Appeal from Circuit Court, where judgment was entered on a verdict for defendant, ordered by the court.
Defendant owned and operated, at a pleasure resort, a mimic railway, which was a wooden structure. Open cars were hoisted up an incline to the highest point of the railway, and were then run by gravity down and around a circular track to the ground. The length of the spiral track was about two thousand feet, and it made three circuits before reaching the ground. At about the middle of the last circle nearest the ground, the cars passed through a tunnel which was part of the structure. This tunnel was one hundred and fifty feet long, and completely incased that portion of the track, and hid the cars and their occupants from all observation when passing through it. The cars were provided with handles for the occupants to grasp during the rapid descent. Plaintiff was the sole occupant of the rear seat in one of the cars. The car was started and made the descent; but when it reached the ground at the end of the track the plaintiff was not in it, though as it entered the tunnel he was seen to be upon it. Search was at once made, and he was found inside the tunnel, in an unconscious condition, with a wound upon his head. After several days he was restored to consciousness. For the damages thus sustained, this suit was brought.
The car did not leave the track, no part of it was shown to be out of repair, the track was not defective, and no explanation is given in the record as to what caused the injury. The plaintiff distinctly stated that he made no effort to rise as he passed through the tunnel, and that he did not relax his grasp on the sides of the car. He was in the car when it passed into the tunnel. He was not in it when it emerged. How he got off was not shown.
Upon this state of facts the trial court instructed the jury that there was no legally sufficient evidence to show that the defendant had been guilty of negligence; and the verdict and judgment were accordingly entered for defendant. Plaintiff brought up the record by appeal.[104]
McSherry, C. J. This is an action to recover damages for a personal injury, and the single question which the record presents is whether there was legally sufficient evidence of the defendant’s imputed negligence to carry the case to the jury. The facts are few and simple. [The learned judge then stated the facts.]
It is a perfectly well-settled principle that to entitle a plaintiff to recover in an action of this kind he must show not only that he has sustained an injury but that the defendant has been guilty of some negligence which produced that particular injury. The negligence alleged and the injury sued for must bear the relation of cause and effect. The concurrence of both and the nexus between them must exist to constitute a cause of action. As an injury may occur from causes other than the negligence of the party sued, it is obvious that before a liability on account of that injury can be fastened upon a particular individual, it must be shown, or there must be evidence legally tending to show, that he is responsible for it; that is, that he has been guilty of the negligence that produced or occasioned the injury. In no instance can the bare fact that an injury has happened, of itself and divorced from all the surrounding circumstances, justify the inference that the injury was caused by negligence. It is true that direct proof of negligence is not necessary. Like any other fact, negligence may be established by the proof of circumstances from which its existence may be inferred. But this inference must, after all, be a legitimate inference and not a mere speculation of conjecture. There must be a logical relation and connection between the circumstances proved and the conclusion sought to be adduced from them. This principle is never departed from, and in the very nature of things it never can be disregarded. There are instances in which the circumstances surrounding an occurrence and giving a character to it are held, if unexplained, to indicate the antecedent or coincident existence of negligence as the efficient cause of an injury complained of. These are the instances where the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is applied. This phrase, which literally translated means that “the thing speaks for itself,” is merely a short way of saying that the circumstances attendant upon an accident are themselves of such a character as to justify a jury in inferring negligence as the cause of that accident; and the doctrine which it embodies, though correct enough in itself, may be said to be applicable to two classes of cases only, viz., “first, when the relation of carrier and passenger exists and the accident arises from some abnormal condition in the department of actual transportation; second, where the injury arises from some condition or event that is in its very nature so obviously destructive of the safety of person or property and is so tortious in its quality as, in the first instance at least, to permit no inference save that of negligence on the part of the person in the control of the injurious agency.” Thomas on Neg. 574. But it is obvious that in both instances more than the mere isolated, single, segregated fact that an injury has happened must be known. The injury, without more, does not necessarily speak or indicate the cause of that injury—it is colorless; but the act that produced the injury being made apparent may, in the instances indicated, furnish the ground for a presumption that negligence set that act in motion. The maxim does not go to the extent of implying that you may from the mere fact of an injury infer what physical act produced that injury; but it means that when the physical act has been shown or is apparent and is not explained