Spangler v. Markley

Citations

• 39 Pa. Super. 351
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 491

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Automobiles—Fright of horse — Duty as to use of highways.</p> <p>1. For the purpose of avoiding collision and accident, all travelers on a public highway should observe due care in accommodating themselves to each other. Their rights are mutual and co-ordinate, and it is the duty of each so to exercise his right of passage as not to cause injury to another, having a like right. Each is under the obligation to exercise ordinary care, and each has the right to expect that such ordinary care will be exercised by the other, and to rely upon this in determining his own manner of using the road. The mere fact that a horse, which had previously been gentle and easily controlled, shows signs of being unruly when driven in view of an automobile, does not impose upon the owner the duty to refrain from using him on the highway with ordinary care.</p> <p>2. If the operator of an automobile knows, or by the exercise of ordinary care may know, that the movement or noise of his machine will render an animal unmanageable, he must use all the care and caution which a careful and prudent driver should exercise under the same circumstances. He has the right to assume, and to act upon the assumption, that every person whom he meets will also exercise ordinary care and caution according to the circumstances and will not negligently or recklessly expose himself to danger, but rather make an attempt to avoid it, But when an operator has had time to realize, or by exercise of a proper lookout should have realized, that a person whom he meets is in a perilous position, or in a position of disadvantage, and therefore seemingly unable to avoid the coming automobile, he must exercise increased exertion to avoid a collision, or what is equivalent, the fright of a horse induced by an automobile.</p> <p>3. In an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained as the result of a fright of a horse by an automobile, plaintiff, who was about seventy years of age, testified t