Yoders v. Amwell Township

Citations

• 172 Pa. 447
• 33 A. 1017
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 798

Syllabus

<p>Negligence — Townships—Remote and proximate cause.</p> <p>In cases oí mere negligence, aggravated by no element of malice, to ascertain whether the negligence be the proximate cause, it must appear that the injury was the natural and probable consequence of the negligence — such a consequence, as under the surrounding circumstances of the ease might and ought to have been foreseen by the wrongdoer.</p> <p>Negligence — Township—Bridges—(Guard rails — Proximate cause.</p> <p>Township authorities are bound to foresee that a bridge may be crossed in the nighttime by a spirited horse, and that such horse may take fright,I and if they neglect to place a guard rail upon a narrow bridge,and an in-' jury result from the fright of such a horse in the nighttime, which could have been guarded against by a rail, the negligence of the township authorities is the proximate cause of the injury.</p> <p>Township authorities are bound to know that the fright of a horse is an ordinary circumstance, and to be expected, and that his conduct when in fright may be unreasoning, insane and unlooked for; and they cannot excuse their negligence in failing to properly guard a bridge by asserting that they could not foresee the particular freak of conduct in a terrified horse.</p> <p>Where township authorities neglect to provide guard rails for a narrow bridge, and a horse attached to a buggy passes safely over the bridge in the nighttime, and then takes fright, and backs the buggy onto the bridge, and over its side, injuring the occupants of the buggy, the negligence of the township authorities is the proximate cause of the accident, and the township is liable for the injuries.</p> <p>A young man took two young women to a church sociable in a one horse buggy on a dark night. On their return about midnight they crossed a narrow bridge which was not protected by a guard rail. Just as they got on the bridge, the plaintiff, a girl fifteen years old, accidentally dropped her hat from the buggy. T