself, it becomes evident that the defendant is not liable. Whether he was seen or was not seen by the motorman would not render the defendant responsible, if owing to thoughtless impulse of the child he brought about the accident by a sudden act which could not be foreseen or guarded against by the motorman or any one else in charge of the car.

This brings us to the question of contributory negligence. Courts are averse to finding children guilty of contributory negligence, and are readily and properly inclined to disregard the thoughtlessness natural to boyhood, but accidents may happen for which the unconscious agent may not be responsible.

The fact that a child may not be capable of contributory negligence does not always render a defendant liable upon the mere proof of the injury. The test is negligence vel non. If the defendant or the defendant’s agent or employee was not negligent, it is not liable.

The only alternative, after the conclusion reached, is to set aside the verdict.

The verdict and judgment are reversed, annulled and avoided.

The demand of plaintiff is rejected and his action dismissed at his cost in both courts.^[219]

HUTCHINSON v. ST. LOUIS & MERAMEC RIVER RAILROAD COMPANY
St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri, April 9, 1901.
Reported in 88 Missouri Appeal Reports, 376.

Appeal from St. Louis City Circuit Court.

Plaintiff (respondent) was injured while driving on the track of the street railroad at the crossing of two streets. The car collided with the rear of his wagon. Plaintiff testified that he had been driving for some three hundred yards with the left wheels of his wagon inside the north rail. Defendant’s (appellant’s) testimony tended to prove that plaintiff did not drive on the track until he had either reached or was near the crossing, and that he then turned and drove onto the track, 331when the motor car coming up from behind collided with the rear of his wagon.

What is undisputed is, that he did not look back to see if a car was coming before attempting to cross, nor, according to his own testimony, after he drove onto the track three hundred yards or more to the east. He drove very slowly. There was testimony tending to show the motorneer in charge of the car was watching a train on the railroad just south of Manchester avenue, which inattention prevented him from observing plaintiff’s perilous position until the car was within twenty or thirty feet of the wagon. He was required by a city ordinance, to be watching the track.

The evidence as to the warning of the car’s approach was conflicting.

The plaintiff was entitled to the use of the entire street, and, therefore, was not a trespasser, while the defendant was entitled to the right of way.

Failure to signal the car’s approach was omitted from the instructions. The only ground of recovery submitted to the jury was alleged negligence of the defendant’s motorneer in not using ordinary care to avoid injuring plaintiff after he knew, or by the proper care might have known, the latter was in a dangerous position. One instruction was given that plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence if he failed to look back at reasonable intervals to see if a car was coming and to get off the track if he saw one. This was practically telling them he was actually negligent, for he admitted he did not look back.

Goode, J. The general principle on which the case was referred to the jury, commonly styled the humane doctrine, is well supported by authorities. It is accepted in some form in most of the state and federal jurisdictions. So far as this court is concerned, the rule is no longer debatable. All uncertainty about it being a substantive part of the law of torts has been set at rest by recent deliberate pronouncements of the Supreme Court. The authority of the rule is not impugned by the learned counsel for the appellant, who only insist that it is inapplicable to the cause in hand on account of the plaintiff’s clear contributory negligence which continued to the moment of the collision. This contention requires a brief examination of some cases in which the doctrine has been applied. They divide into two classes and the disputation which has raged over it has been on the border line between the two. As enforced in one class, the rule has always 332seemed to the writer to be a phase of the doctrine of proximate cause, consistent with the theory of the entire law of negligence and without which the system would be incomplete. These instances are where the plaintiff’s negligent act was detached from the injury so that the defendant’s want of care was the sole active agency in inflicting it. When an accident happens under such circumstances, the plaintiff ought not to be refused a recovery because, though remiss, his fault does not contribute to the injury. Illustrations of this class of cases are numerous in the books, beginning with the one from which all the others proceeded. Davies v. Mann, 10 Mees. & W. 546, where the plaintiff had carelessly fettered his beast in the highway and the defendant’s servant drove over him. It is manifest that the original negligence of the owner was separated from the injury, which was proximately caused solely by the defendant’s tort. Another apt illustration is found in the Reardon case (114 Mo. 384), where the plaintiff carelessly went on the railway track and fell in endeavoring to get off when he saw a train coming. It was held that if the engineer failed to employ ordinary care to stop the train when he saw him prostrate, the company was liable. The same ruling has been made in actions where plaintiffs had fallen asleep on tracks or become fastened in cattle guards or switches or where the person hurt was a child or otherwise not of full legal capacity (Gabel v. Railway Co., 60 Mo. 475). The doctrine is exclusively met with, so far as our reading has shown, in controversies arising from injuries due to violent impacts and collisions. The above instances exemplify its use in such cases where properly expounded, it does not clash with the doctrine of contributory negligence, though some of the applications made have laid it open to that charge. The reconciliation and harmonious working of the two rules may be achieved by considering closely whether the defendant’s carelessness was alone the proximate cause of the injury. If only the defendant’s was the proximate cause, the plaintiff, while guilty of negligence, was not guilty of contributory negligence; his failure to use care did not proximately contribute to the mischief. Time elapsed between his wrongful act and the injury, during which the wrongful act of the defendant supervened or entered, as a separate agency, which, by its own independent action, wrought the unfortunate result. If, however, the plaintiff’s want of care continues to the instant of the accident, or so near the instant as to be immediately influential in producing it, he is as much to blame as the defendant, and if the latter is compelled to compensate him, the theory of the law of negligence is thus far abandoned. When it is deemed expedient to allow a recovery under such circumstances, it must be done as a measure of public policy. The rule then becomes, in fact, an exception to the law of contributory negligence, as was said in Kelly v. Railway Co., 101 Mo. 67. The real basis of it, as it obtains in many jurisdictions in respect to injuries by cars and locomotives when the injured individual was negligent to the very instant of the 333collision, is to be sought, on an ultimate analysis, in its supposed necessity for the public security. The guilt of the plaintiff is excused, while that of the defendant is punished. In such instances, its administration in cases of injuries by cars and engines is attended with serious difficulty, viz.: determining when the employees of the railway company may be justly said to have had notice that the injured party was in a position of danger. Persons frequently remain on railway tracks when a car or train is approaching, until it would be impossible to stop it in time to avoid striking them, but easily get off themselves in time. Accustomed to take care of their safety where cars are constantly moving, they grow dexterous in avoiding them and run risks. Engineers and motormen have a right to presume an individual travelling on the track will leave it, and to act on that presumption until his situation becomes alarming. Riley v. Railway Company, 68 Mo. App. 661. Just when this happens must often be largely conjectural, which circumstance weighs heavily with many against the rule in question.

The doctrine in its wider scope prevails in this State. The plaintiff may recover, notwithstanding his negligence directly contributed to his hurt, if the defendant by ordinary care could have prevented the accident. In the Morgan case (60 S. W. Rep. 195), where a recovery was sustained, this language is spoken: “There can be no doubt, under the evidence, that the death of the plaintiff’s husband resulted from the negligence of the defendant’s servants in charge of the train, and the negligence of the deceased himself contributing thereto.” Similar expositions have been made in many other cases. Schmidt v. R’y Co., 50 S. W. 921; Klockenbrink v. Railway Co., 81 Mo. App. 351; Cooney v. Railway Co., 80 Mo. App. 226. They seem in conflict with the opinion in Hogan v. R’y Co., 150 Mo. 36. We must follow the latest controlling decision. The Morgan case was decided in banc.

In view of the strong utterances to be found in the foregoing authorities, it is useless to descant on the wisdom or fallacy of the rule, to explore its foundation, extol its justice, or regret its hardship. Our unmistakable duty is to enforce it as we would any other part of the law. The present case differs in no material respect, calling for its application, from the Morgan or Cooney cases, supra, which become therefore controlling precedents. The Morgan case is stronger because there the engineer did not see the deceased, who was flagrantly careless, to the time the engine struck him; here the motorman did not see the plaintiff. The court below did not err in refusing an instruction to find the issue for the defendant, but rightly submitted them. This practically disposes of the case.

Worden, J. Action by the appellee against the appellant for assault and battery. The complaint consisted of three paragraphs, a demurrer to each of which, for want of sufficient facts, was overruled. The first, the only one to which any specific objection is made in this Court, alleged that the defendant, on, &c., “violently and unlawfully assaulted the plaintiff, and struck him, and also threw him, the plaintiff, from the house of the defendant on to the street pavement, in front of the defendant’s house, with great violence, fracturing,” &c.

The defendant answered:—

First. [That there was a justifiable occasion for his use of force, and that he used no more force than was necessary.]

Second. General denial.

The plaintiff replied by general denial to the first paragraph of the answer. Trial by jury, verdict and judgment for the plaintiff for $500.

The counsel for the appellant in their brief say: “We shall not stop now to discuss the merits of the complaint further than to say that the first paragraph of the complaint shows an eviction from the defendant’s premises, and we have thought that the paragraph should aver 335that the injury occurred without the fault of the plaintiff.” The paragraph does not charge an injury to the plaintiff arising out of the negligence of the defendant, but an unlawful assault upon, and battery of, the plaintiff’s person. In such cases it is not necessary to allege that the plaintiff was without fault, or, in other words, was not guilty of contributory negligence. There remains nothing more to be considered except such questions as arise on a motion for a new trial.

[Omitting part of opinion.]

The defendant asked that the following interrogatory be answered by the jury, if they should return a general verdict, viz.: “Did the fault or negligence of the plaintiff contribute in any way to the injury of the plaintiff, received on the evening of the 3d of March, 1876?” The Court declined to direct the jury to answer the interrogatory, and in this we think no error was committed.

The right of the plaintiff to recover depended not upon any negligence of the defendant, but upon the assault and battery, which, if perpetrated at all by the defendant, was intentional and purposed. It may be that the defendant did not intend to inflict so severe an injury upon the plaintiff as seemed to result from the excess of force applied by him; but it does not therefore follow that he did not intend to apply that force.

The doctrine that contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff will defeat his action has been generally applied in actions based on the negligence of the defendant, in short, in cases involving mutual negligence. But it has also been applied in some cases where the matter complained of was not negligence merely, but the commission of some act in itself unlawful, without reference to the manner of committing 336it, as the wilful and unauthorized obstruction of a highway, whereby a person is injured. Butterfield v. Forrester, 11 East, 60; Dygert v. Schenck, 23 Wend. 446.

The doctrine, however, can have no application to the case of an intentional and unlawful assault and battery, for the reason that the person thus assaulted is under no obligation to exercise any care to avoid the same by retreating or otherwise, and for the further reason that his want of care can in no just sense be said to contribute to the injury inflicted upon him by such assault and battery.

An intentional and unlawful assault and battery inflicted upon a person is an invasion of his right of personal security, for which the law gives him redress, and of this redress he cannot be deprived on the ground that he was negligent and took no care to avoid such invasion of his right.

The trespass was purposely committed by the defendant. If he could excuse it on the ground of the alleged misconduct of the plaintiff, and if he employed no more force than was necessary and reasonable, that was a complete defence. Otherwise the plaintiff, if he made out the trespass, was entitled to recover, and no negligence on his part, as before observed, could defeat his action. The case of Ruter v. Foy, 46 Iowa, 132, is in point. There the plaintiff alleged that the defendant had assaulted and beat her with a pitchfork. On the trial the defendant asked, but the Court refused, the following instruction: “If you find from the evidence that the plaintiff was injured, or contributed to her injury, by her own act or negligence, defendant would not be liable for assault and battery upon her, and plaintiff cannot recover.” On appeal the Court said upon this point: “The doctrine of contributory negligence has no application in an action for assault and battery.”

The case here is entirely unlike that of Brown v. Kendall, 6 Cush. 292. There the defendant’s dog and another were fighting. The defendant was beating the dogs with a stick in order to separate them, in doing which he accidentally hit the plaintiff in the eye with the stick. It was held that trespass vi et armis was the proper form of action, because the injury to the plaintiff was immediate; but that as the parting of the dogs was a proper and lawful act, and as the hitting of the plaintiff was not intentional, but a mere accident or casualty, the plaintiff could not recover at all without showing a want of ordinary care on the part of the defendant; and then that contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff would defeat the action.

Although, according to the common-law system of pleading, trespass vi et armis was the proper form of action in such case, the essential and only ground on which the action could rest was the negligence of the defendant in doing an act lawful in itself whereby the plaintiff was injured, and this is so as fully as if the plaintiff had framed his declaration in case for the negligence.

337The difference between that case and the present is substantial and vital. In that case the battery was unintentional, and the defendant therein was guilty of no wrong save his negligence. Here the defendant intentionally perpetrated the battery, and the plaintiff’s right to recover was not based upon the negligence of the defendant at all.

[Omitting part of opinion.]

We find no error in the record.

The judgment below is affirmed with costs.

Petition for a rehearing overruled.

AIKEN v. HOLYOKE STREET RAILWAY CO.
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, October 21, 1903.
Reported in 184 Massachusetts Reports, 269.

Tort by an infant against a street railway company for personal injuries. Writ dated July 6, 1898.

At a previous stage of this case, reported in 180 Mass. 8, the plaintiff’s exceptions were sustained by this court after a verdict had been ordered in the Superior Court for the defendant. At the new trial in the Superior Court before Lawton, J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $5000. The defendant alleged exceptions, raising the questions stated by the court.

Knowlton, C. J. The most important question in this case grows out of the instructions to the jury upon the third count. This count charges the defendant, by its servants, with having started up the car recklessly, wantonly and with gross disregard of the plaintiff’s safety, while he was in a place of great peril upon the step of the car, and with having thrown him upon the ground and under the wheels of the car. There was evidence tending to show that the plaintiff, a boy six and one half years of age, ran near or against the car, and was upon the lower step at the forward end as the car was going around a curve from one street into another, and was clinging to the step trying to get into a stable position, and that he there cried out to the motorman, “Let me off”; that the motorman saw and heard him and knew that he was in a place of danger, and that he then turned on the power in a wanton and reckless way, with a view to start the car quickly, and that the plaintiff was thus thrown off and injured. This testimony was contradicted, but it was proper for the consideration of the jury. The judge instructed the jury that if they found the facts to be in accordance with this contention of the plaintiff, they would be warranted in finding that the conduct of the motorman was wanton and reckless, and in returning a verdict for the plaintiff. He also instructed them that to maintain the action on this ground, it must be proved that the 338motorman wilfully and intentionally turned on the power, with a view to making the car start forward rapidly and go at full speed quickly, but that it was not necessary to prove that he did this with the intention of throwing the boy off and injuring him. He also told them that to warrant a recovery upon this state of facts, the plaintiff need not show that he was in the exercise of due care. The defendant excepted to that part of the instruction which relates to due care on the part of the plaintiff.

