A rule nisi having been obtained calling on the plaintiff to show cause why the verdict should not be entered for the defendant on the second and third issues,—
Shee, Serjt., (Grady with him,) showed cause. On the form of the rule as obtained the plaintiff is clearly entitled to succeed, as there was evidence that the defendant did by his acts tacitly give permission to the boy to pass along the close for a lawful purpose, and the jury have so found. But the plaintiff is also entitled to succeed on the broader ground. In Corby v. Hill, 4 C. B. N. S. 556, it was held that the defendant was liable for the negligence of his servant in placing materials in a dangerous position, and without notice, on a private road along which persons were accustomed to pass by leave of the owners; and in Southcote v. Stanley, 25 L. J. 339, Ex.,[[146]] a visitor to a person’s house was held entitled to recover for injuries caused by opening a glass door which was insecure, and which it was necessary for him to open. (He was then stopped by the Court.)
Petersdorff, Serjt., (Bridge with him,) in support of the rule. Montague Close was the defendant’s private property, and no one had any right to be there without his express or implied permission. The lowering heavy goods from the warehouses by cranes is a manifestly dangerous business, and persons using the way took upon themselves whatever risks might be incidental to that business. In Hounsell v. Smyth, 7 C. B. N. S. 743, where the defendant was held not to be liable for leaving a quarry unfenced on waste land across which the public were allowed to pass, Williams, J., said: “No right is averred, but merely that the owners allowed persons, for diversion or business, to go across the waste without complaint; that is, that they were not so churlish as to interfere with any one who went across. But a person so using the waste has no right to complain of any excavation he may find there; he must accept the permission with its concomitant conditions, and it may be its perils.” [Blackburn, J. Have you any authority that persons so using the way take upon themselves the negligence of the servants about the place?] In Bolch v. Smith, 31 L. J. 201, Ex., where workmen employed in a dock-yard were permitted to use a place as a way on which revolving machinery had been erected, it was held that the right so to use the place was only the right not to be treated as a trespasser, and that there was no obligation to fence the machinery, and no liability for insufficiently fencing it. [Cockburn, C. J. There was the ordinary state of things in that case, and no superadded negligence.]
Cockburn, C. J. I doubt whether on the pleadings and this rule it is competent to enter into the question of negligence, and whether the whole matter does not turn upon the question whether permission was or was not given to the plaintiff to pass along the way. But I should be sorry to decide this case upon that narrow ground. I quite agree that a person who merely gives permission to pass and repass along his close is not bound to do more than allow the enjoyment of such permissive right under the circumstances in which the way exists; that he is not bound, for instance, if the way passes along the side of a dangerous ditch or along the edge of a precipice, to fence off the ditch or precipice. The grantee must use the permission as the thing exists. It is a different question, however, where negligence on the part of the person granting the permission is superadded. It cannot be that, having granted permission to use a way subject to existing dangers, he is to be allowed to do any further act to endanger the safety of the person using the way. The plaintiff took the permission to use the way subject to a certain amount of risk and danger, but the case assumes a different aspect when the negligence of the defendant—for the negligence of his servants is his—is added to that risk and danger. The way in question was a private one leading to different wharves. On part of the way a wharf was being constructed or repaired, and the plaintiff’s father was employed upon that work. It was the father’s habit not to go home to his meals, and the boy used to take them to him at the wharf, and on this occasion was passing along carrying his father’s dinner. The plaintiff was therefore passing along on a perfectly legitimate purpose, and the evidence is that the defendant permitted the way to be used by persons having legitimate business upon the premises. That being so, the defendant places himself by such permission under the obligation of not doing anything by himself or his servants from which injury may arise, and if by any act of negligence on the part of himself or his servants injury does arise, he is liable to an action. That is the whole question. The plaintiff is passing along the passage by permission of the defendant, and though he could only enjoy that permission under certain contingencies, yet when injury arises not from any of those contingencies, but from the superadded negligence of the defendant, the defendant is liable for that negligence as much as if it had been upon a public highway.