by the defendant, the conclusion that negligence superinduced it may be drawn as a legitimate deduction of fact. It permits an inference that the known act which produced the injury was a negligent act, but it does not permit an inference as to what act did produce the injury. Negligence manifestly cannot be predicated of any act until you know what the act is. Until you know what did occasion an injury, you cannot say that the defendant was guilty of some negligence that produced that injury. There is, therefore, a difference between inferring as a conclusion of fact what it was that did the injury; and inferring from a known or proven act occasioning the injury that there was negligence in the act that did produce the injury. To the first category the maxim res ipsa loquitur has no application; it is confined, when applicable at all, solely to the second. In no case where the thing which occasioned the injury is unknown has it ever been held that the maxim applies; because when the thing which produced the injury is unknown it cannot be said to speak or to indicate the existence of causative negligence. In all the cases, whether the relation of carrier and passenger existed or not, the injury alone furnished no evidence of negligence—something more was required to be shown. For instance: In Penn. R. R. Co. v. MacKinney, 124 Pa. St. 462, it was said: “A passenger’s leg is broken, while on his passage, in a railroad car. This mere fact is no evidence of negligence on the part of the carrier until something further be shown. If the witness who swears to the injury testifies also that it was caused by a crash in a collision with another train of cars belonging to the same carrier, the presumption of negligence immediately arises; not, however, from the fact that the leg was broken, but from the circumstances attending the fact.” And so in Byrne v. Boadle, 2 Hurl. & Colt. 728, there was proof not only of an injury but there was evidence to show how the injury happened, and the presumption of negligence was applied, not because of there being an injury, but because of the way or manner in which the injury was produced. And in Howser’s case, 80 Md. 146, the injury was caused by cross-ties falling from a moving train upon the plaintiff who was walking by the side of the track, and the presumption of negligence was allowed, not as an inference deducible from the injury itself, but as a conclusion resulting from the method in which and the instrumentality by which the injury had been occasioned. In the recent case of Consolidated Traction Co. v. Thalheimer, Court of Errors and Appeals, N. J., 2 Amer. Neg. Rep. 196,[105] it appeared that the plaintiff was a passenger of the appellant, and, having been notified by the conductor that the car was approaching the point where she desired to alight, got up from her seat and walked to the door while the car was in motion, and, while going through the doorway, she was thrown into the street by a sudden lurch and thus injured. The court said: “At all events, the fact that such a lurch or jerk occurred, as would have been unlikely to occur if proper care had been exercised, brings the case within the maxim res ipsa loquitur.” The inference of negligence arose not from the injury to the passenger, but from the act that caused the injury. In B. & O. R. R. v. Worthington, 21 Md. 275, the train was derailed in consequence of an open switch, and it was held that the injury thus inflicted on the passenger was presumptive evidence of negligence—not that the mere injury raised such a presumption, but that the injury caused in the way and under the circumstances shown indicated actionable negligence unless satisfactorily explained.
Whether, therefore, there be a contractual relation between the parties or not, there must be proof of negligence or proof of some circumstances from which negligence may be inferred, before an action can be sustained. And whether you characterize that inference an ordinary presumption of fact, or say of the act that caused the injury, the thing speaks for itself, you assert merely a rebuttable conclusion deduced from known and obvious premises. It follows, of course, that when the act that caused the injury is wholly unknown or undisclosed, it is simply and essentially impossible to affirm that there was a negligent act; and neither the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur nor any other principle of presumption can be invoked to fasten a liability upon the party charged with having by negligence caused the injury for the infliction of which a suit has been brought.
Now, in the case at bar there is no evidence that the car on the track was out of repair. The car went safely to its destination, carrying the other occupants. There is no evidence that the roof of the tunnel struck the appellant, or that the fact that a small part of the central plank of the tunnel roof had been slabbed off had the most remote connection with the accident. It is a case presenting not a single circumstance showing how or by what agency the injury occurred, and in which, with nothing but the isolated fact of the injury having happened, being proved, it is insisted that the jury shall be allowed to speculate as to the cause that produced it, and then to infer from the cause thus assumed but not established, that there was actionable negligence. It is not an attempt to infer negligence from an apparent cause, but to infer the cause of the injury from the naked fact of injury, and then to superadd the further inference that this inferred cause proceeded from negligence. If in Howser’s case, supra, there had been no other evidence than the mere fact of an injury, it cannot be pretended that the jury would have been allowed to speculate as to how the injury had occurred.