The defendant contends that while it was not necessary for the plaintiff to show due care anterior to the act of the motorman, he was bound to show due care which was concurrent with this act and immediately subsequent to it. This brings us to a consideration of the rules and principles applicable to this kind of liability. It is familiar law that in the absence of a statutory provision, mere negligence, whatever its degree, if it does not include culpability different in kind from that of ordinary negligence, does not create a liability in favor of one injured by it, if his own negligence contributes to his injury. It is equally true that one who wilfully and wantonly, in reckless disregard of the rights of others, by a positive act or careless omission exposes another to death or grave bodily injury, is liable for the consequences, even if the other was guilty of negligence or other fault in connection with the causes which led to the injury. The difference in rules applicable to the two classes of cases results from the difference in the nature of the conduct of the wrong-doers in the two kinds of cases. In the first case the wrong-doer is guilty of nothing worse than carelessness. In the last he is guilty of a wilful, intentional wrong. His conduct is criminal or quasi criminal. If it results in the death of the injured person, he is guilty of manslaughter. Commonwealth v. Pierce, 138 Mass. 165; Commonwealth v. Hartwell, 128 Mass. 415. The law is regardful of human life and personal safety, and if one is grossly and wantonly reckless in exposing others to danger, it holds him to have intended the natural consequences of his act, and treats him as guilty of a wilful and intentional wrong. It is no defence to a charge of manslaughter for the defendant to show that, while grossly reckless, he did not actually intend to cause the death of his victim. In these cases of personal injury there is a constructive intention as to the consequences, which, entering into the wilful, intentional act, the law imputes to the offender, and in this way a charge which otherwise would be mere negligence, becomes, by reason of a reckless disregard of probable consequences, a wilful wrong. That this constructive intention to do an injury in such cases will be imputed in the absence of an actual intent to harm a particular person, is recognized as an elementary principle in criminal law. It is also recognized in civil actions for recklessly and wantonly injuring others by carelessness. Palmer v. Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh Railroad, 112 Ind. 250; Shumacher v. St. Louis & San Francisco 339Railroad, 39 Fed. Rep. 174; Brannen v. Kokomo, Greentown & Jerome Gravel Road Co., 115 Ind. 115. In an action to recover damages for an assault and battery, it would be illogical and absurd to allow as a defence, proof that the plaintiff did not use proper care to avert the blow. See Sanford v. Eighth Avenue Railroad, 23 N. Y. 343, 346. It would be hardly less so to allow a similar defence where a different kind of injury was wantonly and recklessly inflicted. A reason for the rule is the fact that if a wilful, intentional wrong is shown to be the direct and proximate cause of an injury, it is hardly conceivable that any lack of care on the part of the injured person could so concur with the wrong as also to be a direct and proximate contributing cause to the injury. It might be a condition without which the injury could not be inflicted. See Newcomb v. Boston Protective Department, 146 Mass. 596. It might be a remote cause, but it hardly could be a cause acting directly and proximately with the intentional wrongful act of the offender. Judson v. Great Northern Railway, 63 Minn. 248, 255. The offence supposed is different in kind from the plaintiff’s lack of ordinary care. It is criminal or quasi criminal. Not only is it difficult to conceive of a plaintiff’s negligence as being another direct and proximate cause foreign to the first, yet acting directly with it, but it would be unjust to allow one to relieve himself from the direct consequences of a wilful wrong by showing that a mere lack of due care in another contributed to the result. The reasons for the rule as to the plaintiff’s care in actions for ordinary negligence are wanting, and at the same time the facts make the rule impossible of application. The general rule that the plaintiff’s failure to exercise ordinary care for his safety, is not a good defence to an action for wanton and wilful injury caused by a reckless omission of duty, has been recognized in many decisions, as well as by writers of text-books. Aiken v. Holyoke Street Railway, 180 Mass. 8, 14, 15; Wallace v. Merrimack River Navigation & Express Co., 134 Mass. 95; Banks v. Highland Street Railway, 136 Mass. 485, 486; Palmer v. Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh Railroad, 112 Ind. 250; Brannen v. Kokomo, Greentown & Jerome Gravel Road Co., 115 Ind. 115; Florida Southern Railway v. Hirst, 30 Fla. 1; Shumacher v. St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, 39 Fed. Rep. 174; 7 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law (2d ed.) 443 and note; Beach, Contr. Neg. (3d ed.) §§ 46, 50, 64, 65; Wood, Railroads (2d ed.), 1452; Elliott, Railroads, § 1175; Thompson, Neg. § 206; Cooley, Torts (2d ed.), 810. We have been referred to no case in which it is held that it makes any difference whether the plaintiff’s lack of ordinary care is only previous to the defendant’s wrong and continuing to the time of it, or whether there is such a lack after the wrong begins to take effect. It is difficult to see how there can be any difference in principle between the two cases. In this Commonwealth, as in most other jurisdictions, liability does not depend upon which of different causes contributing to an injury 340is latest in the time of its origin, but upon which is the direct, active, efficient cause, as distinguished from a remote cause, in producing the result.

There are expressions in some of the cases which imply the possibility of contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff in a case of wanton and reckless injury by a defendant. If there is a conceivable case in which a plaintiff’s want of due care may directly and proximately contribute as a cause of an injury inflicted directly and proximately by the wilful wrong of another, such a want of care must be something different from the mere want of ordinary care to avoid an injury coming in a usual way. There is nothing to indicate the existence of peculiar conditions of this kind in the present case. Conduct of a plaintiff which would be negligence precluding recovery if the injury were caused by ordinary negligence of a defendant, will not commonly preclude recovery if the injury is inflicted wilfully through wanton carelessness. This is illustrated by the former decision in this case and by many others. Aiken v. Holyoke Street Railway, 180 Mass. 8; McKeon v. New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad, 183 Mass. 271. As to this kind of liability of the defendant, it was certainly proper to instruct the jury that, in reference to ordinary kinds of care to avoid an injury from a car, the plaintiff need not show that he was in the exercise of due care if a lack of such care would have no tendency to cause the wilful and wanton injury. The fair interpretation of the instruction given is, that it referred to ordinary kinds of care to avoid an injury from an electric car. On this branch of the case there seems to have been no reason for an instruction in regard to any special care, and probably neither counsel nor the court had any care in mind except that, in reference to which, in any view of the law, the instruction was properly given. We are of opinion that the ruling excepted to was correct.

[Omitting opinion on other points.]

BANKS v. BRAMAN
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, June 20, 1905.
Reported in 188 Massachusetts Reports, 367.

Tort, for injuries from being struck by an automobile driven by the defendant on Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge near its intersection with Belmont Street shortly after eight o’clock on the evening of May 17, 1903. Writ dated November 18, 1903.

341At the trial in the Superior Court before Aiken, C. J., the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff in the sum of $3750; and the defendant alleged exceptions, raising the questions stated by the court.

Knowlton, C. J. This is an action to recover for injuries received from being struck by an automobile alleged to have been negligently run at an excessive rate of speed, and negligently managed by the defendant. The case was submitted to the jury on two alleged grounds of liability: one, that the defendant, with gross negligence, wantonly and recklessly injured the plaintiff, and the other that the plaintiff was in the exercise of due care, and that the injury was due to the defendant’s negligence. On the first claim the judge instructed the jury as follows: “Gross negligence is great negligence. To make out the proposition of gross negligence, you must be satisfied that the way the machine was operated by Braman was reckless, was careless to the degree of recklessness; that it was run with a reckless disregard to the rights of Banks in this street. If that is established, namely, that there was a reckless disregard of the rights of Banks in the way this machine was run, then Banks is not required to show that he was himself in the exercise of due care. If the way—I repeat this for the purpose of plainness perhaps unnecessarily—if the manner in which the machine—the automobile, I mean by the machine—was run on the occasion of this accident was such that it was grossly negligent, that is, careless to such a degree that you can say it was reckless, using your common sense and judgment, and applying them to the evidence, then Banks is not required to show that he was in the exercise of due care; because if the defendant’s carelessness was gross in the sense that has been defined to you, there is an obligation to pay damages independent of the matter of due care.” The defendant excepted to this instruction. The jury were instructed as to the liability for a failure to exercise ordinary care, but there was no fuller statement of the law on this branch of the case.

The question is whether the difference between the two kinds of liability was sufficiently pointed out to give the jury an adequate understanding of it. The difference in culpability of the defendant, which distinguishes these different kinds of liability, is something more than a mere difference in the degree of inadvertence. In one case there need be nothing more than a lack of ordinary care, which causes an injury to another. In the other case there is wilful, intentional conduct whose tendency to injure is known, or ought to be known, accompanied by a wanton and reckless disregard of the probable harmful consequences from which others are likely to suffer, so that the whole conduct together, is of the nature of a wilful, intentional wrong.

[Here the learned judge quoted at length from Aiken v. Holyoke Street Railway, 184 Mass. 269, 271.]

In dealing with the same subject in Bjornquist v. Boston & Albany Railroad, 185 Mass. 130, 134, the court said: “The conduct which 342creates a liability to a trespasser in cases of this kind has been referred to in the books in a variety of ways. Sometimes it has been called gross negligence and sometimes wilful negligence. Plainly it is something more than is necessary to constitute the gross negligence referred to in our statutes and in decisions of this court. The term ‘wilful negligence’ is not a strictly accurate description of the wrong. But wanton and reckless negligence in this class of cases includes something more than ordinary inadvertence. In its essence it is like a wilful, intentional wrong. It is illustrated by an act which otherwise might be unobjectionable, but which is liable or likely to do great harm, and which is done in a wanton and reckless disregard of the probable injurious consequences.” The ground on which it is held that, when an act of the defendant shows an injury inflicted in this way, the plaintiff need introduce no affirmative evidence of due care, is that such a wrong is a cause so independent of previous conduct of the plaintiff, which, in a general sense, may fall short of due care, that this previous conduct cannot be considered a directly contributing cause of the injury, and, in reference to such an injury, the plaintiff, without introducing evidence, is assumed to be in a position to claim his rights and to have compensation. So far as the cause of his injury is concerned, he is in the position of one who exercises due care. Aiken v. Holyoke Street Railway, ubi supra.

It is not easy to explain to a jury the nature of this liability. What was said by the judge in this case comes very near to a correct statement of the law. But it lacks something in fulness, and we think the jury may have understood that negligence somewhat greater in degree than a mere lack of ordinary care or a simple inadvertence, but not different from it in kind, would constitute the gross negligence referred to. We are of opinion that when there is an attempt to establish this peculiar kind of liability, which exists independently of a general exercise of due care by the plaintiff, the jury should be instructed with such fulness as to enable them to know that they are dealing with a wrong materially different in kind from ordinary negligence. Because we think the instruction may have left the jury with a misunderstanding of the law, the exceptions are sustained.

We are of opinion that there was evidence which justified the submission of the case to the jury on this ground, as well as on the ground that the plaintiff was in the exercise of due care.

McClellan, J.^[224] ... Many of the rulings of the trial court in defining the gross negligence, recklessness or wantonness on the part of the defendant, which will authorize recovery, notwithstanding plaintiff’s contributory negligence, are presented for review. The fault in the court’s definitions in this regard lies, in our opinion, in the assumption that recklessness or wantonness implying wilful and intentional wrong-doing may be predicated of a mere omission of duty, under circumstances which do not, of themselves, impute to the person so failing to discharge the duty a sense of the probable consequences of the omission. The charges given by the court in this connection, and its rulings on charges requested by the defendant, proceed on the theory that a mere failure on the part of defendant’s employees to see plaintiff’s wagon and 344team as soon as they might have seen them by the exercise of due care was such recklessness or wantonness as implies a willingness or a purpose on their part to inflict the injury complained of. We do not think this proposition can be maintained either logically or upon the authorities. The failure to keep a lookout, which it was the duty of defendant’s employees to maintain, and which would have sooner disclosed the peril of the driver and plaintiff’s wagon and team—even conceding that such would have been the case—was, at the most, mere negligence, inattention, inadvertence; and it cannot be conceived, in the nature of things, how a purpose to accomplish a given result can be imputed to mental conditions, the very essence of which is the absence of all thought on the particular subject. To say that one intends a result which springs solely from his mind not addressing itself to the factors which conduce to it, to imply a purpose to do a thing from inadvertence in respect of it, are contradictions in terms. Wilful and intentional wrong, a willingness to inflict injury, cannot be imputed to one who is without consciousness, from whatever cause, that his conduct will inevitably or probably lead to wrong and injury. In the case at bar, this consciousness could not exist on the part of defendant’s employees until they knew plaintiff’s wagon and team were in a position of danger; and no degree of ignorance on their part of this state of things, however reprehensible in itself, could supply this element of conscious wrong, or reckless indifference to consequences, which, from their point of view, would probably or necessarily ensue.

The true doctrine, and that supported by many decisions of this court, as well as the great weight of authority in other jurisdictions, is that notwithstanding plaintiff’s contributory negligence he may yet recover, if, in a case like this, the defendant’s employees discover the perilous situation in time to prevent disaster by the exercise of due care and diligence, and fail, after the peril of plaintiff’s property becomes known to them as a fact—and not merely after they should have known it—to resort to all reasonable effort to avoid the injury. Such failure, with such knowledge of the situation and the probable consequences of the omission to act upon the dictates of prudence and diligence to the end of neutralizing plaintiff’s fault and averting disaster, notwithstanding 345his lack of care, is, strictly speaking, not negligence at all, though the term “gross negligence” has been so frequently used as defining it that it is perhaps too late, if otherwise desirable, to eradicate what is said to be an unscientific definition, if not indeed a misnomer; but it is more than any degree of negligence, inattention or inadvertence—which can never mean other than the omission of action without intent, existing or imputed, to commit wrong—it is that recklessness, or wantonness, or worse, which implies a willingness to inflict the impending injury, or a wilfulness in pursuing a course of conduct which will naturally or probably result in disaster, or an intent to perpetrate wrong. The theory of contributory negligence, as a defence, is that, conjointly with negligence on the part of the defendant, it conduces to the damnifying result, and defeats any action, the gravamen of which is such negligence. If defendant’s conduct is not merely negligent, but worse, there is nothing for plaintiff’s want of care to contribute to—there is no lack of mere prudence and diligence of like kind on the part of defendant to conjunctively constitute the efficient cause. Mere negligence on the one hand cannot be said to aid wilfulness on the other. And hence such negligence of a plaintiff is no defence against the consequences of the wilfulness of the defendant. But nothing short of the elements of actual knowledge of the situation on the part of defendant’s employees, and their omission of preventive effort after that knowledge is brought home to them, when there is reasonable prospect that such effort will avail, will suffice to avoid the defence of contributory negligence on the part of, or imputable to, the plaintiff.

KELLOGG v. CHICAGO AND NORTHWESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY
Supreme Court, Wisconsin, June Term, 1870.
Reported in 26 Wisconsin Reports, 223.

Action to recover damages for destruction of hay, sheds, stables, &c., by a fire alleged to have originated in the negligence of the railway company. Fire was communicated by sparks from railroad engine to dry grass, weeds, &c., which had been allowed to accumulate on defendant’s land, on both sides of the track; and thence the fire passed upon plaintiff’s land where dry grass and weeds had also been permitted to accumulate. A strong wind was blowing from the track toward plaintiff’s buildings, about one hundred and forty rods distant. The dry and combustible matter on the railroad land and on plaintiff’s land, together with the wind, served to carry the fire to plaintiff’s building, &c., which were destroyed.

Trial; verdict and judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appealed.^[225]

Dixon, C. J. All the authorities agree that the presence of dry grass and other inflammable material upon the way of a railroad, suffered to remain there by the company without cause, is a fact from 346which the jury may find negligence against the company. The cases in Illinois, cited and relied upon by counsel for the defendant, hold this. They hold that it is proper evidence for the jury, who may find negligence from it, although it is not negligence per se. Railroad Co. v. Shanefelt, 47 Ill. 497; Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Nunn, 51 id. 78; Railroad Co. v. Mills, 42 id. 407; Bass v. Railroad Co., 28 id. 9. The Court below ruled in the same way, and left it for the jury to say whether the suffering of the combustible material to accumulate upon the right of way and sides of the track, or the failure to remove the same, if the jury so found, was or was not, under the circumstances, negligence on the part of the company. No fault can be found with the instructions in this respect; and the next question is as to the charge of the Court, and its refusal to charge, respecting the alleged negligence of the plaintiff contributing, as it is said, to the loss or damage complained of. This is the leading and most important question in the case. It is a question upon which there is some conflict of authority.

The facts were, that the plaintiff had permitted the weeds, grass, and stubble, to remain upon his own land immediately adjoining the railway of the defendant. They were dry and combustible, the same as the weeds and grass upon the right of way, though less in quantity, because within the right of way no mowing had ever been done, and the growth was more luxuriant and heavy. The plaintiff had not cut and removed the grass and weeds from his own land, nor ploughed in or removed the stubble, so as to prevent the spread of fire in case the same should be communicated to the dry grass and weeds upon the railroad, from the engines operated by the defendant. The grass, weeds, and stubble, upon the plaintiff’s land, together with the wind, which was blowing pretty strongly in that direction, served to carry the fire to the stacks, buildings, and other property of the plaintiff, which were destroyed by it, and which were situated some distance from the railroad. The fire originated within the line of the railroad, and near the track, upon the land of the defendant. It was communicated to the dry grass and other combustible material there, by coals of fire dropped from an engine of the defendant passing over the road. The evidence tends very clearly to establish these facts, and under the instructions the jury must have so found. The plaintiff is a farmer, and, in the particulars here in controversy, conducted his farming operations the same as other farmers throughout the country. It is not the custom anywhere for farmers to remove the grass or weeds from their waste lands, or to plough in or remove their stubble, in order to prevent the spread of the fire originating from such causes.

