Bott v. Pratt
| Decision Date | 18 April 1885 |
| Citation | 33 Minn. 323 |
| Parties | PETER BOTT <I>vs.</I> FRANK H. PRATT and another. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
county, Wilkin, J., presiding, refusing a new trial, after a verdict of $950 for plaintiff.
O'Brien & Wilson, for appellants.
Wm. Ely Bramhall and Gordon E. Cole, for respondent.
The charter of the city of St. Paul empowers the city council, by ordinance, to compel persons to fasten their horses or other animals attached to vehicles, while standing in the streets; such ordinance to have the force of law within the municipal jurisdiction, and to be enforced by the proper penalties. In pursuance of this provision the following ordinance was passed, and was in force when the accident out of which this action arose, occurred: "It shall not hereafter be lawful for any teamster or driver or owner, or any person or persons having in charge any team attached to any vehicle within the city of St. Paul, to leave the same standing in or along any public street in said city, without being securely hitched or fastened, or without being held by some one securely." The defendants left a team of horses, attached to a wagon loaded with wood, in a public street, standing unhitched, and for the time without being held or in the charge of any one; the driver, defendants' servant, having temporarily left them, to make inquiry in reference to the place of delivery of the wood. In his absence the team started and ran down Wabasha street, one of the most public thoroughfares in the city, across the bridge over the Mississippi river, and, colliding with the plaintiff's wagon, caused the injury complained of. There was no evidence showing the particular circumstances which caused the horses to take fright and run away. But the plaintiff's case rests upon the facts above stated, which are undisputed.
The questions of fact as to the character and extent of plaintiff's injuries, and whether he was guilty of contributory negligence in the premises, and also whether the fact that the team was left unfastened and unguarded in a public street was the proximate cause of the injury, were settled by the verdict. Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry. Co. v. Kellogg, 94 U. S. 469.
The only question, then, remaining for our consideration, is the question of the liability of the defendants in a civil action for the natural and probable consequences of the unexcused omission of their servant to fasten the team. We say unexcused, because, in view of the language and purpose of the charter and ordinance, it is manifestly no sufficient excuse that the horses were believed to be gentle, and not vicious, and had never been known to run away. If the action were simply an ordinary action for negligence, in the absence of any statutory duty, these circumstances, with others, might have been considered by the jury in determining the question of negligence, — Griggs v. Fleckenstein, 14 Minn. 62, (81,) — though, in such an action, the fact that the horses ran away, and were not properly hitched, would be evidence of negligence in not fastening them. Strup v. Edens, 22 Wis. 432; Courternier v. Secombe, 8 Minn. 264, (299.) But in refusing defendants' instructions to the jury, the court rested the action upon the breach of the ordinance, and in substance charged them that the fact of so leaving the horses unattended, and of the runaway and injury to plaintiff in consequence, if the jury should so find, established a case against the defendants. The case turns upon the correctness of these instructions.
Highways are dedicated to the use of travellers, and hence it is held to be the law that where horses are unlawfully turned loose or permitted to be at large in a public street by the owner, he is liable for any resulting injury or trespass, without reference to the question of previous knowledge of their vicious disposition or character. Barnes v. Chapin, 4 Allen, 444; Goodman v. Gay, 15 Pa. St. 188, 193. In Barnes v. Chapin the court say, (p. 446:) "It has long been regarded as inconsistent with the safety and convenience of travellers to permit horses to go at large on the highway, and such an act is an offence against our statutes." The difference between that case and this is that while the defendants' horses were rightfully on the public street, they were unlawfully left unguarded. The breach of duty arising from the violation of the statute in one case, and the ordinance in the other, is of the same nature, and the consequences the same, as relating to the safety of persons using the streets. Travellers on a highway would have a right to assume that the statutes referred to were made for their protection, and that they were therefore entitled to the benefit thereof in enforcing a claim for damages against persons through whose neglect to observe the requirements of such statutes they have suffered injury. And so it is insisted by the plaintiff in this action that this ordinance is binding as law upon the inhabitants of the city; that it was lawfully made for a similar purpose, and involves like duties and responsibilities, as respects persons within the municipal jurisdiction. This point will be further considered in the course of the opinion.
Wherever a statute creates a duty or an obligation, then, though it has not in express terms given a remedy, the remedy which is by law properly applicable to that obligation follows as an incident. Addison on Torts, § 58; Parker v. Barnard, 135 Mass. 116; Patterson v. Detroit, etc., R. Co., 22 N. W. Rep. 260. But whether a liability arising from the breach of a statutory duty accrues for the benefit of an individual specially injured thereby, or whether such liability is exclusively of a public character, must depend upon the nature of the duty enjoined, and the benefits to be derived from its performance. Taylor v. Lake Shore & M. S. R. Co., 45 Mich. 74; Hayes v. Mich. Central R. Co., 111 U. S. 228, 240; Cooley on Torts, 658.
To illustrate: Patterson v. Detroit, etc., R. Co., supra, was an action for damages by a traveller, against defendants, for obstructing a highway in violation of the provisions of a statute prohibiting railway companies from obstructing a street-crossing longer than five minutes. Parker v. Barnard was an action for damages by a person injured through defendant's omission, in disregard of a statute, to protect a hatchway by a railing. Hayes v. Mich. Central R. Co. is a case where, as in this case, an action for damages was predicated upon the negligent omission to comply with an ordinance which a city had passed under legislative authority, and which was intended as a protection to persons from injuries. In Salisbury v. Herchenroder, 106 Mass. 458, plaintiff recovered damages occasioned by the falling of a sign (in an extraordinary gale) which had been suspended by defendant over a street, contrary to a city ordinance, and defendant was not otherwise negligent. In Owings v. Jones, 9 Md. 108, 117, the defendant was held liable for consequent damages to a party injured through a negligent omission to comply with the...
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