The appellant was on the car when it entered the tunnel; he was not on the car when it emerged, but was found in an unconscious state in the tunnel. There was no defect in or abnormal condition affecting the means of actual transportation. The other occupants of the car passed safely through. What caused the appellant to be out of the car is a matter of pure conjecture. No one has explained or attempted to explain how he got where he was found. Indeed, the two persons who occupied the front seat were ignorant of the appellant’s absence from the car until it had reached its destination, and the appellant himself distinctly testified that he did not relax his hold to the car and did not attempt to rise, but lowered his head as he entered the tunnel. All that is certain is, that he was injured in some way and he asks that the jury may be allowed, in the absence of all explanatory evidence, to infer that some act of a negligent character for which the appellee is responsible, caused the injury sustained by the appellant. No case has gone to that extent and no known principle can be cited to sanction such a position. There has been no circumstance shown which furnishes the foundation for an inference of negligence; and the circumstances which have been shown obviously do not bring the case within the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur. There was, consequently, no error in the ruling complained of, and the judgment of the Circuit Court must be affirmed.
Beckett brought this action against the Flint & Walling Manufacturing Company to recover damages for harm done to his barn and the contents thereof, owing to the fact that the company constructed a windmill thereon in such an insufficient manner that it fell upon the roof of the barn.
The complaint contained, in substance, the following statements:—
There was an air-shaft in the centre of the barn, extending from the bottom to, and projecting through, the roof. Defendant contracted with plaintiff to erect on the air-shaft a windmill consisting of a wheel, tower, etc., to be erected in a first-class manner. The defendant erected the windmill in a negligent manner; especially in the mode of fastening the tower to the air-shaft. In consequence of this defective construction, a wind of ordinary velocity caused the windmill to break and twist the air-shaft and fall about sixty feet on the roof of the barn.
Trial in the Circuit Court. Verdict for plaintiff and judgment thereon. Defendant company appealed.[107]
Gillett, J.
The leading contention of appellant’s counsel is that the duty it owed to appellee arose out of contract, and that, as appellant was not engaged in a public employment, its obligation could only be enforced by an action on the contract for a breach thereof. The latter insistence cannot be upheld. It is, of course, true that it is not every breach of contract which can be counted on as a tort, and it may also be granted that if the making of a contract does not bring the parties into such a relation that a common-law obligation exists, no action can be maintained in tort for an omission properly to perform the undertaking. It by no means follows, however, that this common-law obligation may not have its inception in contract. If a defendant may be held liable for the neglect of a duty imposed on him, independently of any contract, by operation of law, a fortiori ought he to be liable where he has come under an obligation to use care as the result of an undertaking founded on a consideration.
Where the duty has its roots in contract, the undertaking to observe due care may be implied from the relationship, and should it be the fact that a breach of the agreement also constitutes such a failure to exercise care as amounts to a tort, the plaintiff may elect, as the common-law authorities have it, to sue in case or in assumpsit. It is broadly stated in 1 Comyn’s Digest, Action on the Case for Negligence, A 4, p. 418, that “if a man neglect to do that, which he has undertaken to do, an action upon the case lies.... But, if there be not any neglect in the defendant, an action upon the case does not lie against him, though he do not perform his undertaking.” Professor Pollock says: “One who enters on the doing of anything attended with risk to the persons or property of others is held answerable for the use of a certain measure of caution to guard against that risk. To name one of the commonest applications, ‘those who go personally or bring property where they know that they or it may come into collision with the persons or property of others have by law a duty cast upon them to use reasonable care and skill to avoid such collision.’