Upon this question, as upon the others, the Court charged the jury that it was for them to say whether the plaintiff was guilty of negligence, and, if they found he was, that then he could not recover. On 347the other hand, the defendant asked an instruction to the effect that it was negligence per se for the plaintiff to leave the grass, weeds, and stubble upon his own land, exposed to the fire which might be communicated to them from the burning grass and weeds on the defendant’s right of way, and that for this reason there could be no recovery on the part of the plaintiff. The Court refused to give the instruction, and, I think, rightly. The charge upon this point, as well as upon the other, was quite as favorable to the defendant as the law will permit, and even more so than some of the authorities will justify. The authorities upon this point are, as I have said, somewhat in conflict. The two cases first above cited from Illinois hold that it is negligence on the part of the adjoining landowner not to remove the dry grass and combustible material from his own land under such circumstances, and that he cannot recover damages where the loss is by fire thus communicated. Those decisions were by a divided Court, by two only of the three judges composing it. They rest upon no satisfactory grounds, whilst the reasons found in the opinions of the dissenting judge are very strong to the contrary. Opposed to these are the unanimous decisions of the courts of New York, and of the English Court of Exchequer, upon the identical point. Cook v. Champlain Transportation Co., 1 Denio, 91; Vaughan v. Taff Vale Railway Co., 3 Hurl. and Nor. 743; Same v. Same, 5 id. 679. These decisions, though made many years before the Illinois cases arose, are not referred to in them. The last was the same case on appeal in the Exchequer Chamber, where, although the judgment was reversed, it was upon another point. This one was not questioned, but was affirmed, as will be seen from the opinions of the judges, particularly of Cockburn, C. J., and Willes, J. The reasoning of those cases is, in my judgment, unanswerable. I do not see that I can add anything to it. They show that the doctrine of contributory negligence is wholly inapplicable,—that no man is to be charged with negligence because he uses his own property or conducts his own affairs as other people do theirs, or because he does not change or abandon such use, and modify the management of his affairs, so as to accommodate himself to the negligent habits or gross misconduct of others, and in order that such others may escape the consequences of their own wrong, and continue in the practice of such negligence or misconduct. In other words, they show that no man is to be deprived of the free, ordinary, and proper use of his own property by reason of the negligent use which his neighbor may make of his. He is not his neighbor’s guardian or keeper, and not to answer for his neglect. The case put by the Court of New York, of the owner of a lot who builds upon it in close proximity to the shop of a smith, is an apt illustration. Or let us suppose that A. and B. are proprietors of adjoining lands. A. has a dwelling-house, barns, and other buildings upon his, and cultivates some portion of it. B. has a planing mill, or other similar manufacturing 348establishment upon his, near the line of A., operated by steam. B. is a careless man, habitually so, and suffers shavings and other inflammable material to accumulate about his mills and up to the line of A., and so near to the fire in the mill that the same is liable at any time to be ignited. A. knows this, and remonstrates with B., but B. persists. Upon A.’s land, immediately adjoining the premises of B., it is unavoidable, in the ordinary course of husbandry, or of A.’s use of the land, that there should be at certain seasons of the year, unless A. removes them, dry grass and stubble, which, when set fire to, will endanger his dwelling-house and other property of a combustible nature, especially with the wind blowing in a particular direction at the time. It may be a very considerable annual expense and trouble to A. to remove them. It may require considerable time and labor, a useless expenditure to him, diverting his attention from other affairs and duties. The constant watching to guard against the carelessness and negligence of B. is a great tax upon his time and patience. The question is: Does the law require this of him, lest, in some unguarded moment, the fire should break out, his property be destroyed, and he be remediless? If the law does so require, if it imposes on him the duty of guarding against B.’s negligence, and of seeing that no injury shall come from it, or, if it does come, that it shall be his fault and not B.’s, it is important to know upon what principle it is that the burden is thus shifted from B. to himself. I know of no such principle, and doubt whether any Court could be found deliberately to announce or affirm it. And yet such is the result of holding the doctrine of contributory negligence applicable to such a case. A. is compelled, all his lifetime, at much expense and trouble, to watch and guard against the negligence of B., and to prevent any injuries arising from it, and for what? Simply that B. may continue to indulge in such negligence at his pleasure. And he does so with impunity. The law affords no redress against him. If the property is destroyed, it is because of the combustible material on A.’s land, which carries the fire, and which is A.’s fault, and A. is the loser. No loss can ever possibly overtake him. A. is responsible for the negligence, but not he himself. He kindles the fire, and A. stands guard over it. He sets the dangerous element in motion, and uses and operates it for his own benefit and advantage, negligently as he pleases, whilst A., with sleepless vigilance, sees to it that no damage is done, or if there is, that he will be the sufferer. This is the reductio ad absurdum of applying the doctrine of contributory negligence in such a case. And it is absurd, I care not by what Court or where applied.

Now the case of a railroad company is like the case of an individual. Both stand on the same footing with respect to their rights and liabilities. Both are engaged in the pursuit of a lawful business, and are alike liable for damage or injury caused by their negligence in the prosecution of it. Fire is an agent of an exceedingly dangerous and 349unruly kind, and, though applied to a lawful purpose, the law requires the utmost care in the use of all reasonable and proper means to prevent damage to the property of third persons. This obligation of care, the want of which constitutes negligence according to the circumstances, is imposed upon the party who uses the fire, and not upon those persons whose property is exposed to danger by reason of the negligence of such party. Third persons are merely passive, and have the right to remain so, using and enjoying their own property as they will, so far as responsibility for the negligence of the party setting the unruly and destructive agent in motion is concerned. If he is negligent, and damage ensues, it is his fault and cannot be theirs, unless they contribute to it by some unlawful or improper act. But the use of their own property as best suits their own convenience and purposes, or as other people use theirs, is not unlawful or improper. It is perfectly lawful and proper, and no blame can attach to them. He cannot, by his negligence, deprive them of such use, or say to them, “Do this or that with your property, or I will destroy it by the negligent and improper use of my fire.” The fault, therefore, in both a legal and moral point of view, is with him, and it would be something strange should the law visit all the consequences of it upon them. The law does not do so, and it is an utter perversion of the maxim sic utere tuo, etc., thus to apply it to the persons whose property is so destroyed by the negligence of another. It is changing it from “So use your own as not to injure another’s property,” to “So use your own that another shall not injure your property,” by his carelessness and negligence. It would be a very great burden to lay upon all the farmers and proprietors of lands along our extensive lines of railway, were it to be held that they are bound to guard against the negligence of the companies in this way,—that the law imposes this duty upon them. Always burdensome and difficult, it would, in numerous instances, be attended with great expense and trouble. Changes would have to be made in the mode of use and occupation, and sometimes the use abandoned, or at least all profitable use. Houses and buildings would have to be removed, and valuable timber cut down and destroyed. These are, in general, very combustible, especially at particular seasons of the year. The presence of these along or near the line of the railroad would be negligence in the farmer or proprietor. In the event of their destruction by the negligence of the company, he would be remediless. He must remove them, therefore, for his own safety. His only security consists in that. He must remove everything combustible from his own land in order that the company may leave all things combustible on its land and exposed without fear of loss or danger to the company to being ignited at any moment by the fires from its own engines. If this duty is imposed upon the farmers and other proprietors of adjoining lands, why not require them to go at once to the railroad and remove the dry grass 350and other inflammable material there? There is the origin of the mischief, and there the place to provide securities against it. It is vastly easier, by a few slight measures and a little precaution, to prevent the conflagration in the first place than to stay its ravages when it has once begun, particularly if the wind be blowing at the time, as it generally is upon our open prairies. With comparatively little trouble and expense upon the road itself, a little labor bestowed for that purpose, the mischief might be remedied. And this is an additional reason why the burden ought not to be shifted from the company upon the proprietor of the adjoining land; although, if it were otherwise, it certainly would not change what ought to be the clear rule of law upon the subject.

And the following cases will be found in strict harmony with those above cited, and strongly to sustain the principles there laid down, and for which I contend: Martin v. Western Union Railroad Co., 23 Wis. 437; Piggott v. Eastern Counties R. R. Co., 54 E. C. L. 228; Smith v. London and Southwestern R. R. Co., Law Reports, 5 C. P. 98; Vaughan v. Menlove, 7 C. & P. 525 [32 E. C. L. 613]; Hewey v. Nourse, 54 Me. 256; Turberville v. Stampe, 1 Ld. Raym. 264; S. C. 1 Salk. 13; Pantam v. Isham, id. 19; Field v. N. Y. C. R. R., 32 N. Y. 339; Bachelder v. Heagan, 18 Maine, 32; Barnard v. Poor, 21 Pick. 378; Fero v. Buffalo and State Line R. R. Co., 22 N. Y. 209; Fremantle v. The London and Northwestern R. R. Co., 100 E. C. L. 88; Hart v. Western Railroad Co., 13 Met. 99; Ingersoll v. Stockbridge & Pittsfield R. R. Co., 8 Allen, 438; Perley v. Eastern Railroad Co., 98 Mass. 414; Hooksett v. Concord Railroad, 38 N. H. 242; McCready v. Railroad Co., 2 Strobh. Law R. 356; Cleveland v. Grand Trunk Railway Co., 42 Vt. 449; 1 Bl. Comm. 131; Com. Dig. Action for Negligence (A. 6).

It is true that some of these cases arose under statutes creating a liability on the part of railroad companies, but that does not affect the principle. Negligence in the plaintiff, contributing to the loss, is a defence to an action under the statutes, the same as to an action at common law. 8 Allen, 440; 6 id. 87.

Cole, J., concurred.

Paine, J., delivered a dissenting opinion.

Defendants moved for a rehearing.

Dixon, C. J. (Sept. 21, 1871.)...

The learned counsel ... argue that, if logically carried out, the doctrine would utterly abrogate the rule that a party cannot recover damages where, by the exercise of ordinary care, he could have avoided the injury; and so, in the present case, after discovering the fire, the plaintiff might have leaned on his plough-handles and watched its progress, without effort to stay it, where such effort would have been effectual, and yet have been free from culpable negligence. The distinction 351is between a known, present, or immediate danger, arising from the negligence of another,—that which is imminent and certain, unless the party does or omits to do some act by which it may be avoided,—and a danger arising in like manner, but which is remote and possible or probable only, or contingent and uncertain, depending on the course of future events, such as the future conduct of the negligent party, and other as yet unknown and fortuitous circumstances. The difference is that between realization and anticipation. A man in his senses, in face of what has been aptly termed a “seen danger” (Shearman and Redfield, § 34, note 1), that is, one which presently threatens and is known to him, is bound to realize it, and to use all proper care and make all reasonable efforts to avoid it, and if he does not, it is his own fault; and he having thus contributed to his own loss or injury, no damage can be recovered from the other party, however negligent the latter may have been. But, in case of a danger of the other kind, one which is not “seen,” but exists in anticipation merely, and where the injury may or may not accrue, but is probable or possible only from the continued culpable negligence of another, there the law imposes no such duty upon the person who is or may be so exposed, and he is not obliged to change his conduct or the mode of transacting his affairs, which are otherwise prudent and proper, in order to avoid such anticipated injuries or prevent the mischiefs which may happen through another’s default and culpable want of care.

Appeal from a judgment of Butt, J. (in the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, reported in 11 Prob. Div. 31), on a special case stated for the opinion of the Court, in three actions brought in personam against the owners of the steamer Bernina.

Butt, J., held, on the authority of Thorogood v. Bryan, 8 C. B. 115, that the plaintiffs were unable to recover against the defendants, and dismissed the actions.

The plaintiffs appealed.^[227]

Lindley, L. J. This was a special case. Three actions are brought in the Admiralty Division of the High Court by the respective legal personal representatives of three persons on board the Bushire against the owners of the Bernina. Those persons were killed by a collision between the two vessels, both of which were negligently navigated. One of the three persons (Toeg) was a passenger on the Bushire; one (Armstrong) was an engineer of the ship, though not to blame for the collision. The third (Owen) was her second officer, and was in charge of her, and was himself to blame for the collision. The questions 353for decision are, whether any, and if any, which of these actions can be maintained? and if any of them can, then whether the claims recoverable are to be awarded according to the principles which prevail at common law, or according to those which are adopted in the Court of Admiralty in cases of collision.

[The learned judge then decides that although actions under Lord Campbell’s Act for causing death can now be brought in the Admiralty Division, yet the assessment of damages is to be governed by the rules prevailing in common-law actions.]

Having cleared the ground thus far, it is necessary to return to the statute and see under what circumstances an action upon it can be supported. The first matter to be considered is whether there has been any such wrongful act, neglect, or default of the defendants as would, if death had not ensued, have entitled the three deceased persons respectively to have sued the defendants. Now, as regards one of them, namely, Owen, the second officer, who was himself to blame for the collision, it is clear that, if death had not ensued, he could not have maintained an action against the defendants. There was negligence on his part contributing to the collision, and no evidence to show that, notwithstanding his negligence, the defendants could, by taking reasonable care, have avoided the collision. There was what is called such contributory negligence on his part as to render an action by him unsustainable. It follows, therefore, that his representatives can recover nothing under Lord Campbell’s Act for his widow and children, and their action cannot be maintained. The other two actions are not so easily disposed of. They raise two questions: (1) Whether the passenger Toeg, if alive, could have successfully sued the defendants; and if he could, then (2) whether there is any difference between the case of the passenger and that of the engineer Armstrong. The learned judge whose decision is under review felt himself bound by authority to decide both actions against the plaintiffs. The authorities which the learned judge followed are Thorogood v. Bryan, 8 C. B. 115, and Armstrong v. Lancashire & Yorkshire Ry. Co., Law Rep. 10 Ex. 47; and the real question to be determined is whether they can be properly overruled or not. Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, was decided in 1849, and has been generally followed at Nisi Prius ever since when cases like it have arisen. But it is curious to see how reluctant the Courts have been to affirm its principle after argument, and how they have avoided doing so, preferring, where possible, to decide cases before them on other grounds. See, for example, Rigby v. Hewitt, 5 Ex. 240; Greenland v. Chaplin, 5 Ex. 243; Waite v. North Eastern Ry. Co., E. B. & E. 719. I am not aware that the principle on which Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, was decided has ever been approved by any Court which has had to consider it. On the other hand, that case has been criticised and said to be contrary to principle by persons of the highest eminence, not only in this country, but also in Scotland 354and in America. And while it is true that Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, has never been overruled, it is also true that it has never been affirmed by any Court which could properly overrule it, and it cannot be yet said to have become indisputably settled law. I do not think, therefore, that it is too late for a Court of Appeal to reconsider it, or to overrule it if clearly contrary to well settled legal principles.

Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, was an action founded on Lord Campbell’s Act. The facts were shortly as follows. The deceased was a passenger in an omnibus, and he had just got off out of it. He was knocked down and killed by another omnibus belonging to the defendants. There was negligence on the part of the drivers of both omnibuses, and it appears that there was also negligence on the part of the deceased himself. The jury found a verdict for the defendants, and there does not seem to have been any reason why the Court should have disallowed the verdict if not driven to do so on technical grounds. In those days, however, a misdirection by the judge to the jury compelled the Court to grant a new trial, whether any injustice had been done or not; and accordingly the plaintiff moved for a new trial on the ground of misdirection, and it is with reference to this point that the decision of the Court is of importance. The learned judge who tried the case told the jury in effect to find for the defendant if they thought that the deceased was killed either by reason of his own want of care or by reason of want of care on the part of the driver of the omnibus out of which he was getting. The last direction was complained of, but was upheld by the Court. The ratio decidendi was that if the death of the deceased was not occasioned by his own negligence it was occasioned by the joint negligence of both drivers, and that, if so, the negligence of the driver of the omnibus off which the deceased was getting was the negligence of the deceased; and the reason for so holding was that the deceased had voluntarily placed himself under the care of the driver. Maule, J., puts it thus: “The deceased must be considered as identified with the driver of the omnibus in which he voluntarily became a passenger, and the negligence of the driver was the negligence of the deceased.” This theory of identification was quite new. No trace of it is to be found in any earlier decision, nor in any legal treatise, English or foreign, so far as I have been able to ascertain, nor has it ever been satisfactorily explained. It must be assumed, for the purpose of considering the grounds of the decision in question, that the passenger was not himself in fault. Assuming this to be so, then, if both drivers were negligent, and both caused the injury to the passenger, it is difficult to understand why both drivers or their masters should not be liable to him. The doctrine of identification laid down in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, is, to me, quite unintelligible. It is, in truth, a fictitious extension of the principles of agency, but to say that the driver of a public conveyance is the agent of the passengers is to say that which is not true in fact. 355Such a doctrine, if made the basis of further reasoning, leads to results which are wholly untenable, e. g., to the result that the passengers would be liable for the negligence of the person driving them, which is obviously absurd, but which, of course, the Court never meant. All the Court meant to say was that for purposes of suing for negligence the passenger was in no better position than the man driving him. But why not? The driver of a public vehicle is not selected by the passenger otherwise than by being hailed by him as one of the public to take him up; and such selection, if selection it can be called, does not create the relation of principal and agent or master and servant between the passenger and the driver, the passenger knows nothing of the driver and has no control over him; nor is the driver in any proper sense employed by the passenger. The driver, if not his own master, is hired, paid, or employed by the owner of the vehicle he drives or by some other person who lets the vehicle to him. The orders he obeys are his employer’s orders. These orders, in the case of an omnibus, are to drive from such a place to such a place and take up and put down passengers; and in the case of a cab the orders are to drive where the passenger for the time being may desire to go, within the limits expressly or impliedly set by the employer. If the passenger actively interferes with the driver by giving him orders as to what he is to do, I can understand the meaning of the expression that the passenger identifies himself with the driver, but no such interference was suggested in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra. The principles of the law of negligence, and in particular of what is called contributory negligence, have been discussed on many occasions since that case was decided, and are much better understood now than they were thirty years ago. Tuff v. Warman, 5 C. B. (N. S.) 573, in the Exchequer Chamber, and Radley v. London & North Western Ry. Co., 1 App. Cas. 754, in the House of Lords, show the true grounds on which a person himself guilty of negligence is unable to maintain an action against another for an injury occasioned by the combined negligence of both. If the proximate cause of the injury is the negligence of the plaintiff as well as that of the defendant, the plaintiff cannot recover anything. The reason for this is not easily discoverable. But I take it to be settled that an action at common law by A. against B. for injury directly caused to A. by the want of care of A. and B. will not lie. As Pollock, C. B., pointed out in Greenland v. Chaplin, supra, the jury cannot take the consequences and divide them in proportion according to the negligence of the one or the other party. But if the plaintiff can show that although he has himself been negligent, the real and proximate cause of the injury sustained by him was the negligence of the defendant, the plaintiff can maintain an action, as is shown not only by Tuff v. Warman, supra, and Radley v. London & North Western Ry. Co., supra, but also by the well-known case of Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. 546, and other cases of that class. The 356cases which give rise to actions for negligence are primarily reducible to three classes, as follows:—

