Bleil v. Detroit St. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 22 December 1893
• Citation: 57 N.W. 117,98 Mich. 228
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: BLEIL v. DETROIT ST. RY. CO.

57 N.W. 117

98 Mich. 228

BLEIL v. DETROIT ST. RY. CO.

Supreme Court of Michigan

December 22, 1893

Error to circuit court, Wayne county; George S. Hosmer, Judge.

Action by John C. Bleil against the Detroit Street-Railway Company. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appeals. Reversed.

Sidney T. Miller, (John C. Donnelly, of counsel,) for appellant.

John G. Hawley, for appellee.

GRANT, J., (after stating the facts.)

We think the circuit court was in error. The proximate cause of the injury was the frightening and running away of the horse. Whether the defendant was guilty of negligence we need not determine. Ample room was left in the street for the passage of vehicles in the ordinary manner while under the control of their drivers. This is not a case where a horse merely shies or starts, and for the moment is not under control, which was the case in Langworthy v. Township of Green, (Mich.) 54 N.W. 697. The accident was not the natural and probable result of piling the rails in the street close to the curb, but of the fright of the horse. The proximate, and not the remote, cause controls in such cases in this state. Beall v. Township of Athens, 81 Mich. 530, 45 N.W. 1014; St. Clair Mineral Springs Co. v. City of St. Clair, (Mich.) 56 N.W. 18. This is also the rule in other states. Moss v. City of Burlington, 60 Iowa, 438, 15 N.W. 267; Worrilow v. Upper Chichester Tp., 149 Pa. St. 40, 24 A. 85; Kieffer v. Borough of Hummelstown, (Pa. Sup.) 24 A. 1060; Perkins v. Fayette, 68 Me. 152; Fogg v. Nahant, 106 Mass. 278. See, also, Houfe v. Fulton, 29 Wis. 296, where the principle is discussed. Judgment reversed, and no new trial ordered. The other justices concurred.