... In some cases this ground of liability may coexist with a liability on contract towards the same person, and arising (as regards the breach) out of the same facts. Where a man interferes gratuitously, he is bound to act in a reasonable and prudent manner according to the circumstances and opportunities of the case. And this duty is not affected by the fact, if so it be, that he is acting for reward, in other words, under a contract, and may be liable on the contract. The two duties are distinct, except so far as the same party cannot be compensated twice over for the same facts, once for the breach of contract and again for the wrong. Historically the liability in tort is older; and indeed it was by special development of this view that the action of assumpsit, afterwards the common mode of enforcing simple contracts, was brought into use. ‘If a smith prick my horse with a nail, etc., I shall have my action upon the case against him, without any warranty by the smith to do it well.... For it is the duty of every artificer to exercise his art rightly and truly as he ought.’” Webb’s Pollock, Torts, 533–536. This general thought also finds expression in Mr. Street’s valuable work (1 Street, Foundations of Legal Liability, 92). It is there said: “The general doctrine may be laid down thus: In every situation where a man undertakes to act or to pursue a particular course he is under an implied legal obligation or duty to act with reasonable care, to the end that the person or property of others may not be injured by any force which he sets in operation or by any agent for which he is responsible. If he fails to exercise the degree of caution which the law requires in a particular situation, he is held liable for any damage that results to another just as if he had bound himself by an obligatory promise to exercise the required degree of care. In this view, statements so frequently seen in negligence cases, to the effect that men are bound to act with due and reasonable care, are really vital and significant expressions. If there had been any remedial necessity for so declaring, it could obviously have been said without violence to the principle that men who undertake to act are subject to a fictitious or implied promise to act with due care.” See also Howard v. Shepherd, (1850) 9 C. B. (67 Eng. Com. Law) 296, 321; Coy v. Indianapolis Gas Co., (1897) 146 Ind. 655, 36 L. R. A. 535; Parrill v. Cleveland, etc., R. Co., (1900) 23 Ind. App. 638; Rich v. New York, etc., R. Co., (1882) 87 N. Y. 382; Dean v. McLean, (1875) 48 Vt. 412, 21 Am. Rep. 130; Stock v. City of Boston, (1889) 149 Mass. 410, 21 N. E. 871, 14 Am. St. 430; Bickford v. Richards, (1891) 154 Mass. 163, 27 N. E. 1014, 26 Am. St. 224; Addison, Torts (3d ed.), p. 13; 1 Thompson, Negligence (2d ed.), § 5; 1 Shearman & Redfield, Negligence (5th ed.), §§ 9, 22; Saunders, Negligence, 55, 121; 6 Cyc. Law and Proc. 688.
The position in which appellant placed this large and heavy structure, located, as it was, upon the barn, some seventy feet above the earth, was such that it was calculated to do great harm to appellee’s property should it fall. We cannot doubt, in view of the terms of the contract, construed in the light of the practical construction which the parties gave to it, to say nothing of the extraneous agreement set forth in the complaint, that it was the duty of appellant to exercise ordinary care to secure the tower in such a manner that this heavy and exposed structure would not, under the action of ordinary winds, weave around and become detached from the body of the air-shaft. Insecurely fastened, as the complaint shows that this structure was, appellant was bound to apprehend that it might fall, and that, if it did, great injury would thereby be occasioned to appellee. It was also bound to apprehend, from the very care and skill which it impliedly held itself out as exercising (a circumstance calculated to throw appellee off his guard), and from the fact that an examination was difficult, that in all probability the defects would not be observed in time to avoid the injury. Indeed, as laid down in Mowbray v. Merryweather, [1895] 2 Q. B. 640, and Devlin v. Smith, (1882) 89 N. Y. 470, 42 Am. Rep. 311, appellee owed no duty, so far as appellant was concerned, to examine the tower. The contrivance was inherently dangerous, and the circumstances of placing it upon the barn, as shown, made it calculated to eventuate in harm. This being true, and as there was no intervening responsible agency between appellee and the wrong, so that the causal relation remained unbroken, we can perceive no reason for acquitting appellant of responsibility as a tort feasor. See Wharton, Negligence (2d ed.), § 438; 1 Beven, Negligence (2d ed.), 62; Roddy v. Missouri Pac. R. Co., (1891) 104 Mo. 234, 15 S. W. 1112, 12 L. R. A. 746, 24 Am. St. 333. It is not necessary to consider the extent to which contracts may impose obligations to exercise care for the protection of third persons, for here the relation is direct and immediate, but we quote, as showing that there is clearly a liability in tort, in such a case as this, the following general statements in 1 Shearman & Redfield, Negligence (5th ed.), § 117, with reference to the liability for selling dangerous goods: “But one who knowingly sells an article intrinsically dangerous to human life or health, such as poison, explosive oils or diseased meat, concealing from the buyer knowledge of that fact, is responsible to any person who, without fault on the part of himself or any other person, sufficient to break the chain of causation, is injured thereby. And we see no reason why the same rule should not apply to articles known to be dangerous to property.”