1. A. without fault of his own is injured by the negligence of B., then B. is liable to A. 2. A. by his own fault is injured by B. without fault on his part, then B. is not liable to A. 3. A. is injured by B. by the fault more or less of both combined; then the following further distinctions have to be made: (a) if, notwithstanding B.’s negligence, A. with reasonable care could have avoided the injury, he cannot sue B.: Butterfield v. Forrester, 11 East, 60; Bridge v. Grand Junction Ry. Co., 3 M. & W. 244; Dowell v. General Steam Navigation Co., 5 E. & B. 195; (b) if, notwithstanding A.’s negligence, B. with reasonable care could have avoided injuring A., A. can sue B.: Tuff v. Warman, supra; Radley v. London & North Western Ry. Co., supra; Davies v. Mann, supra; (c) if there has been as much want of reasonable care on A.’s part as on B.’s or, in other words, if the proximate cause of the injury is the want of reasonable care on both sides, A. cannot sue B. In such a case A. cannot with truth say that he has been injured by B.’s negligence, he can only with truth say that he has been injured by his own carelessness and B.’s negligence, and the two combined give no cause of action at common law. This follows from the two sets of decisions already referred to. But why in such a case the damages should not be apportioned, I do not profess to understand. However, as already stated, the law on this point is settled, and not open to judicial discussion. If now another person is introduced the same principles will be found applicable. Substitute in the foregoing cases B. and C. for B., and unless C. is A.’s agent or servant there will be no difference in the result, except that A. will have two persons instead of one liable to him. A. may sue B. and C. in one action, and recover damages against them both; or he may sue them separately and recover the whole damage sustained against the one he sues: Clark v. Chambers, 3 Q. B. D. 327, where all the previous authorities were carefully examined by the late L. C. J. Cockburn. This is no doubt hard on the defendant, who is alone sued, and this hardship seems to have influenced the Court in deciding Thorogood v. Bryan, supra. In that case the Court appears to have thought it hard on the defendant to make him pay all the damages due to the plaintiff, and that it was no hardship to the plaintiff to exonerate the defendant from liability, as the plaintiff had a clear remedy against the master of the omnibus in which he was a passenger. But it is difficult to see the justice of exonerating the defendant from all liability in respect of his own wrong and of throwing the whole liability on some one who was no more to blame than he. The injustice to the defendant, which the Court sought to avoid, is common to all cases in which a wrong is done by two people and one of them alone is made to pay for it. The rule which does not allow of contribution among wrong-doers is what produces hardship in these cases, but the hardship produced by that rule (if 357really applicable to such cases as these under discussion) does not justify the Court in exonerating one of the wrong-doers from all responsibility for his own misconduct or the misconduct of his servants. I can hardly believe that if the plaintiff in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, had sued the proprietors of both omnibuses it would have been held that he had no right of action against one of them. Having given my reasons for my inability to concur in the doctrine laid down in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, I proceed to consider how far that doctrine is supported by other authorities. [After commenting on various authorities]; Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, and Armstrong v. Lancashire & Yorkshire Ry. Co., supra, affirm that, although if A. is injured by the combined negligence of B. and C., A. can sue B. and C., or either of them, he cannot sue C. if he, A., is under the care of B. or in his employ. From this general doctrine I am compelled most respectfully to dissent, but if B. is A.’s agent or servant the doctrine is good. In Scotland the decision in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, was discussed and held to be unsatisfactory in the case of Adams v. Glasgow & South Western Ry. Co., 3 Court Sess. Cas. 215. In America the subject was recently examined with great care by the Supreme Court of the United States in Little v. Hackett, 14 Am. Law Record, 577, 54 Am. Rep. 15,^[228] in which the English and American cases were reviewed, and the doctrine laid down in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, was distinctly repudiated as contrary to sound principles. In this case the plaintiff was driving in a hackney carriage and was injured by a collision between it and a railway train on a level crossing. There was negligence on the part of the driver of the carriage and on the part of the railway company’s servants, but it was held that the plaintiff was not precluded from maintaining an action against the railway company. In this country Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, was distinctly disapproved by Dr. Lushington in The Milan, Lush. 388; and even Lord Bramwell, who has gone further than any other judge in upholding the decision, has expressed disapproval of the grounds on which it was based. No text-writer has approved of it, and the comments in Smith’s Leading Cases are adverse to it (vol. i. p. 266, 6th ed.). For the reasons above stated, I am of opinion that the doctrines laid down in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, and Armstrong v. Lancashire & Yorkshire Ry. Co., supra, are contrary to sound legal principles, and ought not to be regarded as law. Consequently, I am of opinion that the decision in Toeg’s and Armstrong’s case ought to be reversed.

Concurring opinions were delivered by Lord Esher, M. R., and Lopes, L. J., the former elaborately reviewing the authorities.

Extract from opinion of Lopes, L. J.:—

If, again, the passenger is to be considered in the same position as the driver or owner, and their negligence is to be imputed to him, he would be liable to third parties; for instance, in case of a collision between 358two omnibuses, where the driver of one was entirely in fault, every passenger in the omnibus free from blame would have an action against every passenger in the other omnibus, because every such passenger would be identified with the driver, and is responsible for his negligence. Nor, again, in the case just put, could any passenger in the other omnibus bring an action against the owner of the omnibus in which he was carried, because the negligence of the driver is to be imputed to the passenger. If the negligence of the driver is to be attributed to the passenger for one purpose, it would be impossible to say he is not to be affected by it for others. Other cases might be put.

The more the decision in Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, is examined, the more anomalous and indefensible that decision appears.

The theory of the identification of the passengers with the negligent driver or owner is, in my opinion, a fallacy and a fiction, contrary to sound law and opposed to every principle of justice. A passenger in an omnibus whose injury is caused by the joint negligence of that omnibus and another, may, in my opinion, maintain an action, either against the owner of the omnibus in which he was carried or the other omnibus, or both. I am clearly of opinion Thorogood v. Bryan, supra, should be overruled.

Extract from opinion of Lord Esher, M. R.:—

In Armstrong’s action a point is suggested that he ought not to recover against the defendants, the owners of the Bernina, because he could not recover against the owners of the Bushire. He would, it is rightly said, in an action against the latter, be met by the doctrine of the accident being occasioned by the negligence of a fellow-servant. The suggestion would go too far. It would apply where passengers or goods are carried by railway, or in ship, under a notice limiting the liability of that railway company or shipowner. It would work manifest injustice by enabling a person to take advantage of a contract to which he was a stranger, and for the advantage of which he had given no consideration. The rule of law is, that a person injured by more than one wrong-doer may maintain an action for the whole damage done to him against any of them. There is no condition that he cannot do so unless he might, if he pleased, maintain an action against each of them. There is no disadvantage to the one sued, because there is no contribution between joint wrong-doers. The plaintiff Armstrong is therefore entitled to judgment for the whole of the damages he may be able to prove, according to the rule of damages laid down in Lord Campbell’s Act. So in the case of the plaintiff Toeg. In the case of Owen, the deceased was personally negligent, so as that his negligence was partly directly a cause of the injury. He could not have recovered, neither can his administratrix.

Affirmed in the House of Lords under the name of Mills v. Armstrong; L. R. 13 App. Cases, 1.^[229]

Tort for personal injuries caused by the collision of an electric car of defendant with a carriage in which the plaintiff was being driven.

At the trial the evidence for plaintiff tended to show that plaintiff was being driven in a carriage by her friend B; that B owned the horse and carriage and was giving her a ride to her home; that plaintiff in no way interfered with B’s driving, in no manner controlled him or directed how he should drive, but left the driving to him; and that the defendant’s car from behind, without any warning, ran into the hind wheels of the carriage.

Defendant’s evidence tended to show that the collision was due to B’s negligently turning suddenly across the track.

The judge instructed the jury (inter alia) that if B was careless in driving and if his carelessness contributed to the injury, then plaintiff was bound by his carelessness and could not recover. To this instruction plaintiff excepted.

Verdict for defendant.^[230]

Rugg, J. This case fairly raises the question as to whether the negligence of the driver of a vehicle is to be imputed to a guest, riding with him gratuitously, and personally in the exercise of all the care which ordinary caution requires.

[The learned judge then elaborately reviewed the authorities; and, both upon authority and principle, sustained the view reached in The Bernina, ante. He then continued:]

360The rule fairly deducible from our own cases, and supported by the great weight of authority by courts of other jurisdictions, is that where an adult person, possessing all his faculties and personally in the exercise of that degree of care, which common prudence requires under all the attending circumstances, is injured through the negligence of some third person and the concurring negligence of one with whom the plaintiff is riding as guest or companion, between whom and the plaintiff the relation of master and servant or principal and agent, or mutual responsibility in a common enterprise, does not in fact exist, the plaintiff being at the time in no position to exercise authority or control over the driver, then the negligence of the driver is not imputable to the injured person, but the latter is entitled to recover against the one through whose wrong his injuries were sustained. Disregarding the passenger’s own due care, the test whether the negligence of the driver is to be imputed to the one riding depends upon the latter’s control or right of control of the actions of the driver, so as to constitute in fact the relation of principal and agent or master and servant, or his voluntary, unconstrained, non-contractual surrender of all care for himself to the caution of the driver.^[231]

Applying this statement of the law to the present case, the result is that the plaintiff would not be entitled to recover if in the exercise of common prudence she ought to have given some warning to the driver of carelessness on his part, which she observed or might have observed in exercising due care for her own safety,^[232] nor if she negligently abandoned the exercise of her own faculties and trusted entirely to the vigilance 361and care of the driver.^[233] She cannot hide behind the fact that another is driving the vehicle in which she is riding, and thus relieve herself of her own negligence. What degree of care she should have exercised, in accepting the invitation to ride, or in observing and calling to the attention of the driver perils unnoticed by him, depends upon the circumstances at the time of the injury. On the other hand, she would be permitted to recover if, in entering and continuing in the conveyance, she acted with reasonable caution, and had no ground to suspect incompetency and no cause to anticipate negligence on the part of the driver, and if the impending danger, although in part produced by the driver, was so sudden or of such a character as not to permit or require her to do any act for her own protection.

In view of the facts of the case the requests for rulings presented by the plaintiff were not correct propositions of law and were properly refused, but the portion of the charge excepted to failed to express with accuracy and fulness the rights of the plaintiff and the liability of the defendant to her. The jury were instructed to treat the plaintiff as identified with the driver, and burdened with his negligence. For the reasons we have stated and under the circumstances disclosed, this was not an accurate statement of the law.

Action in the District Court for Ramsey County to recover $2040 for personal injuries caused by a defective street in defendant city. The case was tried before Brill, J., and a jury, which rendered a general verdict in favor of plaintiff for $300. The jury also returned a special verdict, in answer to the specific question submitted by the court, that the driver of the vehicle from which plaintiff was thrown was guilty of negligence which contributed to the injury. From a judgment entered pursuant to the general verdict, defendant appealed.

363Start, C. J. The plaintiff was one of a party of twenty-six young people who celebrated the Fourth of July last by a picnic at Lake Johanna, about twelve miles from St. Paul. The picnic was a mutual affair, in that the party consisted of about an equal number of young men and young women, each lady being invited and escorted by a gentleman, for whom and herself she furnished lunch; but at meal time the several lunches were merged, and became a common spread. The ladies had nothing to do with the matter of the transportation of the party to and from the lake. This was the exclusive business of the gentlemen, with which the ladies had no more to do than the young men had with the lunches. The gentlemen selected one of their number (Mr. Gibbons) to manage the transportation of the party. He hired for this purpose a long covered omnibus, drawn by four horses, and a driver and assistant, to drive the party to the lake and return. The party were driven to and from the lake in this conveyance, with the hiring of which, or the payment therefor, or the control thereof, the ladies, including the plaintiff, had nothing to do, other than may be inferred, if at all, from the fact that they were members of the picnic party. On the return trip, when the conveyance had reached Dale Street, in the city of St. Paul, it was tipped over, by reason of an embankment therein, whereby the plaintiff was injured.

At the time of the accident all of the party were riding inside of the omnibus, except Mr. Gibbons, who was outside, on the driver’s seat, with the driver and his assistant, and was then driving the horses; but this fact was unknown to the plaintiff or any of the party inside of the conveyance. The negligence of the city in the care of the street was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury, but the negligence of Mr. Gibbons in driving the horses contributed thereto. The plaintiff was personally free from any negligence in the premises. This action was brought by the plaintiff to recover damages on account of such injuries, and the jury returned a verdict for $300, and a special verdict that Mr. Gibbons was guilty of contributory negligence in driving the conveyance. Thereupon the defendant moved for judgment in its favor upon the special verdict, notwithstanding the general verdict for the plaintiff. The motion was denied, and judgment entered for the plaintiff, from which the defendant appealed to this court.

The only question for our decision is whether the negligence of Mr. Gibbons must be imputed to the plaintiff, and a recovery denied her for that reason. The rule as to imputed negligence, as settled by this court in cases other than those where the parties stand in the relation of parent and child or guardian and ward, is that negligence in the conduct of another will not be imputed to a party if he neither authorized such conduct, nor participated therein, nor had the right or power to control it. If, however, two or more persons unite in the joint prosecution of a common purpose under such circumstances that 364each has authority, expressed or implied, to act for all in respect to the control of the means or agencies employed to execute such common purpose, the negligence of one in the management thereof will be imputed to all the others. Follman v. City of Mankato, 35 Minn. 522, 29 N. W. 317; Flaherty v. Minneapolis & St. L. Ry. Co., 39 Minn. 328, 40 N. W. 160; Howe v. Minneapolis, St. P. & S. Ste. M. Ry. Co., 62 Minn. 71, 64 N. W. 102; Johnson v. St. Paul City Ry. Co., 67 Minn. 260, 69 N. W. 900; Finley v. Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co., 71 Minn., 471, 74 N. W. 174; Wosika v. St. Paul City Ry. Co., 80 Minn. 364, 83 N. W. 386; Lammers v. Great Northern Ry. Co., 82 Minn. 120, 84 N. W. 728.

It is too obvious to justify discussion that the plaintiff in this case neither expressly nor impliedly had any control over the drivers of the omnibus, or either of them, or of Mr. Gibbons, and that he and she were not engaged in a joint enterprise in any such sense as made her so far responsible for his negligence in driving the horses that it must be imputed to her. The claim of the defendant to the contrary is unsupported by the facts as disclosed by the record.

FECHLEY v. SPRINGFIELD TRACTION COMPANY
St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri, May 8, 1906.
Reported in 119 Missouri Appeal Reports, 358.

Error to Circuit Court, Greene County. Verdict and judgment for defendant. Plaintiff appeals.

