Sprowls v. Township

Citations

• 179 Pa. 219
• 36 A. 242
• 1897 Pa. LEXIS 624

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Contributory negligence — Sudden danger — Boads. ■</p> <p>A person who is suddenly placed in a position of danger by the negli gent act of another is not responsible for an error of judgment committed in an attempt to extricate himself whereby he incurred another danger, without negligence of his own.</p> <p>In an action against a township to recover damages for personal injuries by falling over an embankment on the side of an unguarded public road, it appeared that at the point where the accident occurred the road was only ten feet wide. On the upper side was a steep, inaccessible bank, and on the lower side a steep declivity down a bank fourteen feet on its slope, and ten to twelve feet in perpendicular depth. At the foot of the bank was a sunken space or gutter two and one half feet in width, and immediately beyond, the bed of a railroad track, the nearest rail being about four feet from the foot of the bank. The road inclined upwards toward the brow or knoll a short distance, beyond which the plaintiff said he could not see the road. According to plaintiff’s own testimony, when he reached this point in the road he saw a train approaching him about six hundred and eighty feet distant. The train was running at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, and it would have reached his position in about thirty-five seconds from the time he first saw it. Plaintiffs horse took fright, and plaintiff was carried over and down the embankment and injured. Plaintiff testified that under the circumstances he thought at the time that it was best for him to stay in his buggy and try to control his horse, keep him in motion, and gain a better position, if there was such, on the other side of the knoll. Held, (1) that the question whether the plaintiff exercised the care and caution that a reasonably prudent and cautious man would have done under the circumstances was for the jury; 12) that a verdict and judgment for plaintiff should be sustained.</p>