A number of questions are argued by appellant’s counsel which are based upon the contention that the theory of the complaint was that appellant had committed a breach of contract. The latter insistence is based on the fact that the contract is set out in full in the complaint. It is often difficult to determine whether, in the statement of such a cause of action as the one under consideration, wherein the very breach of the contract also constitutes negligence, the purpose of the pleader was to rely upon a breach of contract or to charge negligence in the violation of the implied duty which was created by the undertaking of the defendant. It is true that in an action on the case for negligence, wherein the declaration or complaint is not based on mere nonfeasance it is not necessary to plead a consideration, and, therefore, where the action is based on the manner in which an undertaking was performed, or, in other words, on some misfeasance or malfeasance, the allegation of a consideration may be regarded as one of the markings of an action ex contractu. But we do not understand that this is a controlling consideration; on the contrary, it does not appear to admit of question that if the contract or consideration be set out as a matter of inducement only, the plaintiff’s action may be regarded as one in case for a violation of the common-law duty which the circumstances had imposed upon the defendant. 1 Chitty, Pleading, *135; Dickson v. Clifton, 2 Wils. 319; Watson, Damages for Per. Inj., § 570; 21 Ency. Pl. and Pr., 913. We are especially impressed with the view that in code pleading, which was designed preëminently to be a system of fact pleading, a plaintiff, in suing in tort, may properly set out his contract, as constituting the underlying fact, instead of charging the defendant’s undertaking in general terms, and that the plaintiff does not thereby necessarily commit himself to the theory that his action is for breach of contract. Leeds v. City of Richmond, (1885) 102 Ind. 372; Parrill v. Cleveland, etc., R. Co., supra; McMurtry v. Kentucky Cent. R. Co., (1886) 84 Ky. 462, 1 S. W. 815; Watson, Damages for Per. Inj., § 570. In the complaint before us appellee not only sets out the written contract, but he pleads a supplemental or subsidiary agreement as well, so that it can hardly be said that he relied on the written contract as the foundation of the action. He charges no breach of the contract except as it can be implied from the allegations of negligence; he alleges damages “by reason of the defendant’s negligence, carelessness, imprudence, and unskilfulness in erecting, constructing, and fastening said steel tower to said air-shaft as aforesaid;” he charges, in setting forth the total amount of his damages, that they were occasioned “by reason of the defendant’s negligence and failure of duty as herein alleged,” and he avers that he “had no notice or knowledge of the faulty, negligent, and unskilful erection of said mill,” and that he himself was without fault or negligence in the premises. In view of the general structure of the complaint, and applying to it the rule that a construction of a pleading which will give effect to all of its material allegations is to be preferred, where reasonably possible (Monnett v. Turpie, [1892] 133 Ind. 424), it appears to us that it must be held that the action was for the tort. But, admitting that there is room for doubt on this subject, the fact that the court below, as the record plainly shows, tried the cause on the theory that it was an action ex delicto, must settle the question against the contention of appellant. Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Acres, (1886) 108 Ind. 548; Diggs v. Way, (1899) 22 Ind. App. 617.
Appeal from an order of a judge at chambers affirming an order of a master directing that the plaintiff’s bill of costs should be referred back to be drawn on the county court scale.
The action was brought to recover damages for personal injuries to the plaintiff while a passenger on the defendants’ railway. The statement of claim alleged an agreement by the defendants to carry the plaintiff safely, and a breach of that agreement in negligently and improperly managing the train in which he was, so that it ran into the wall at Baker Street Station, whereby the plaintiff sustained injury. It was admitted by the defendants that the accident occurred by the negligence of the engine-driver in not turning off steam in time to prevent the train running into the dead-end at the station. A sum of 20l. was paid into court, and the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff for 25l.
When the plaintiff’s costs were taken in to be taxed, the master was of opinion that, on the authority of Taylor v. Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Ry. Co., [1895] 1 Q. B. 134, the act of the engine-driver being one of omission, the action was founded on contract, and that therefore the plaintiff was only entitled to costs on the county court scale. On appeal, this decision was affirmed by Day, J.
The plaintiff appealed.
Kemp, Q. C., and Cagney, for the plaintiff, submitted that the action was in fact an action of tort, and was tried as such, and that the plaintiff was entitled to costs on the High Court scale.
