Mayor v. Erie R. Co.

• Citation: 75 A. 922,78 N.J.L. 592
• Parties: MAYOR, ETC., OF CTTY OF PATERSON v. ERIE R. CO.
• Decision Date: 28 February 1910
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)

75 A. 922

78 N.J.L. 592

MAYOR, ETC., OF CTTY OF PATERSON

v. ERIE R. CO.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

Feb. 28, 1910.

Error to Supreme Court.

Action by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Paterson against the Erie Railroad Company. Judgment of nonsuit, and plaintiff brings error. Reversed, and new trial awarded.

Edward F. Merrey, for plaintiff in error.

Collins & Corbin, for defendant in error.

GUMMERE, C. J. This suit was brought by the city of Paterson to recover damages for injuries received by one of its fire engines in a collision between it and a train of the defendant company at a railroad crossing in the city. The plaintiff's proofs showed that the crossing gates were not down, and that no bell was rung, or whistle blown, on the train as it approached the crossing. It also appeared in the plaintiff's case that the driver of the fire engine came onto the crossing without using care to see whether or not a train was approaching. At the close of the plaintiff's case a nonsuit was ordered, upon the ground that its right of recovery was barred by the contributory negligence of the driver of the engine. The plaintiff in error now challenges the soundness of that ruling.

A person whose negligent act produces injury to another cannot escape liability therefor merely by showing that the injury was contributed to by the careless act of a third person. In order to relieve him from such liability, it must also appear that the act of the third person was one for which the injured party was responsible, under the doctrine of "respondeat superior." In the absence of proof of that fact, the injured person is entitled to compel both or either of the wrongdoers to compensate him for his injuries. The correctness of the ruling of the trial court depends, therefore, upon whether the negligence of the driver of the fire engine is imputable to the city.

Municipal corporations are engaged in the performance of public services, in which they have no particular interest, and from which they derive no special benefit in their corporate capacity. The persons employed by them in the rendering of such service act as public servants, charged with a public duty. They are mere agencies, or instrumentalities, by which such duties are performed, and the doctrine of "respondeat superior" does not apply to such employment. Condict v. Jersey City, 40 N.J.Law, 157; Wild v. Paterson, 47 N.J.Law, 406, 1 Atl. 490. Accordingly it was held by this court in the...