Wightman, J. The rule in this case was obtained on a very narrow ground. The declaration having alleged that the plaintiff and others were permitted to pass, repass, and use the way in question, and that the plaintiff was there with the permission of the proprietors of the passage lawfully passing along the passage, the defendant took issue on the fact whether such right to pass along the passage was permitted by the defendant. I think that there was evidence to show that the plaintiff had the permission of the defendant to use the way, and that he was lawfully there at the time of the accident. I entirely agree with my Lord Chief Justice that the plaintiff is also entitled to succeed on the larger ground. It appears to me that such a permission as is here alleged may be subject to the qualification that the person giving it shall not be liable for injuries to persons using the way arising from the ordinary state of things, or of the ordinary nature of the business carried on; but that is distinguishable from the case of injuries wholly arising from the negligence of that person’s servants.
Crompton, J. I am of the same opinion. I think we should look not only to the grounds upon which this rule was granted, but to the real defence set up by my brother Petersdorff. That defence is, in effect, that the plaintiff was using the way only under the qualified permission that he should be subject to any negligence of the plaintiff or his servants. If that defence be sustainable upon the general issue, or otherwise, we should see whether it is made out, and I am of opinion that it is not made out. I quite agree with what has fallen from my Lord and my brother Wightman. There may be a public dedication of a way, or a private permission to use it subject to a qualification; for example, subject to the danger arising from a stone step or a projecting house; and in such a case the public, or the persons using the way, take the right to use it subject to such qualification; but they are not thereby to be made subject to risks from what may be called active negligence. Whenever a party has a right to pass over certain ground, if injury occurs to him while so passing from negligence, he has a right to compensation. The argument of my brother Petersdorff fails therefore upon this ground. I think, too, that it is doubtful whether even the fact that the injured person was present unlawfully would excuse negligence, though it would be an element in determining what is negligence, and what is not. In the present case, however, that question does not arise, as there is no doubt the plaintiff was there upon a legitimate errand.
Blackburn, J. I am of the same opinion. If the substantial defence raised existed I am not sure but what it could be raised under the present pleadings, and the leave reserved; but at any rate I think we could amend the pleadings, if necessary, to raise it. But I do not think that any such defence exists here. The plaintiff seeks to recover for the negligence of the defendant. Now, the existence of negligence depends upon the duty of the party charged with it. I concur with the judgment of the Court of Exchequer in Bolch v. Smith that, when permission is given to a person to pass through a yard where dangerous machinery is at work, no duty is cast upon the person giving such permission to fence the machinery against the person permitted so to pass. That decision does not touch the present case, which falls rather within the remark then made by my brother Wilde: “If persons in the condition of the defendant had left anything like a trap in route used on the premises, I am far from saying they would not be liable.” This is more like the case of Corby v. Hill, where the matter placed upon the road is called a trap set for persons using it; and it is clear that when one gives another permission to pass over his land, it is his duty not to set a trap for him. Here the boy was passing upon a legitimate errand while the defendant’s servants were employed in lowering weights. If he had sustained any injury by a weight descending, without any negligence of the defendant’s servants, there is no doubt that he could not recover, but he suffered through the negligence of the persons lowering the bags, who were well aware that people were in the habit of passing below, and that danger would arise if the chain broke. I think, therefore, that it was the duty of the defendant and his servants to use ordinary care that the chain should not break. The jury have found that they neglected that duty, and I do not disagree with their finding. Our decision does not conflict with the judgment of the Court of Exchequer in Bolch v. Smith, or of the Common Pleas in Hounsell v. Smyth.
Rule discharged.[[147]]
CARSKADDON v. MILLS
In the Appellate Court, Indiana, May Term, 1892.
Reported in 5 Indiana Appellate Court Reports, 22.
Action for damage to plaintiff’s horse.[[148]] Trial by the court. The case made by plaintiff’s evidence was in substance as follows:—