Lawson Walton, Q. C., and George Elliott, for the defendants. The duty of the defendants was contractual, and they were bound to take due care not to injure the plaintiff. The act which caused the injury was an omission to turn off steam, and amounted to a nonfeasance. It was not an act of commission or misfeasance, and the defendants were not liable in tort. The distinction is dealt with in the judgment of Lindley, L. J., and A. L. Smith, L. J., in Taylor v. Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Ry. Co., [1895] 1 Q. B. 134, and the present case comes within that authority.
[They also cited Foulkes v. Metropolitan District Ry. Co., 4 C. P. D. 267; 5 C. P. D. 157.]
A. L. Smith, L. J., read the following judgment:[109] There appears to have been some misapprehension as to what was decided in the case of Taylor v. Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Ry. Co., [1895] 1 Q. B. 134, to which I was a party.
The plaintiff in the present case was a passenger on the defendants’ railway, and whilst lawfully riding in one of their carriages was injured by its being negligently run into a dead-end by the defendants’ driver.
It has been thought by the master, and also by Day, J., that, because the negligence was that the driver omitted to turn off steam, this constituted a nonfeasance or omission within what was said in the above-mentioned case, and that as the plaintiff had recovered 25l. and no more he was only entitled to county court costs. I am clearly of opinion that this is not what was decided, nor is any such statement to be found in that judgment.
The distinction between acts of commission or misfeasance, and acts of omission or nonfeasance, does not depend on whether a driver or signalman of a defendant company has negligently turned on steam or negligently hoisted a signal, or whether he has negligently omitted to do the one or the other. The distinction is this, if the cause of complaint be for an act of omission or nonfeasance which without proof of a contract to do what has been left undone would not give rise to any cause of action (because no duty apart from contract to do what is complained of exists), then the action is founded upon contract and not upon tort. If, on the other hand, the relation of the plaintiff and the defendants be such that a duty arises from that relationship, irrespective of contract, to take due care, and the defendants are negligent, then the action is one of tort, and as regards the County Court Acts and costs this is what was laid down in the above-mentioned case. The appeal should be allowed with costs here and below.
Rigby, L. J. I entirely agree. It appears to me that the attempt to dissect the act of the defendants’ servant, and to treat the mere omission to turn off steam as a nonfeasance within the meaning of the cases referred to, altogether fails. An engine-driver is in charge of the train, and a passenger is in that train, independently of contract, with the permission of the defendants. That passenger is injured in consequence of the train being negligently brought into collision with the dead-end. The proper description of what was done is that it was a negligent act in so managing the train as to allow it to come into contact with the dead-end and so cause the accident. It is a case in which the company by their servant neglected a duty which they owed to the plaintiff—that is to say, it was a case in which an action of tort could be brought.
Action by Mrs. Grizzle against the Southern Railway Company and T. A. O’Neal.
The petition alleged, in substance, that the petitioner’s husband was killed by the negligence of the railway company, and of O’Neal, who was the engineer in charge of the train, while the train was being operated over a public-road crossing. It was alleged, inter alia, that no bell was rung nor whistle sounded, nor the speed of the train checked, and that the requirements of the blow-post law[111] were entirely disregarded by the engineer. To this petition O’Neal demurred on several grounds. The demurrer was overruled, and O’Neal excepted.[112]
Cobb, P. J. 1. An agent is not ordinarily liable to third persons for mere nonfeasance. Kimbrough v. Boswell, 119 Ga. 210. An agent is, however, liable to third persons for misfeasance.[113] Nonfeasance is the total omission or failure of the agent to enter upon the performance of some distinct duty or undertaking which he has agreed with his principal to do. Misfeasance means the improper doing of an act which the agent might lawfully do; or, in other words, it is the performing of his duty to his principal in such a manner as to infringe upon the rights and privileges of third persons. Where an agent fails to use reasonable care or diligence in the performance of his duty, he will be personally responsible to a third person who is injured by such misfeasance. The agent’s liability in such cases is not based upon the ground of his agency, but upon the ground that he is a wrong-doer, and as such he is responsible for any injury he may cause. When once he enters upon the performance of his contract with his principal, and in doing so omits, or fails to take reasonable care in the commission of, some act which he should do in its performance, whereby some third person is injured, he is responsible therefor to the same extent as if he had committed the wrong in his own behalf. See 