Appellant, Fechley, was damaged by the collision of a street car with a one-horse buggy in which he was riding. The buggy was owned and driven by Pierce, at whose invitation Fechley was riding. Pierce, upon his own statement, was negligent in not seasonably looking, or taking proper precautions, to ascertain if a car was approaching before he attempted to drive across two parallel railway tracks. The facts as to the alleged negligence of Fechley are sufficiently stated in the extracts from the opinion, given below.

One error assigned was the submission to the jury of the issue of appellant’s contributory negligence.^[236]

365Goode, J. [After stating the case; and holding that the negligence of Pierce would not bar Fechley from recovering against the company if the motorman’s negligence was in part the proximate cause of the collision.]

Appellant himself must have been free from negligence proximately contributing to his injury or he is entitled to no damages, granting that Pierce’s fault does not preclude a recovery and that the motorman’s fault was a factor in bringing about the casualty. Few, if any, courts have held that an occupant of a vehicle may entrust his safety absolutely to the driver of a vehicle, regardless of the imminence of danger or the visible lack of ordinary caution on the part of the driver to avoid harm. The law in this state, and in most jurisdictions, is that if a passenger who is aware of the danger and that the driver is remiss in guarding against it, takes no care himself to avoid injury, he cannot recover for one he receives. This is the law not because the driver’s negligence is imputable to the passenger, but because the latter’s own negligence proximately contributed to his damage. Marsh v. Railroad, 104 Mo. App. 577, 78 S. W. 284; Dean v. Railroad, 129 Pa. St. 514; Township of Crescent v. Anderson, 114 Pa. St. 643; Koehler v. Railroad, 66 Hun, 566; Hoag v. Railroad, 111 N. Y. 179; Brickell v. Railroad, 120 N. Y. 290; 2 Thompson, Negligence, sec. 1620; Beach, Con. Neg., sec. 115; 3 Elliott, Railroads, sec. 1174.

[After discussing the pleadings.]

Therefore the question occurs whether, on the testimony for appellant, the court would have been justified in holding him guilty of contributory negligence; and we hold that such a ruling would have been proper. Appellant swore he knew cars were operated east and west on Commercial Street, but did not know there were double tracks on it. The two tracks were right before his eyes as he drove down Commercial Street and as Pierce turned the horse to cross them. He said he could have looked out of the buggy by merely pushing the curtain back with his hand. He was not bound to do this if Pierce’s conduct was of such a character as to induce a reasonably prudent man to think there was no danger in driving across the tracks. But Fechley did not have the right to rely on the precaution taken by Pierce, unless, under the circumstances, a man of ordinary prudence would have relied on it. As we have pointed out, the testimony shows Pierce took no precaution which could be effective. He did not stop at all; nor did he look for a car until the horse was stepping over the south rail of the north track. The two tracks were less than five feet apart and the buggy moved but a few feet after Pierce looked, before the car struck it near the front of the rear wheels. Meanwhile Fechley was leaning back in the buggy, though he must have seen they had crossed the south track and were advancing diagonally on the north one, and, if he was paying any attention to the situation, must have known that 366a car was likely to come along on that track from the east. Pierce’s behavior was so grossly careless, that Fechley was imprudent in doing nothing personally to insure his safety. The essential fact is that Pierce did not look in time, as Fechley knew, or, in reason, ought to have known. Therefore Fechley should have stopped Pierce or told him to look for a car, or have looked himself, before they had advanced so far into danger. It is palpable from appellant’s own testimony that he was giving no heed to his safety, but either was relying blindly on Pierce, or, for some reason, was not aware of the proximity of the tracks.

[After stating authorities.]

On the testimony for appellant the case strikes us as one of concurrent negligence; for the buggy had not gone more than from six to twelve feet after Pierce looked for a car, until the collision occurred. There is an inconsistency in appellant’s theory. He would have it that there was an appearance of danger of a collision which should have warned the motorman, as soon as the buggy was turned to go over the tracks and before Pierce looked for a car, but that appellant himself was not negligent in failing to guard against this apparent danger. That argument for appellant emphasizes and makes clear his own carelessness. The counsel in the case give several close calculations in support of their respective theories, and appellant’s attorneys endeavor to demonstrate that the motorman could have stopped the car before it reached the buggy, if he had begun to get control of it when the horse turned to go over the south track. They insist that appellant, though he may have been guilty of contributory negligence, was entitled to a finding by the jury, under proper instructions, on the issue of whether or not the motorman could have prevented the accident after the turn, it being assumed that the danger of a collision then became apparent. The court submitted that issue by a charge which was extremely favorable to appellant.

[Omitting remainder of opinion.]

NEWMAN v. PHILLIPSBURG HORSE CAR COMPANY
Supreme Court, New Jersey, July Term, 1890.
Reported in 52 New Jersey Law Reports, 446.

The plaintiff was a child two years of age; she was in the custody of her sister, who was twenty-two; the former, being left by herself for a few minutes, got upon the railroad track of the defendant, and was hurt by the car. The occurrence took place in a public street of the village of Phillipsburg. The carelessness of the defendant was manifest, as at the time of the accident there was no one in charge of the horse drawing the car, the driver being in the car collecting fares.

367The Circuit judge submitted the three following propositions to this Court for its advisory opinion, viz.:—

First. Whether the negligence of the persons in charge of the plaintiff, an infant minor, should be imputed to the said plaintiff.

Second. Whether the conduct of the persons in charge of the plaintiff at the time of the injury complained of, was not so demonstrably negligent that the said Circuit Court should have nonsuited the plaintiff, or that the Court should have directed the jury to find for the defendant.

Third. Whether a new trial ought not to be granted, on the ground that the damages awarded are excessive.

Argued at February term, 1890, before Beasley, C. J., and Scudder, Dixon and Reed, JJ.

The opinion of the court was delivered by—

Beasley, C. J. There is but a single question presented by this case, and that question plainly stands among the vexed questions of the law.

The problem is, whether an infant of tender years can be vicariously negligent, so as to deprive itself of a remedy that it would otherwise be entitled to. In some of the American states this question has been answered by the Courts in the affirmative, and in others in the negative. To the former of these classes belongs the decision in Hartfield v. Roper & Newell, reported in 21 Wend. 615. This case appears to have been one of first impression on this subject, and it is to be regarded, not only as the precursor, but as the parent of all the cases of the same strain that have since appeared.

The inquiry with respect to the effect of the negligence of the custodian of the infant, too young to be intelligent of situations and circumstances, was directly presented for decision in the primary case thus referred to, for the facts were these: The plaintiff, a child of about two years of age, was standing or sitting in the snow in a public road, and in that situation was run over by a sleigh driven by the defendants. The opinion of the Court was, that as the child was permitted by its custodian to wander into a position of such danger it was without remedy for the hurts thus received, unless they were voluntarily inflicted, or were the product of gross carelessness on the part of the defendants. It is obvious that the judicial theory was, that the infant was, through the medium of its custodian, the doer, in part, of its own misfortune, and that, consequently, by force of the well-known rule, under such conditions, he had no right to an action. This, of course, was visiting the child for the neglect of the custodian, and such infliction is justified in the case cited in this wise: “The infant,” says the Court, “is not sui juris. He belongs to another, to whom discretion in the care of his person is exclusively confided. That person is keeper and agent for this purpose; in respect to third persons his act must be deemed that of the infant; his neglects the infant’s neglects.”

368It will be observed that the entire content of this quotation is the statement of a single fact, and a deduction from it; the premise being, that the child must be in the care and charge of an adult, and the inference being that, for that reason, the neglects of the adult are the neglects of the infant. But surely this is, conspicuously, a non sequitur. How does the custody of the infant justify, or lead to, the imputation of another’s fault to him? The law, natural and civil, puts the infant under the care of the adult, but how can this right to care for and protect be construed into a right to waive, or forfeit, any of the legal rights of the infant? The capacity to make such waiver or forfeiture is not a necessary, or even convenient, incident of this office of the adult, but, on the contrary, is quite inconsistent with it, for the power to protect is the opposite of the power to harm, either by act or omission. In this case in Wendell it is evident that the rule of law enunciated by it is founded in the theory that the custodian of the infant is the agent of the infant; but this is a mere assumption without legal basis, for such custodian is the agent, not of the infant, but of the law. If such supposed agency existed, it would embrace many interests of the infant, and could not be confined to the single instance where an injury is inflicted by the coöperative tort of the guardian. And yet it seems certain that such custodian cannot surrender or impair a single right of any kind that is vested in the child, nor impose any legal burthen upon it. If a mother travelling with her child in her arms should agree with a railway company, that in case of an accident to such infant by reason of the joint negligence of herself and the company the latter should not be liable to a suit by the child, such an engagement would be plainly invalid on two grounds: first, the contract would be contra bonos mores, and second, because the mother was not the agent of the child authorized to enter into the agreement. Nevertheless, the position has been deemed defensible that the same evil consequences to the infant will follow from the negligence of the mother, in the absence of such supposed contract, as would have resulted if such contract should have been made and should have been held valid.

In fact, this doctrine of the imputability of the misfeasance of the keeper of a child to the child itself, is deemed to be a pure interpolation into the law, for until the case under criticism it was absolutely unknown; nor is it sustained by legal analogies. Infants have always been the particular objects of the favor and protection of the law. In the language of an ancient authority this doctrine is thus expressed: “The common principle is, that an infant in all things which sound in his benefit shall have favor and preferment in law as well as another man, but shall not be prejudiced by anything in his disadvantage.” 9 Vin. Abr. 374. And it would appear to be plain that nothing could be more to the prejudice of an infant than to convert, by construction of law, the connection between himself and his custodian into an 369agency to which the harsh rule of respondeat superior should be applicable. The answerableness of the principal for the authorized acts of his agent is not so much the dictate of natural justice as of public policy, and has arisen, with some propriety, from the circumstances, that the creation of the agency is a voluntary act, and that it can be controlled and ended at the will of its creator. But in the relationship between the infant and its keeper, all these decisive characteristics are wholly wanting. The law imposes the keeper upon the child who, of course, can neither control or remove him, and the injustice, therefore, of making the latter responsible, in any measure whatever, for the torts of the former, would seem to be quite evident. Such subjectivity would be hostile, in every respect, to the natural rights of the infant, and, consequently, cannot, with any show of reason, be introduced into that provision which both necessity and law establish for his protection. Nor can it be said that its existence is necessary to give just enforcement to the rights of others. When it happens that both the infant and its custodian have been injured by the coöperative negligence of such custodian and a third party, it seems reasonable, at least in some degree, that the latter should be enabled to say to the custodian, “You and I, by our common carelessness, have done this wrong, and, therefore, neither can look to the other for redress;” but when such wrong-doer says to the infant, “Your guardian and I, by our joint misconduct, have brought this loss upon you, consequently you have no right of action against me, but you must look for indemnification to your guardian alone,” a proposition is stated that appears to be without any basis either in good sense or law. The conversion of the infant, who is entirely free from fault, into a wrong-doer, by imputation, is a logical contrivance uncongenial with the spirit of jurisprudence. The sensible and legal doctrine is this: An infant of tender years cannot be charged with negligence; nor can he be so charged with the commission of such fault by substitution, for he is incapable of appointing an agent, the consequence being, that he can, in no case, be considered to be the blamable cause, either in whole or in part, of his own injury. There is no injustice, nor hardship, in requiring all wrong-doers to be answerable to a person who is incapable either of self-protection or of being a participator in their misfeasance.

Nor is it to be overlooked that the theory here repudiated, if it should be adopted, would go the length of making an infant in its nurse’s arms answerable for all the negligences of such nurse while thus employed in its service. Every person so damaged by the careless custodian would be entitled to his action against the infant. If the neglects of the guardian are to be regarded as the neglects of the infant, as was asserted in the New York decision, it would, from logical necessity, follow, that the infant must indemnify those who should be harmed by such neglects. That such a doctrine has never prevailed 370is conclusively shown by the fact that in the reports there is no indication that such a suit has ever been brought.

It has already been observed that judicial opinion, touching the subject just discussed, is in a state of direct antagonism, and it would, therefore, serve no useful purpose to refer to any of them. It is sufficient to say, that the leading text-writers have concluded that the weight of such authority is adverse to the doctrine that an infant can become, in any wise, a tortfeasor by imputation. 1 Shearm. & R. Neg., § 75; Whart. Neg. § 311; 2 Wood Railw. L., p. 1284.

In our opinion, the weight of reason is in the same scale.

It remains to add that we do not think the damages so excessive as to place the verdict under judicial control.

Let the Circuit Court be advised to render judgment on the finding of the jury.^[237]

BISAILLON v. BLOOD
Supreme Court, New Hampshire, June, 1888.
Reported in 64 New Hampshire Reports, 565.

Case, for the negligent injury of the plaintiff. Verdict for the defendant.

In October, 1886, the defendant, while driving a horse in a carriage on a public street of Manchester, ran over and injured the plaintiff, an infant then five years old, who had wandered from his home without an attendant or custodian, and was playing in the street with other children of about the same age.

The jury were instructed that the plaintiff being too young to exercise care for himself, it was the duty of his parents or natural 371guardians to exercise care and prudence for him to prevent his being injured, and if they were negligent in this respect, and their neglect contributed to produce the injury complained of, he cannot recover. To these instructions the plaintiff excepted.

Carpenter, J. The plaintiff would be entitled to damages for the defendant’s negligent injury of his property similarly exposed to danger by the carelessness of his guardian. Davies v. Mann, 10 M. & W. 546; Smith v. Railroad, 35 N. H. 366, 367; Giles v. Railroad, 55 N. H. 555. An infant of such tender years as to be incapable of exercising care is not less under the protection of the law than his chattel. The previous negligence of the plaintiff’s parents was immaterial. The only question for the jury was, whether the defendant by the exercise of ordinary care could have prevented the injury; if she could not, she was without fault, and is not liable; if she could, she is liable whether the plaintiff was in the street by reason of, or without, his parents’ negligence. In cases of this character, where an irresponsible child or an idiot is, by the negligence of the parent or guardian, exposed to peril without an attendant, or where a chattel is in like manner placed by the owner in a dangerous position, and either is injured by the act of a “voluntary agent present and acting at the time” (State v. Railroad, 52 N. H. 528, 557), the question of contributory negligence is not involved. The only question is, whether the defendant by ordinary care could or could not have prevented the injury. Nashua Iron & S. Co. v. Nashua Railroad, 62 N. H. 159, and cases cited.

CONSOLIDATED TRACTION COMPANY v. HONE
Supreme Court, New Jersey, November Term, 1896.
Reported in 59 New Jersey Law Reports, 275.

Beasley, C. J. This is a suit brought by Henry Hone as the administrator of the estate of his deceased son, who was a minor and was killed by the carelessness of the servants of the plaintiff in error, the Consolidated Traction Company, in the management of one of their cars.

The statute lying at the basis of the suit provides “that whenever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect or default, and the act, neglect or default is such as would, if death had not ensued, have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, then and in every such case the person who or the corporation which would have been liable if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action of damages notwithstanding 372the death of the person injured,” etc. Gen. Stat., p. 1188, § 10.^[239]

The following section directs “that the action shall be brought by and in the name of the personal representatives of the deceased person, and that the amount recovered shall be for the exclusive benefit of the widow and next of kin of such deceased person; and that in every such action the jury may give such damages as they shall deem fair and just, with reference to the pecuniary injury resulting from such death to the wife and next of kin of such deceased person,” etc. Id., § 11.

From these extracts from the statute it will be at once perceived that in this suit founded upon it, as in all others of the same class, but two questions are raised, and but two can be raised upon the record, viz., first, could the deceased, if he had survived, have maintained an action? and second, this being so, what pecuniary loss has fallen on his next of kin by reason of his death?

These are the facts constituting the issue to be tried, and no subject for trial can be more clearly defined.

Notwithstanding this it is contended in this case by the counsel of this traction company that they have the right to defeat the action if they can show that the death in question was the result in part of the negligent conduct of the next of kin, although such negligent conduct is not to be imputed to the infant who is deceased. The plaintiff in the present case is not only the personal representative, but is likewise the next of kin, and it is insisted that as the damages that may be recovered will enure exclusively to his benefit, he should in justice not be allowed to recover them if he was in part the cause of their production.

373But it is to be remembered that the legal doctrine that bars a party injured by the unintentional misconduct of another by reason of his having himself been, in a measure, the occasion of the resulting damage, is rather an artificial rule of the law than a principle of justice, for its effect generally is to cast the entire loss ensuing from the joint fault upon one of the culpable parties, and oftentimes upon him who is but little to blame. Such a legal regulation has no claim to extension, and to apply it as is now insisted on would be to use it in a novel way. The question whether the deceased was negligent is within the issue formed by the pleading; while the question whether a third person who in his individual capacity has no connection with the suit was negligent has nothing whatever to do with such issue. In the legal practice of this state it is the established course to exclude everything that is not embraced in the issue as the parties have framed it and as it appears upon the record. On the trial of this case the inquiry whether the father of the deceased minor had, by his want of care, been instrumental in the production of the accident, was a matter utterly irrelevant to the subject then submitted to judicial inquiry.

