Potter v. Natural Gas Co.

Citations

• 183 Pa. 575
• 39 A. 7
• 1898 Pa. LEXIS 1081

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Pipe line— Contributory negligence — Highway—Pro%imati,_ cause — Wright of horse — Evidence—Province of court and jury.</p> <p>In ail action against a natural gas company to recover damages for personal injuries, it appeared that while plaintiff was driving in a one horse two wheeled cart along a highway which he traveled almost daily, the right wheel struck and scraped a two inch iron pipe, part of defendant’s feed line at the side of the road. The mare which he was driving took fright, jumped to one side and kicked over the front of the cart, throwing plaintiff backward out of the cart and seriously injuring him. At the point of the accident a cut through a ridge at right angles to the road had been made for the road bed, which last, at the surface or wagon track, was eight feet six inches wide. The gauge of plaintiff’s cart wheels was five feet two inches. The defendant had laid its pipe on the bank above the cut, (dose to a post and rail fence, within about two feet horizontally from the track on the highway. Either from the effect of changes of the weather on iron, or by physical force, the pipe at this point had been moved from its original position and was thrown in a curve out from the fence and down into the cut, so as to be over on the wagon track about, a foot. It was shown that this had been the situation of the pipe for at least some weeks and, perhaps, months before the accident. Held, (1) that the question of defendant’s negligence and of plaintiff’s contributory negligence was for the jury; (2) that it was proper to admit evidence that sonic time prior to the accident another horse of quiet temper had been frightened at the noise made by a wagon wheel scraping on the pipe; (3) that it was proper to admit evidencie that the pipe had been seen to lie out of place for a long time, by an ordinary traveler, and until two or three weeks before the accident; (4) that it was proper to permit the plaintiff to testify that up to the time of his