Part 1 — 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.

Judgment affirmed.^[220]

334 STEINMETZ v. KELLY Supreme Court, Indiana, November Term, 1880. Reported in 72 Indiana Reports, 442.

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.

Judgement affirmed.^[221]

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.]

Exceptions overruled.^[222]

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.

Exceptions sustained.^[223]

343 GEORGIA PACIFIC RAILWAY CO. v. LEE Supreme Court, Alabama, November Term, 1890. Reported in 92 Alabama Reports, 262.

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.

Judgment affirmed.

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.

Rehearing denied.^[226]

352 THE BERNINA In the Court of Appeal, January 24, 1887. Reported in Law Reports, 12 Probate Division, 58.

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.

Appeal allowed.

Affirmed in the House of Lords under the name of Mills v. Armstrong; L. R. 13 App. Cases, 1.^[229]

359 SHULTZ v. OLD COLONY STREET RAILWAY COMPANY Supreme Judicial Court, Massachusetts, January 1, 1907. Reported in 193 Massachusetts Reports, 309.

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.

Exceptions sustained.^[234]

362 KOPLITZ v. CITY OF ST. PAUL Supreme Court, Minnesota, June 6, 1902. Reported in 86 Minnesota Reports, 373.

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.

Judgment affirmed.^[235]

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.