The statute of Iowa, relating to this subject, and our own are similar, and in Wymore’s case (78 Iowa, 396)^[240] the court of that state expressed very distinctly what is deemed the correct view of this topic, in these words: “If,” says the opinion, “his parents, by their negligence, contributed to his death, that does not seem to be a sufficient reason for denying his estate relief. Such negligence would prevent a recovery by the parents in their own right.... It is claimed that, ... since they inherited his estate, the rule which would bar a negligent parent from recovering in such case in his own right ought to apply. But the plaintiff seeks to recover in right of the child and not of the parents. It may be that a recovery in this case will result in conferring an undeserved benefit upon the father, but that is a matter which we cannot investigate. If the facts are such that the child could have recovered had his injuries not been fatal, his administrator 374can recover the full amount of damages which the estate of the child sustained.”

The subject will be found illustrated by a reference to many cases in 4 Am. & Eng. Encycl. L. 88.

My conclusion is that there is no fault to be found with the trial of this case in reference to this point.

[After overruling another objection.]

[By writ of error to review the above judgment of the Supreme Court, the case was brought before the Court of Errors and Appeals. That court was equally divided upon the question whether contributory negligence on the part of the sole next of kin would defeat the action. No opinions on that question are reported. Consolidated Traction Co. v. Hone, 60 New Jersey Law, 444.]^[241]

RICHMOND, FREDERICKSBURG & POTOMAC R. CO. v. MARTIN’S ADM’R
Supreme Court of Appeals, Virginia, December 9, 1903.
Reported in 102 Virginia Reports, 201.

Whittle, J.... This action was brought by the defendant in error, Patrick Martin, administrator of Alice Martin, deceased, against the plaintiff in error, the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Company, to recover damages for the negligent killing of his intestate, a daughter seven years of age, by a passenger train of the defendant company at a public crossing. The mother of the child was killed in the same collision, and the action was instituted for the sole benefit of the father, who, under the statute, is entitled to the recovery. At the trial there was a verdict for the plaintiff, upon which the judgment under review was rendered.

The defendant adduced evidence tending to prove that Patrick Martin, Jr., a minor eleven years old, and a son of the plaintiff, was put in charge of a two-horse Dayton wagon, as driver by his father, in which his mother and two younger sisters and a negro boy were to be driven from their home in the country to the city of Fredericksburg; that Patrick Martin, Jr., negligently drove upon and attempted to cross the railway track at Falmouth crossing, in plain view of a rapidly approaching train; and that in the collision which followed 375his mother and two sisters, who occupied a rear seat in the vehicle, were instantly killed. Thereupon the defendant moved the court to instruct the jury that if they believed from the evidence that Patrick Martin, Jr., the son and servant of the plaintiff, attempted to cross the track under the circumstances detailed, his conduct constituted such contributory negligence as to bar a recovery. The court refused to give the instruction, which ruling presents for decision the sole question in the case, namely, whether a father, whose negligence has contributed to the death of his minor child, can, under the statute, in an action instituted by him as administrator, suing for his own benefit, recover damages for the death of the child. The statute requires such actions to be brought by and in the name of the personal representative of the deceased person, and empowers the jury to award such damages as to it may seem fair and just, not exceeding ten thousand dollars.

The primary object of the statute in allowing an action to recover damages for death by wrongful act of another, like its prototype, Lord Campbell’s act, was to compensate the family of the deceased, and was not in the interest of the general estate, the provision being that: “The amount recovered in any such action shall, after the payment of costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees, be paid to the wife, husband, parent, and child of the deceased, in such proportion as the jury may have directed, or, if they have not directed, according to the statute of distributions, and shall be free from all debts and liabilities of the deceased; but if there be no wife, husband, parent, or child, the amount so received shall be assets in the hands of the personal representative, to be disposed of according to law.” Code 1887, secs. 2903, 2905.

It will be observed that by the express language of the statute the damages awarded cannot become assets in the hands of the administrator, to be disposed of according to law, if the decedent is survived by a wife, husband, parent, or child; and the recovery is also made free from all debts of the decedent, thus leaving no doubt of the legislative intent to treat the recovery as wholly independent of the decedent and his estate in the event of the survival of any one of the enumerated kin, and making it enure directly and personally to such next of kin by force of the statute, and not derivatively from the decedent, to whom it never belonged either in fact or in contemplation of law.

The authorities all agree that there can be no recovery where the action is brought in the name and for the benefit of one whose negligence has contributed to the accident. Thus, if the child in this instance had been injured, instead of killed, and the father had brought a common-law action to recover damages for the injury, contributory negligence on his part, if established, would have constituted a bar to the action. But the contributory negligence of the father would interpose 376no defence to an action by the child for such injury. The rule is that the child’s want of responsibility for negligence can no more be invoked to maintain the action of the negligent father than can the negligence of the latter be imputed to the child to defeat an action by him.

In this case both parties, at the time of the accident, were represented by agents—the defendant company by its employees, and the plaintiff, by his son, to whose care he had confided the custody of the younger sister—and both were responsible for the acts and omissions of their respective agents. Glassey v. Ry. Co., 57 Pa. 172.

In Bellefontaine Ry. Co. v. Snyder, 24 Ohio St. 670, the court said: “Where an infant intrusted to the care and custody of another by the father, is injured through the negligence of a railroad company, the custodian of the child also being guilty of negligence which contributed to the result, although the infant may maintain an action for such injury, the father cannot; the negligence of his agent, the custodian of the child, being in law ‘the negligence of the father.’”

“When an action for negligent injury of an infant is brought by the parent, or for the parent’s own benefit, it is very justly held that the contributory negligence of such parent may be shown in bar of the action, the negligence of his agent to whom he had intrusted the child having contributed to cause the injury; and such negligence, being, in contemplation of law, the parent’s negligence, was held to bar the action.” Beach on Con. Neg., sec. 131.

The doctrine of imputed negligence has no application to the case, but the rule that the negligent father cannot recover is founded upon the fundamental principle that no one can acquire a right of action by his own negligence. The principle involves a maxim of the law as old as the common law itself. The difference between an action by the father for injuries to the child where death does not ensue and an action by the father as administrator of his dead child, brought under the statute for his own benefit, is a difference in form merely, not in substance, and on principle there can be no more reason for permitting a recovery in the latter case than in the former. In both the father is the substantial plaintiff and the sole beneficiary. To allow a recovery in either would be a violation of the policy of the law, which forbids that one shall reap a benefit from his own misconduct. Accordingly the authorities are practically unanimous to the effect that the guiding principle in both classes of cases is identical, and the contributory negligence of the beneficial plaintiff will as effectually defeat a recovery in the one case as in the other.

In Kinkead’s Com. on Torts, sec. 474, the author says the rule is well settled that the negligence of a parent of a minor is a bar to an action by him to recover damages for an injury to the minor, and adds: “It may, however, be contended with equal force that the fact that a parent is a beneficiary in case of death, that contributory negligence 377on his part should be a defence to an action brought under the statutes now being considered, as well as in an action in his own name for a personal injury. The policy of the law is not to allow a recovery for the benefit of a wrong-doer, and this should be applied as well to actions in the name of another for the benefit of those who may have contributed to the wrong. What shall constitute a defence to this class of actions is not prescribed in these statutes, but is governed by the same principles applicable to personal injuries. It is considered by the majority of cases that the administrator is only a trustee or a mere nominal party, and that the action will be defeated by the contributory negligence of the beneficiaries.” [Remainder of opinion omitted.]

WELCH v. WESSON
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, September Term, 1856.
Reported in 6 Gray, 505.

Action of tort for running down the plaintiff while driving on the highway, and breaking his sleigh. Trial in the Court of Common Pleas, before Mellen, C. J., who signed a bill of exceptions, the substance of which is stated in the opinion.

Merrick, J. It appears from the bill of exceptions to have been fully proved upon the trial that the defendant wilfully ran down the plaintiff and broke his sleigh, as is alleged in the declaration. No justification or legal excuse of this act was asserted or attempted to be shown by the defendant; but he was permitted, against the plaintiff’s objection, to introduce evidence tending to prove that it was 378done while the parties were trotting horses in competition with each other for a purse of money, the ownership of which was to be determined by the issue of the race. And it was ruled by the presiding judge, that if this fact was established, no action could be maintained by the plaintiff to recover compensation for the damages he had sustained, even though the injury complained of was wilfully inflicted. Under such instructions, the jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

We presume it may be assumed as an undisputed principle of law, that no action will lie to recover a demand, or a supposed claim for damages, if, to establish it, the plaintiff requires aid from an illegal transaction, or is under the necessity of showing, and depending in any degree upon an illegal agreement, to which he himself had been a party. Gregg v. Wyman, 4 Cush. 322; Woodman v. Hubbard, 5 Foster, 67; Phalen v. Clark, 19 Conn. 421; Simpson v. Bloss, 7 Taunt. 246. But this principle will not sustain the ruling of the Court, which went far beyond it, and laid down a much broader and more comprehensive doctrine. Taken without qualification, and just as they were given to the jury, the instructions import that, if two persons are engaged in the same unlawful enterprise, each of them, during the continuance of such engagement, is irresponsible for wilful injuries done to the property of the other. No such proposition as this can be true. He who violates the law must suffer its penalties; but yet in all other respects he is under its protection, and entitled to the benefit of its remedies.

But in this case the plaintiff had no occasion to show, in order to maintain his action, that he was engaged, at the time his property was injured, in any unlawful pursuit, or that he had previously made any illegal contract. It is true that, when he suffered the injury, he was acting in violation of the law; for all horse trotting upon wagers for money is expressly declared by statute to be a misdemeanor punishable by fine and imprisonment. St. 1846, c. 200. But neither the contract nor the race had, as far as appears from the facts reported in the bill of exceptions, or from the intimations of the Court in its ruling, anything to do with the trespass committed upon the property of 379the plaintiff. That he had no occasion to show into what stipulations the parties had entered, or what were the rules or regulations by which they were to be governed in the race, or whether they were in fact engaged in any such business at all, is apparent from the course of the proceedings at the trial. The plaintiff introduced evidence tending to prove the wrongful acts complained of in the writ, and the damage done to his property, and there rested his case. If nothing more had been shown, he would clearly have been entitled to recover. He had not attempted to derive assistance either from an illegal contract or an illegal transaction. It was the defendant, and not the plaintiff, who had occasion to invoke assistance from proof of the illegal agreement and conduct in which both parties had equally participated. From such sources neither of the parties should have been permitted to derive a benefit. The plaintiff sought nothing of this kind, and the mutual misconduct of the parties in one particular cannot exempt the defendant from his obligation to respond for the injurious consequences of his own illegal misbehavior in another.

BOSWORTH v. INHABITANTS OF SWANSEY
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, October Term, 1845.
Reported in 10 Metcalf, 363.

This was an action on the Rev. Sts., c. 25, § 22, for an injury alleged to have been received by the plaintiff, by reason of a defect in a highway, in the town of Swansey, which said town was by law obliged to repair.

At the trial in the Court of Common Pleas, before Wells, C. J., it appeared that the injury set forth in the plaintiff’s declaration was sustained by him, as therein alleged, on the 11th of June, 1843, being the Lord’s day, in the forenoon of said day, as he was travelling from Warren (R. I.), where he resided, to Fall River, on business connected with the conduct of a cause then pending in the District Court of the United States in Rhode Island. The defendants admitted that they were by law bound to keep said highway in repair.

The judge instructed the jury, that the plaintiff would not be entitled to recover, unless he satisfied them that his travelling on the Lord’s day was from necessity or for purposes of charity; that it being admitted that his business was of a secular character, the burden was upon him to show the necessity of transacting this business on the Lord’s day.

The jury found a verdict for the defendants, and the plaintiff alleged exceptions to the judge’s instructions.^[244]

380Shaw, C. J. This was an action to recover damages against a town for a defect in their highway, by means of which the plaintiff sustained a loss. It appeared that the accident occurred on the Lord’s day.

It has been repeatedly decided that, to maintain this action, it must appear that the accident was occasioned exclusively by the defect of the highway; to establish which, it must appear that the plaintiff himself is free from all just imputation of negligence or fault. Smith v. Smith, 2 Pick. 621; Howard v. North Bridgewater, 16 Pick. 189. And in these and other cases, it has been held that the burden of proof is on the plaintiff, to prove affirmatively that he was so free from all fault. Adams v. Carlisle, 21 Pick. 146; Lane v. Crombie, 12 Pick. 177. The Court are of opinion that this case comes within this principle. The Rev. Sts., c. 50, § 2, provide that “no person shall travel on the Lord’s day, except from necessity or charity,” and that “every person so offending shall be punished by a fine, not exceeding ten dollars for every offence.” The act of the plaintiff, therefore, in doing which the accident occurred, was plainly unlawful, unless he could bring himself within the excepted cases; and this would be a species of fault on his part, which would bring him within the principle of the cases cited. It would show that his own unlawful act concurred in causing the damage complained of. Then if he would bring himself within either of the exceptions, he must prove the fact which the statute makes an exception. In the case last above cited, Lane v. Crombie, the verdict was set aside, because the judge instructed the jury, that after the negligence of the defendants had been proved, if they relied on want of due care on the part of the plaintiff, the burden was upon them to prove it. This was held to be erroneous, and the burden was decided to be on the plaintiff to prove herself free from all fault. On this ground the verdict was set aside, although the evidence was such that probably the direction in regard to burden of proof had not much influence.

The Court are therefor of opinion that the instruction of the judge was right, that the burden of proof was on the plaintiff to show that his travelling on the Lord’s day was from necessity or for purposes of charity.

What constitutes such necessity or purpose of charity, are questions not raised by the bill of exceptions.

Appeal from County Court for Milwaukee County.

Action against a town to recover damages for injuries to plaintiff’s cattle, caused by the breaking down of a defective bridge which they were crossing.

The plaintiff started from Columbus on a Friday morning with a drove of about fifty cattle, intending to take them to Milwaukee, and sell them. Stopping at Hartland over Saturday night, he resumed his journey on Sunday morning, and at about four o’clock, P. M., reached a public bridge of about seventy-two feet span, over the Menomonee River, in the town of Wauwatosa. The cattle were driven upon the bridge, and when the greater part of them were near the middle of the span the stringers broke, some twelve feet from the abutments at each end, and precipitated the structure, with the cattle upon it, into the river, causing the death of some, severely injuring others, and rendering the remainder for a time unsalable.

The complaint alleges, that the injury was caused by the dangerous, unsafe, and rotten condition of the bridge, and the neglect of the defendant to keep it in proper repair.

The answer denies the negligence charged to the defendant, and alleges that the cattle were driven upon the bridge in so careless and negligent a manner as to cause it to break; and, also, that they were so driven upon the bridge on Sunday.

After hearing the evidence on the part of the plaintiff, the Court granted a nonsuit, on the ground that the plaintiff, being in the act of violating the statute prohibiting the doing of secular business on Sunday, when the injury occurred, could not recover therefor. The plaintiff appealed.^[246]

Dixon, C. J. It is very clear that the plaintiff, in driving his cattle along the road and over the bridge, to a market, on Sunday, was at the time of the accident in the act of violating the provisions of the statute of this State, which prohibits, under a penalty not exceeding two dollars for each offence, the doing of any manner of labor, business, or work on that day, except only works of necessity or charity, R. S., c. 183, § 5. It was upon this ground the nonsuit was directed by the Court below, and the point thus presented, that the unlawful act of the plaintiff was negligence, or a fault on his part contributing to the injury, and which will preclude a recovery against the town, is not a new one; nor is the law, as the Court below held it to be, without some adjudications directly in its favor, and those by a judicial tribunal 382as eminent and much respected for its learning and ability as any in this country. Bosworth v. Swansey, 10 Met. 363; Jones v. Andover, 10 Allen, 18. A similar, if not the very same principle has been maintained in other decisions of the same tribunal. Gregg v. Wyman, 4 Cush. 322; May v. Foster, 1 Allen, 408. But in others still, as we shall hereafter have occasion to observe, the same learned Court has, as it appears to us, held to a different and contradictory rule in a class of cases which it would seem ought obviously to be governed by the same principle. The two first above cases were in all material respects like the present, and it was held there could be no recovery against the towns. In the first, the opinion, delivered by Chief Justice Shaw, and which is very short, commences with a statement of the proposition, repeatedly decided by that Court, “that to maintain the action it must appear that the accident was occasioned exclusively by the defect of the highway; to establish which, it must appear that the plaintiff himself is free from all just imputation of negligence or fault.” The authorities to this proposition are cited, and the statute against the pursuit of secular business and travel on the Lord’s day then referred to, and the opinion proceeds: “The act of the plaintiff, therefore, in doing which the accident occurred, was plainly unlawful, unless he could bring himself within the excepted cases; and this would be a species of fault on his part which would bring him within the principle of the cases cited. It would show that his own unlawful act concurred in causing the damage complained of.” This is all of the opinion touching the point under consideration.

