Bruggeman v. City of York

Citations

• 259 Pa. 94
• 102 A. 415
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 523

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Municipalities—Accumulation of filth on street and sidewallc — Woman sweeping off sidewallc — Pushing of wire in mud with broom — Splashing of mud — Injury to eye — Proximate cause— Court and jury — Judgment for defendant n. o. v.</p> <p>1. A proximate cause is one which, in actual sequence, undisturbed by any independent cause, produces the result complained of. A prior and remote cause cannot be made the basis of an action if such remote cause did nothing more than furnish the condition or give rise to the occasion by which the injury was made possible if there intervened between such prior or remote cause and the injury a distinct, successive, unrelated and efficient cause of the injury.</p> <p>2. The injury must be the natural and probable consequence of the negligence; such a consequence as under the circumstances might and ought to be foreseen by the wrongdoer as likely to flow from his acts.</p> <p>3. The facts being undisputed the question of proximate cause is for the court.</p> <p>4. In ,an action against a municipality to recover damages for personal injuries it appeared that the defendant had raised the grade of a lot causing water and mud to overflow plaintiff’s sidewalk; that plaintiff, while sweeping off the sidewalk, in an effort to remove a coil of wire which had become lodged in the pavement or gutter pushed it with her broom so that it sprang back and sent a splash of the street mud into her eye, causing the loss of the sight thereof. Held, the pushing of the coiled wire and not the presence of the múcL was the proximate cause of the accident and judgment was entered for the defendant non obstante veredicto.</p>