Chapter XXV: Section VIII: Contributory Culpable Conduct of Plaintiff (5)

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]

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 that 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 it, 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.

The 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 motorman 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 Railroad, 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 is 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.

At 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 creates 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]

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 team 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 his 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 which 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 the 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 establishment 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 unruly 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 and 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 is 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]

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 for 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.]