In the next case there was a little, and but a little, more effort at reasoning upon the point. The illustrations on page 20, of negligence in a railway company in omitting to ring the bell of the engine, or to sound the whistle at the crossing of a highway, and of the traveller on the wrong side of the road with his vehicle at the time of the collision, and the language of the Court alluding to such “conduct of the party as contributing to the accident or injury which forms the groundwork of the action,” very clearly indicate the true ground upon which the doctrine of contributory negligence, or want of due care in the plaintiff, rests, but it is not shown how or why the mere violation of a statute by the plaintiff constitutes such ground. Upon this point the Court only say: “It is true that no direct unlawful act of omission or commission by the plaintiff, done at the moment when the accident occurred, and tending immediately to produce it, is offered to be shown in evidence. But it is also true that, if the plaintiff had not been engaged in the doing of an unlawful act, the accident would not have happened, and the negligence of the defendants in omitting to keep the road in proper repair would not have contributed to produce an injury to the plaintiff. It is the disregard of the requirements of the statute by the plaintiff which constitutes the fault or want of due care, which is fatal to the action.” It would seem from this language 383that the violation of the statute by the plaintiff is regarded only as a species of remote negligence, or want of proper care on his part contributing to the injury.

The two other cases above cited were actions of tort by the owners, to recover damages from the bailees for injuries to personal property loaned and used on Sunday,—horses loaned and immoderately driven on that day. They were decided against the plaintiffs, and chiefly on the ground of the unlawfulness of the act of loaning or letting on Sunday of the horses, to be driven on that day in violation of the statute, which the plaintiffs themselves were obliged to show, and the doctrine of par delictum was applied. It was in substance held in each case that the plaintiff, by the first wrong committed by him, had placed himself in pari delicto with the defendant, with respect to the subsequent and distinct wrong committed by the latter, and the actions were dismissed upon the principle that the law will not permit a party to prove his own illegal acts in order to establish his case.

In direct opposition to the above decisions are the numerous cases decided by the Courts of other States, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Courts of Great Britain, which have been so diligently collected and ably and forcibly presented in the brief of the learned counsel for the present plaintiff. Of the cases thus cited, with some others, we make particular note of the following: Woodman v. Hubbard, 5 Foster, 67; Mohney v. Cook, 26 Penn. 342; Norris v. Litchfield, 35 N. H. 271; Corey v. Bath, id. 530; Merritt v. Earle, 29 N. Y. 115; Bigelow v. Reed, 51 Maine, 325; Hamilton v. Goding, 55 id. 428; Baker v. The City of Portland, 58 id. 199; Kerwhacker v. Railway Co., 3 Ohio St. 172; Phila., &c. Railway Co. v. Phila., &c. Tow Boat Co., 23 How. (U. S.) 209; Bird v. Holbrook, 4 Bing. 628; Barnes v. Ward, 9 M. G. & S. 420.

It seems quite unnecessary, if indeed it were possible, to add anything to the force or conclusiveness of the reasons assigned in some of these cases in support of the views taken and decisions made by the Courts. The cases may be summed up and the result stated generally to be the affirmance of two very just and plain principles of law as applicable to civil actions of this nature, namely: first, that one party to the action, when called upon to answer for the consequences of his own wrongful act done to the other, cannot allege or reply the separate or distinct wrongful act of the other, done not to himself nor to his injury, and not necessarily connected with, or leading to, or causing or producing the wrongful act complained of; and, secondly, that the fault, want of due care or negligence on the part of the plaintiff, which will preclude a recovery for the injury complained of, as contributing to it, must be some act or conduct of the plaintiff having the relation to that injury of a cause to the effect produced by it. Under the operation of the first principle, the defendant cannot exonerate himself or claim immunity from the consequences of his own tortious act, 384voluntarily or negligently done to the injury of the plaintiff, on the ground that the plaintiff has been guilty of some other and independent wrong or violation of law. Wrongs or offences cannot be set off against each other in this way. “But we should work a confusion of relations, and lend a very doubtful assistance to morality,” say the Court in Mohney v. Cook, “if we should allow one offender against the law, to the injury of another, to set off against the plaintiff that he too is a public offender.” Himself guilty of a wrong, not dependent on nor caused by that charged against the plaintiff, but arising from his own voluntary act or his neglect, the defendant cannot assume the championship of public rights, nor to prosecute the plaintiff as an offender against the laws of the State, and thus to impose upon him a penalty many times greater than what those laws prescribe. Neither justice nor sound morals require this, and it seems contrary to the dictates of both that such a defence should be allowed to prevail. It would extend the maxim, ex turpi causa non oritur actio, beyond the scope of its legitimate application, and violate the maxim, equally binding and wholesome, and more extensive in its operation, that no man shall be permitted to take advantage of his own wrong. To take advantage of his own wrong, and to visit unmerited and over-rigorous punishment upon the plaintiff, constitute the sole motive for such defence on the part of the person making it. In the cases of the horses let to be driven on Sunday, so far as the owners were obliged to resort to an action on the contract which was executory and illegal, of course there could be no recovery; but to an action of tort, founded not on the contract, but on the tort or wrong subsequently committed by the defendant, the illegality of the contract furnished no defence, as is clearly demonstrated in Woodman v. Hubbard, and the cases there cited. The decisions under the provision of the constitution of this State abolishing imprisonment for debt arising out of or founded on a contract express or implied, and some others in this Court strongly illustrate the same distinction. In re Mowry, 12 Wis. 52, 56, 57; Cotton v. Sharpstein, 14 Wis. 229, 230; Schennert v. Kœhler, 23 Wis. 523, 527.

And as to the other principle, that the act or conduct of the plaintiff which can be imputed to him as a fault, want of due care or negligence on his part contributing to the injury, must have some connection with the injury as cause to effect, this also seems almost too clear to require thought or elaboration. To make good the defence on this ground, it must appear that a relation existed between the act or violation of law on the part of the plaintiff, and the injury or accident of which he complains, and that relation must have been such as to have caused or helped to cause the injury or accident, not in a remote or speculative sense, but in the natural and ordinary course of events as one event is known to precede or follow another. It must have been some act, omission, or fault naturally and ordinarily calculated to produce the 385injury, or from which the injury or accident might naturally and reasonably have been anticipated under the circumstances. It is obvious that a violation of the Sunday law is not of itself an act, omission, or fault of this kind, with reference to a defect in the highway or in a bridge over which a traveller may be passing, unlawfully though it may be. The fact that the traveller may be violating this law of the State, has no natural or necessary tendency to cause the injury which may happen to him from the defect. All other conditions and circumstances remaining the same, the same accident or injury would have happened on any other day as well. The same natural causes would have produced the same result on any other day, and the time of the accident or injury, as that it was on Sunday, is wholly immaterial so far as the cause of it or the question of contributory negligence is concerned. In this respect it would be wholly immaterial also that the traveller was within the exceptions of the statute, and travelling on an errand of necessity or charity, and so was lawfully upon the highway.

The mere matter of time, when an injury like this takes place, is not in general an element which does or can enter at all into the consideration of the cause of it. Time and place are circumstances necessary in order that any event may happen or transpire, but they are not ordinarily, if they ever are, circumstances of cause in transactions of this nature. There may be concurrence or connection of time and place between two or three or more events, and yet one event not have the remotest influence in causing or producing either of the others. A traveller on the highway, contrary to the provisions of the statute, yet peaceably and quietly pursuing his course, might be assaulted and robbed by a highwayman. It would be difficult in such case to perceive how the highwayman could connect the unlawful act of the traveller with his assault and robbery so as to justify or excuse them, or how it could be said, that the former had any natural or legitimate tendency to cause or produce the latter. It is true, it might be said, if the traveller had not been present at that particular time or place, he would not have been assaulted and robbed, but that too might be said of any other assault or robbery committed upon him; for if his presence at one time and place be a fault or wrong on his part, contributing to the assault and robbery in the nature of cause to effect, it must be equally so at every other time and place, and so always a defence in the mouth of the highwayman. Every highwayman must have his opportunity by the passing of some traveller, and so some one must pass over a rotten and unsafe bridge or defective highway before any accident or injury can happen from that cause. Connection, therefore, merely in point of time, between the unlawful act or fault of the plaintiff, and the wrong or omission of the defendant, the same being in other respects disconnected and independent acts or events, does not suffice to establish contributory negligence or to defeat the 386plaintiff’s action on that ground. As observed in Mohney v. Cook, such connection, if looked upon as in any sense a cause, whether sacred and mysterious or otherwise, clearly falls under the rule causa proxima non remota spectatur.

“The cause of an event,” says Appleton, C. J., in Moulton v. Sanford, 51 Maine, 134, “is the sum total of the contingencies of every description, which, being realized, the event invariably follows. It is rare, if ever, that the invariable sequence of events subsists between one antecedent and one consequent. Ordinarily that condition is usually termed the cause, whose share in the matter is the most conspicuous and is the most immediately preceding and proximate to the event.”

In the present case the weight of the same cattle, upon the same bridge, either the day before or the day after the event complained of, when the plaintiff would have been guilty of no violation of law in driving them, would most unquestionably have produced the same injurious result. And if, on that day even, the driving had been a work of necessity or charity, as if the city of Milwaukee had been in great part destroyed by fire, as Chicago recently was, and great numbers of her inhabitants in a condition of helplessness and starvation, and the plaintiff hurrying up his drove of beef cattle for their relief, no one doubts the same accident would then have happened, and the same injuries have ensued. The law of gravitation would not then have been suspended, nor would the rotten and defective stringers have refused to give way under the superincumbent weight, precisely as they did do on the present occasion. There are many other violations of law, which the traveller or other person passing along the highway may, at the time he receives an injury from a defect in it, be in the act of committing, and which are quite as closely connected with the injury, or the cause of it, as is the violation of which complaint is made against the present plaintiff. He may be engaged in cruelly beating or torturing his horse, or ox, or other animal; he may be in the pursuit of game, with intent to kill or destroy it, at a season of the year when this is prohibited; he may be exposing game for sale, or have it in his possession, when these are unlawful; he may be in the act of committing an assault, or resisting an officer; he may be fraudulently passing a toll gate, without paying his toll; and he may be unlawfully setting or using a net or seine, for the purpose of catching fish, in an inland lake or stream.

All of these are acts prohibited by the same chapter or statute in which we find the prohibition from work and labor on Sunday, and some of them under the same, but most under a greater penalty than is prescribed for that offence, thus showing the character or degree of culpability which was variously attached to them in the opinion of the legislature. And there are many other minor offences, mala prohibita merely, created by statute, which might be in like manner committed. 387There are in Massachusetts, and doubtless in many of the States, statutes against blasphemy and profane cursing and swearing, the prevention of which seems to be equally if not more an object of solicitude and care on the part of the legislature, than the prevention of labor, travel, or other secular pursuits on Sunday, because more severely punished. It has not yet transpired, we believe, even in Massachusetts, that the action of any person to recover damages for an injury sustained by reason of defects in a highway, has been peremptorily dismissed because he was engaged at the time in profane cursing or swearing, or because he was in a state of voluntary intoxication, likewise prohibited under penalty by statute.

It is obvious that the breaking down of a bridge from the rottenness of the timbers, or their inability to sustain the weight of the person or of his horses and carriage, could not be affected by either of these circumstances, and yet, on the principle of the decisions above referred to in that State, it is not easy to see why the action must not be dismissed. On principle there could be no discrimination between the cases, and it could make no difference in what the unlawful act of the plaintiff consisted at the time of receiving the injury. We must reject the doctrine of those cases entirely and adopt that of the other cases cited, and which is well expressed by the Supreme Court of Maine, in Baker v. Portland, 58 Maine, 199, 204, as follows: “The defendant’s counsel contends that the simple fact that the plaintiff is in the act of violating the law, at the time of the injury, is a bar to the right of recovery. Undoubtedly there are many cases where the contemporaneous violation of the law by the plaintiff is so connected with his claim for damages as to preclude his recovery: but to lay down such a rule as the counsel claims, and disregard the distinction in the ruling of which he complains, would be productive oftentimes of palpable injustice. The fact that a party plaintiff in an action of this description was at the time of the injury passing another wayfarer on the wrong side of the street, or without giving him half the road, or that he was travelling on runners without bells, in contravention of the statute, or that he was smoking a cigar in the street, in violation of municipal ordinance, while it might subject the offender to a penalty, will not excuse the town for a neglect to make its way safe and convenient for travellers, if the commission of the plaintiff’s offence did not in any degree contribute to produce the injury of which he complains.”

Strong analogy is afforded and much weight and force of reason bearing upon this question are found in some of the cases which have arisen upon life policies, and as to the meaning and effect to be given to the condition usually contained in them, exempting the company from liability in case the assured “shall die in the known violation of any law,” &c., and it has been held that the violation must be such as is calculated to endanger life, by leading to acts of violence against, 388or to the bodily or personal injury or exposure of, the assured, and so to operate in producing his death in the connection of cause to effect. See opinions in Bradley v. Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co., 45 N. Y. 422.

In the case of Clemens v. Clemens, recently decided by this Court, it became necessary to consider the same question, though under different circumstances, as to what violation of law on the part of the plaintiff would bar his action in a Court of justice and leave him remediless in the hands of an overreaching and dishonest antagonist, and the views there expressed are not without their relevancy and adaptation to the question as here presented. In that case, this Court adopted the rule of law as settled in Massachusetts, favoring the remedy of the plaintiff, against the opposite rule sustained by the adjudications in some of the other States, and consistency of decision seems now clearly to require that our action should be reserved with respect to the rule established by the cases here referred to. The inconsistency upon general principle between these decisions of the same learned Court and those there relied upon and adopted, will, we think, be readily perceived and conceded when carefully examined and considered in connection with each other.

STEELE v. BURKHARDT
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, March, 1870.
Reported in 104 Massachusetts Reports, 59.

Tort for injury alleged to have been caused to the plaintiffs’ horse by the negligence of the defendant’s servant; submitted to the judgment of the Superior Court, and, on appeal, of this Court, upon the following award of an arbitrator as upon a statement of agreed facts:—

“I find that the injury to the plaintiffs’ horse, for which they seek to recover damages in this action, was occasioned by the negligence and want of due care of the defendant’s servant, then in the employment of the defendant. At the time of the injury, the plaintiffs’ 389wagon, to which the injured horse was attached, was placed in Clinton Street in the city of Boston, by the plaintiffs’ driver, having the care of the wagon for the loading of certain articles, the weight of which in each and every package thereof was less than five hundred pounds; and the wagon was then wholly or in part backed and placed across Clinton Street, and thereby the plaintiffs were guilty of a violation of an ordinance of the city, which provides as follows: ‘And for the loading or unloading of any dirt, bricks, stones, sand, gravel, or of any articles, whether of the same description or not, the weight of which in any one package shall be less than five hundred pounds, no truck, cart, wagon, sleigh, sled, or other vehicle shall be wholly or in part backed or placed across any street, square, lane, or alley, or upon flag-stones or crossings of the same, but shall be placed lengthwise, and as near as possible to the abutting stone of the sidewalk or footway; and any owner or driver or other person having the care of any such vehicle, violating either of the provisions of this section, shall be liable to a fine of not less than five dollars, nor more than twenty dollars, for each offence.’ It is in evidence that, at the time of the injury, there was sufficient room, with proper care, for the defendant’s team to pass through Clinton Street (a greater degree of care being required by reason of the position of the plaintiffs’ team as aforesaid, but not greater than the defendant was bound to use, in my judgment), but the defendant’s servant, in passing between the plaintiffs’ horse and the opposite curbstone, ran over and upon the hoof of the plaintiff’s horse, with a heavy team, and in so doing was guilty of the negligence which I report; and I further find, that the only fault upon the part of the plaintiffs is the fact of their horse and wagon having been placed against the curb in violation of the city ordinance above mentioned.

