New trial to be granted.[[179]]
PAYNE v. CHICAGO & ALTON RAILROAD COMPANY
Supreme Court, Missouri, June 25, 1895.
Reported in 129 Missouri Reports, 405.
Action for personal injuries alleged to be caused by the negligence of defendant. Answer: a general denial, and a plea of contributory negligence.[[180]]
The judge, at the request of plaintiff, gave the following instruction:—
“No. 7. One of the defences in this case interposed by the defendant is that of negligence on the part of plaintiff, Claude Payne, directly contributing to the injuries of which plaintiff complains; and the court instructs the jury that the law devolves upon the defendant the burden of proving such negligence by a preponderance of the evidence, and it is not sufficient that the jury may believe from the evidence that the plaintiff was simply guilty of negligence, but that the negligence of plaintiff, and not that of the defendant, must be the proximate or immediate cause of the injury, to excuse the defendant from liability.”
In the Circuit Court plaintiff had judgment. Defendant appealed.
Macfarlane, J. Defendant complains of instruction 7 given the jury at the request of plaintiff. The complaint is that the instruction improperly defines contributory negligence.
Contributory negligence, as the word imports, implies the concurring negligence of both plaintiff and defendant. The phrase is defined by Beach as follows: “Contributory negligence, in its legal signification, is such an act or omission on the part of a plaintiff, amounting to a want of ordinary care, as, concurring or coöperating with the negligent act of the defendant, is a proximate cause or occasion of the injury complained of.” Beach, Cont. Neg. [2 ed.] sect. 7. The definition given by Shearman & Redfield in their work on Negligence (sect. 61) is in substance and effect the same.
If the negligence of either plaintiff or defendant is the sole cause of the injury there could be no contributory negligence in the case. The question for the jury is whether the plaintiff could “by the exercise of such care and skill as he was bound to exercise, have avoided the consequence of the defendant’s negligence.” Lord Blackburn, L. R. 3 App. Cas. 1207. See, also, 4 Am. & Eng. Encyclopedia of Law, 18 & 19. It is clear that there could be no contributory negligence unless there was also negligence of defendant to which that of plaintiff could contribute. Unless the negligence of defendant was the proximate cause of the injury, there could be no liability. Unless the negligence of plaintiff was a proximate cause of the injury, his action, on the ground of contributory negligence, would not be defeated.
Testing the instruction by these rules, it cannot be approved. It tells the jury that “the negligence of plaintiff, and not that of defendant, must be the proximate or immediate cause of the injury to excuse the defendant from liability.” They were told in effect that this result would follow though “plaintiff was simply guilty of negligence.” The jury may as well have been told that to defeat a recovery on the plea of contributory negligence, it was necessary to find that the negligence of plaintiff was the sole proximate cause of the injury. The instruction ignored entirely concurring or contributory negligence of both parties, which is one essential element of contributory negligence. There are no degrees which distinguish the negligence made necessary by the law to defeat a recovery. And negligence which is proximate or a cause of the injury is sufficient. It does not matter that the concurring and coöperating negligence of defendant was negligence, per se, such as the violation of an ordinance, as in this case, or statute law.