Chalmers v. Kolb
| Decision Date | 31 December 1925 |
| Docket Number | No. 10558.,10558. |
| Citation | 9 F.2d 924 |
| Parties | CHALMERS v. KOLB. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania |
Maurice W. Sloan and Raymond A. White, both of Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.
William Clarke Mason, of Philadelphia, Pa., for defendant.
Before THOMPSON and DICKINSON, District Judges, sitting in banc.
The plaintiff sued to recover damages for the death of his wife on March 24, 1923, through the alleged negligence of the defendant. The defendant is the owner of a farm known as the Buttonball farm. The house on the adjoining farm, also owned by the defendant, was occupied by his employee, Mr. Nippes.
On the day of the accident, Mrs. Chalmers, who was living in Brooklyn, N. Y., was on her way to visit the wife of Mr. Nippes. The Buttonball farm, upon which the accident occurred, was occupied and farmed by a Mr. Griffing, and the farmhouse occupied by him with his wife, the daughter of Mrs. Nippes, and four children, with the defendant's permission, free of rent, and without agreement as to other terms.
On the morning in question, Mrs. Griffing met Mrs. Chalmers at Ambler station in a Ford car, and, before taking her to the Nippes home, drove into the Buttonball farm, intending, after arriving at the Griffing house, to drive Mrs. Chalmers across the fields to the Nippes farm, on which was the house where her mother lived. While driving along a lane on the Buttonball farm, a large branch of an ash tree fell upon the automobile, causing the death of Mrs. Chalmers. There was no evidence in the case that it was necessary, in order to visit Mrs. Nippes, to drive into the Buttonball farm.
As the Buttonball farm was occupied and in the possession of Mr. Griffing and his family, and farmed by him, without payment of rent or upon any terms, he was a mere tenant at will of the defendant. Mrs. Chalmers, for her own pleasure, had accepted the invitation of Mrs. Griffing to stop at her house on the Buttonball farm before being taken by her to Mrs. Nippes' house on the adjoining farm. Under these circumstances, she was an invitee of Mrs. Griffing, and there was nothing more than ordinary care required of the defendant to prevent injury to her. The question, then, is whether there was any evidence of want of ordinary care under the circumstances, which should have been submitted to the jury to find the defendant guilty of negligence causing Mrs. Chalmers' death.
The tree, from which the limb fell, was between the road, being used...
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Biggs v. Bear
...In Fisher v. Jansen, 30 Ill.App. 91, plaintiff was a guest of a tenant of a multiple dwelling and the landlord was defendant. Chalmers v. Kolb, 9 F.2d 924, would appear to support plaintiff's view, but it fades in the light of what is hereinafter stated. Several Illinois cases express the d......