“In case the Court shall find, under the foregoing statement of facts, that the violation hereinbefore mentioned of said ordinance, on the part of the plaintiffs’ driver, debarred the plaintiffs from maintaining their action for damages, my award would be judgment for the defendant for his costs of court, with the costs of this reference; 390otherwise, my award would be for the plaintiffs, for the sum of $225 and their costs of court.”

Chapman, C. J. The act complained of by the plaintiffs is, that while their horse was standing on Clinton Street, the defendant’s servant, while driving a heavy team along the street, carelessly drove it upon the hoof of the plaintiffs’ horse, and injured him. The award, which the parties have agreed to accept as a statement of facts, finds that the injury was occasioned by negligence and want of due care in the defendant’s servant. The terms of this finding imply that there was no negligence on the part of the plaintiffs, which contributed to the injury. And it is further found that, though the plaintiffs’ team was standing there in violation of a city ordinance, yet there was room for the defendant’s team to pass by, using due care, and the only fault of the plaintiffs consisted in the violation of the city ordinance. It is not found that this violation contributed to the injury. It is said by Bigelow, C. J., in Jones v. Andover, 10 Allen, 20, that, “in case of a collision of two vehicles on a highway, evidence that the plaintiff was travelling on the left side of the road, in violation of the statute, when he met the defendant, would be admissible to show negligence.” So the evidence that the plaintiffs’ team was standing in the street in violation of a city ordinance was admissible to show negligence on their part. It did show negligence in respect to keeping the ordinance, but did not necessarily show negligence that contributed to the injury. And, notwithstanding this evidence, it was competent to the arbitrator to find, as a fact, that, towards the defendant, the plaintiffs were guilty of no negligence, but were careful to leave him ample room to pass. He did so find in substance; and his finding is agreed to as a fact.

A collision on the highway sometimes happens, when both parties are in motion, and both are active in producing it. In such cases, the plaintiff must prove that he was not moving carelessly. But the collision sometimes happens, as in this case, when the plaintiffs’ team is standing still. In such a case, he must prove that his position was not so carelessly taken as to contribute to the collision. The fact is here found that it was not so taken, though it was in violation of the ordinance. There was therefore no such negligence on his part as to defeat the action.

Actions founded on negligence are governed by a plain principle. The plaintiffs’ declaration alleges that the injury happened in consequence of the negligence of the defendant. This is held to imply that there was no negligence on the part of the plaintiff which contributed to the injury; and to throw upon him the burden of proving the truth of the allegation. It may depend upon care exercised by himself personally, or by his coachman, if he is riding; or by his teamster, in his absence; or by the person in charge of him, if he is an invalid, or an infant of tender years, or in any way so situated as to need the care 391of another person in respect to the matter. If there was want of care, either on the part of himself or the person acting for him, and the injury is partly attributable directly to that cause, he cannot recover, simply because he cannot prove what he has alleged. Among the numerous cases sustaining this view are, Parker v. Adams, 12 Met. 415; Horton v. Ipswich, 12 Cush. 488; Holly v. Boston Gas Light Co., 8 Gray, 131; Wright v. Malden & Melrose Railroad Co., 4 Allen, 283; Callahan v. Bean, 9 Allen, 401.

But it is further contended that these plaintiffs are compelled to prove their own violation of law in order to establish their case, and therefore the action cannot be maintained. The substance of the ordinance referred to is, that for loading and unloading packages weighing less than five hundred pounds, wagons shall stand lengthwise of streets, and not crosswise, under a prescribed penalty. The plaintiffs were loading packages of less weight, and their wagon was standing crosswise of the street. But proof of the weight of these packages was not necessary. In this respect the case is like that of Welch v. Wesson, 6 Gray, 505, where the plaintiff was injured while he was trotting his horse illegally. It is unlike the cases of Gregg v. Wyman, 4 Cush. 322, and Way v. Foster, 1 Allen, 408, which were decided in favor of the defendant upon the ground that the plaintiff was obliged to lay the foundation of his action in his own violation of law. Even in those cases, the violation of law by the plaintiffs would not have justified an assault and battery or a false imprisonment of the plaintiffs. In this case, if the packages had weighed more than five hundred pounds, the position of the team would have been the same. In Spofford v. Harlow, 3 Allen, 176, it was held that, though the plaintiff’s sleigh was on the wrong side of the street, in violation of law, the defendant was liable, if his servant ran into the plaintiff carelessly and recklessly, the plaintiff’s negligence not contributing to the injury. And it is true generally, that while no person can maintain an action to which he must trace his title through his own breach of the law, yet the fact that he is breaking the law does not leave him remediless for injuries wilfully or carelessly done to him, and to which his own conduct has not contributed.

NEWCOMB v. BOSTON PROTECTIVE DEPARTMENT
Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, January 25, 1888.
Reported in 146 Massachusetts Reports, 596.

Tort for personal injuries occasioned to the plaintiff, a cab-driver, by a collision between the cab and a wagon of the defendant.

At the trial in the Superior Court, before Blodgett, J., evidence was introduced tending to show that the defendant was incorporated 392under the St. of 1874, c. 61,^[248] for the protection of life and property at fires in the city of Boston, and that the collision occurred while one of its wagons, with its regular complement of men, was responding to a fire alarm; that the wagon was proceeding along Washington Street in a northerly direction; that the cab, upon which the plaintiff was sitting, was one of several cabs standing in a line upon the easterly side of Washington Street between the easterly track of a street railway and the curbstone; that the plaintiff’s cab and horse were not drawn up lengthwise of the street and as near as possible to the curbstone, but that the horse was facing the sidewalk at an angle so that the body of the cab projected eighteen or twenty inches into the street beyond the line of the other cabs; and that the wagon of the defendant was driven negligently into the cab, causing the accident.

The defendant asked the judge to instruct the jury as follows:—

“1. If the plaintiff, at the time of the accident, was violating the ordinance of the city of Boston, to wit, ‘Every owner, driver, or other person having the care and ordering of a vehicle shall, when stopping in a street, place his vehicle and the horse or horses connected therewith lengthwise with the street, as near as possible to the sidewalk,’ that was an unlawful act, and he cannot recover in this action. 2. If that unlawful act contributed to cause the alleged injury, the plaintiff was not in the exercise of due care, and therefore he cannot maintain this action. 3. Under section 3, chapter 61, of the Acts of 1874, ‘The officers and men of the Boston Protective Department, with their teams and apparatus, shall have the right of way, while going to a fire, through any street, lane, or alley in the city of Boston,’ said defendant is not liable for an accident caused by the collision of one of its teams, while going to a fire, with a vehicle standing in the streets, in violation of either of the city ordinances. 4. If the plaintiff, at the time of the action, was violating the ordinance of the city of Boston, to wit, ‘Every driver of a vehicle shall remain near it while it is unemployed or standing in a street, unless he is necessarily absent in the course of his duty and business, and he shall so keep his horse or horses and vehicle as not to obstruct the streets,’ that was an unlawful act, and he cannot recover in this action. 5. If that unlawful act contributed to cause the alleged injury, the plaintiff was not in the exercise of due care, and therefore he cannot maintain this action.”

The judge refused to give these instructions, but instructed the jury as to the effect of a violation of the ordinance as to the position of a 393vehicle and horse while standing in a street, stating that the rule was applicable to both ordinances as follows:—

“Bearing in mind the provision of the regulation as to the position of a vehicle when not in motion, I instruct you as to the law, that if, at the time of the injury to the plaintiff, he allowed his carriage to stand in the street in violation of this ordinance, such violation is evidence of negligence on his part; and, if such negligence directly contributed to the injury, the plaintiff cannot maintain the action. It cannot be said, as matter of law, that the fact that the plaintiff was violating a city ordinance necessarily shows negligence that contributed to the injury. Whether the position of the plaintiff’s horse and carriage, in violation of an ordinance, did or did not contribute to the injury, is a question of fact for the jury; and in determining this question, the jury will take into consideration all the surrounding facts and circumstances.... The plaintiff must prove that his position was not so carelessly taken as to contribute to the collision; and the fact that his position was in violation of the ordinance is not conclusive proof of negligence which contributed to the injury. Or, stating the general rule in a somewhat different form, the fact that the plaintiff is engaged in violating the law does not prevent him from recovering damages of the defendant for an injury which the defendant could have avoided by the exercise of ordinary care, unless the unlawful act contributed proximately to produce the injury.... If, applying these rules, you are of the opinion that there was no negligence, in other words, no carelessness, on the part of the plaintiff, which directly contributed to the injury, then the plaintiff is entitled to maintain this action, if he proves another proposition; and as to that, the burden is upon him. And that proposition is, that the defendant’s servants, in the care and management of this wagon, at the time the plaintiff was injured, were negligent.”

The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff; and the defendant alleged exceptions.

Knowlton, J. The plaintiff brought his action to recover for injuries received while sitting upon his cab, from the negligent driving of a wagon against it by a servant of the defendant corporation. There was evidence tending to show that, at the time of the accident, he was violating an ordinance of the city of Boston, by waiting in a street without placing his vehicle and horse lengthwise with the street, as near as possible to the sidewalk, and that this illegal conduct contributed to the injury. There was evidence applicable in like manner to another similar ordinance, which requires every driver of a vehicle standing in a street so to keep his horse or horses and vehicle as not to obstruct the streets.

As to the alleged violation of each of these ordinances, the defendant asked the Court to instruct the jury as follows: “If that unlawful act contributed to cause the alleged injury, the plaintiff was not in the 394exercise of due care, and therefore he cannot maintain this action.” The presiding judge declined to give this instruction, and gave none which we deem to be equivalent to it. He instructed the jury in these words: “If, at the time of the injury to the plaintiff, he allowed his carriage to stand in the street in violation of this ordinance, such violation is evidence of negligence on his part; and, if such negligence directly contributed to the injury, the plaintiff cannot maintain the action. It cannot be said, as matter of law, that the fact that the plaintiff was violating a city ordinance necessarily shows negligence that contributed to the injury.” In another part of the charge it was indirectly intimated that, if the plaintiff’s unlawful act contributed proximately to produce the injury, he could not recover, but it was nowhere expressly stated.

The question before us then is, whether or not the defendant was entitled to this instruction,—in other words, whether, if the plaintiff’s unlawful act contributed to cause his injury, it was a bar to his recovery, or merely evidence of negligence which might or might not bar him, according to the view which the jury should take of his conduct as a whole, in its relation to the accident.

It has often been held that a violation of law at the time of an accident, by one connected with it, is evidence of his negligence, but not conclusive. Hanlon v. South Boston Horse Railroad, 129 Mass. 310; Hall v. Ripley, 119 Mass. 135; Damon v. Scituate, 119 Mass. 66. In recent times a large number of penal statutes have been enacted, in which the legislature has seen fit to punish acts which are not mala in se, and sometimes when in a given case there is no actual criminal intent. On grounds of public policy, laws have been passed under which a person is bound to know the facts in regard to the subject with which he is dealing, when under possible circumstances ignorance would not be inconsistent with proper care. One who sells milk must know that it is not adulterated. An unlicensed person must know that what he sells is not intoxicating liquor. Commonwealth v. Boynton, 2 Allen, 160. And if in a possible case he trespasses in innocent ignorance, the law gives him no relief. He can only appeal to the sense of justice and the discretion of the public authorities to save him from the punishment which the law would inflict. It is obvious that in suits for negligence, if the contributing conduct of the plaintiff is to be considered as a whole, it may sometimes be found that he has not been guilty of actual negligence or fault, although he has violated the law. One element of his action may be neglect of a duty prescribed by a statute, when there are other concurring elements which show that his course was entirely justifiable.

As a general rule, in deciding a question in relation to negligence, each element which enters as a factor into one’s act to give it character is to be considered in connection with every other, and the result is reached by considering all together. But, for reasons which will presently 395appear, illegal conduct of a plaintiff directly contributing to the occurrence on which his action is founded, is an exception to this rule. Such illegality may be viewed in either of two aspects: looking at the transaction to which it pertains as a whole, it may be considered as a circumstance bearing upon the question whether there was actual negligence; or looking at it simply in reference to the violated law, the act may be tried solely by the test of that law. In the latter aspect it wears a hostile garb, and an inquiry is at once suggested, whether the plaintiff, as a transgressor of the law, is in a position to obtain relief at the hand of the law. In the first view, the illegal conduct comes within the general rule just stated; in the second, it does not. This distinction has not always been observed. A plaintiff’s violation of law has usually been discussed in connection with the subject of due care.

In Bosworth v. Swansey, 10 Met. 363, Chief Justice Shaw, after referring to the rule that a plaintiff must be free from “imputation of negligence or fault,” says, in reference to unlawful travelling on the Lord’s day, “This would be a species of fault on his part, which would bring him within the principle of the cases cited.”

In Jones v. Andover, 10 Allen, 18, Chief Justice Bigelow says, “The term ‘due care,’ as usually understood, in cases where the gist of the action is the negligence of the defendant, implies not only that a party has not been negligent or careless, but that he has been guilty of no violation of law in relation to the subject-matter or transaction which constitutes the cause of action.”

In Steele v. Burkhardt, 104 Mass. 59, an action for negligence in driving against the plaintiffs’ horse, which was left standing in a street in violation of an ordinance, Chief Justice Chapman considers the general subject of the plaintiffs’ due care, and then treats particularly the contention of the defendant that the plaintiffs were compelled to prove their violation of law in order to establish their case.

McGrath v. Merwin, 112 Mass. 467, was an action founded on the defendant’s alleged negligence in starting the machinery of a mill, while the plaintiff was at work in the wheel-pit making repairs on the Lord’s day, and Mr. Justice Morton, in delivering the opinion, deals with the case solely upon the principle that Courts will not aid a plaintiff whose action is founded upon his own illegal act, and says, “The decisions in this Commonwealth are numerous and uniform to the effect that the plaintiff, being engaged in a violation of law, cannot recover, if his own illegal act was an essential element of his case as disclosed upon all the evidence.” He further states the rule in such cases to be, that, “if the illegal act of the plaintiff contributed to his injury, he cannot recover; but though the plaintiff at the time of the injury was acting in violation of law, if his illegal act did not contribute to the injury, but was independent of it, he is not precluded thereby from recovering.”

396In Davis v. Guarnieri, 45 Ohio St. 470, Owen, C. J., states, as the second of three considerations upon which the doctrine of contributory negligence is founded, “the principle which requires every suitor who seeks to enforce his rights or redress his wrongs to go into court with clean hands, and which will not permit him to recover for his own wrong.”

No case has been brought to our attention, and upon careful investigation we have found none, in which a plaintiff whose violation of law contributed directly and proximately to cause him an injury has been permitted to recover for it; and the decisions are numerous to the contrary. Hall v. Ripley, 119 Mass. 135; Banks v. Highland Street Railway, 136 Mass. 485; Tuttle v. Lawrence, 119 Mass. 276, 278; Lyons v. Desotelle, 124 Mass. 387; Heland v. Lowell, 3 Allen, 407; Steele v. Burkhardt, 104 Mass. 59; Damon v. Scituate, 119 Mass. 66; Marble v. Ross, 124 Mass. 44; Smith v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 120 Mass. 490. And it is quite immaterial whether or not a plaintiff’s unlawful act contributing to his injury is negligent or wrong when considered in all its relations. He is precluded from recovering on the ground that the Court will not lend its aid to one whose violation of law is the foundation of his claim. Hall v. Corcoran, 107 Mass. 251.

While this principle is universally recognized, there is great practical difficulty in applying it. The best minds often differ upon the question whether, in a given case, illegal conduct of a plaintiff was a direct and proximate cause contributing with others to his injury, or was a mere condition of it; or, to state the question in another way, appropriate to the reason of the rule, whether or not his own illegal act is an essential element of his case as disclosed upon all the evidence. Upon this point it is not easy to reconcile the cases. It has been unanimously decided that in Gregg v. Wyman, 4 Cush. 322, there was error in holding a plaintiff’s illegal conduct to be an essential element of his case, when in fact it was merely incidental to it. Hall v. Corcoran, ubi supra. But whatever criticisms may have been made upon the decisions or the assumptions in certain cases, that illegal action of a plaintiff contributed to the result, or was to be treated as a concurring cause, or upon language in disregard of the distinction between a cause and a condition, there has been none upon the doctrine that, when a plaintiff’s illegal conduct does directly contribute to his injury, it is fatal to his recovery of damages. Baker v. Portland, 58 Maine, 199; Norris v. Litchfield, 35 N. H. 271; Sutton v. Wauwatosa, 29 Wis. 21.