2 Clark & Skyles on Agency, 1297 et seq. Misfeasance may involve also to some extent the idea of not doing; as where an agent engaged in the performance of his undertaking does not do something which it is his duty to do under the circumstances, or does not take that precaution or does not exercise that care which a due regard to the rights of others requires. All this is not doing, but it is not the not doing of that which is imposed upon the agent merely by virtue of his relation, but of that which is imposed upon him by law as a responsible individual in common with all other members of society. It is the same not doing which constitutes actionable negligence in any relation. Mechem on Ag. § 572. As was said by Gray, C. J., in Obsorne v. Morgan, 130 Mass. 102 (39 Am. Rep. 439): “If the agent once actually undertakes and enters upon the execution of a particular work, it is his duty to use reasonable care in the manner of executing it, so as not to cause any injury to third persons which may be the natural consequence of his acts; and he cannot, by abandoning its execution midway and leaving things in a dangerous condition, exempt himself from liability to any person who suffers injury by reason of his having so left them without proper safeguards. This is not nonfeasance or doing nothing, but it is misfeasance, doing improperly.” In that case the agent was held liable by the fall of a tackle-block and chains from an iron rail suspended from the ceiling of a room, which fell for the reason that the agent had suffered them to remain in such a manner and so unprotected that they fell upon and injured the plaintiff. In Bell v. Josselyn, 3 Gray, 309 (63 Am. Dec. 742), Metcalf, J., said: “Assuming that he was a mere agent, yet the injury for which this action was brought was not caused by his nonfeasance, but by his misfeasance. Nonfeasance is the omission of an act which a person ought to do; misfeasance is the improper doing of an act which a person might lawfully do.... The defendant’s omission to examine the state of the pipes, ... before causing the water to be let on, was a nonfeasance. But if he had not caused the water to be let on, that nonfeasance would not have injured the plaintiff.”
In the present case the failure of the engineer to comply with the requirements of the blow-post law was not doing, but the running of the train over the crossing at a high rate of speed without giving the signals required by law was a positive act, and the violation of a duty which both the engineer and the railroad company owed to travelers upon the highway. The engineer having once undertaken in behalf of the principal to run the train, it was incumbent upon him to run it in the manner prescribed by law; and a failure to comply with the law, although it involved an act of omission, was not an act of mere nonfeasance, but was an act of misfeasance. This view is strengthened by the fact that the blow-post law renders the engineer indictable for failure to comply with its provisions. The allegations of the petition were therefore sufficient to charge O’Neal with a positive tort, for which the plaintiff would be entitled to bring her action against him.[114]
Tort for personal injuries alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the servants of the defendant on February 7, 1903, while the plaintiff was a passenger of the defendant. Writ dated March 20, 1903.
At the trial in the Superior Court, Wait, J., at the close of the plaintiff’s evidence ordered a verdict for the defendant; and the plaintiff alleged exceptions. The material evidence is described or quoted in the opinion.
Knowlton, C. J. This action was brought to recover for an injury alleged to have been caused by the negligence of the defendant’s servants. The plaintiff was a passenger on the defendant’s train, which ran from Boston through Ashmont on the evening of February 7, 1903. He testified to having become so intoxicated that he had no recollection of anything that occurred after leaving a cigar store in Boston, until he awoke in the Boston City Hospital, about four o’clock the next day. One Thompson testified “that he took the 9.23 train on the evening of February 7, 1903, at the South Station in Boston for Ashmont, and occupied a seat near the rear of the last car of the train; that there were about twenty passengers in the car, and he noticed Black sitting in the seat opposite, very erect, with his eyes closed. When the conductor came through, Mr. Black went through his pockets as if he were looking for a ticket, and not being able to find it, tendered a fifty-cent piece in payment for his fare. The conductor began to name off the stations from Field’s Corner first and then Ashmont and when he said ‘Ashmont,’ Mr. Black nodded his head. The conductor gave him his change and his rebate check. At Ashmont, where the train stops, there is a gravelled walk, running the whole length, as a platform, then there is a flight of steps, ten or twelve, that leads up to the asphalt walk around the station, so when you go up from the steps you have to walk along this walk. The conductor and brakeman took Black out of the car, with one on each side. The distance from the steps of the car to the steps that lead up to the station was twenty-five feet. As they went along the platform, the conductor and trainman were on each side of him. They tried to stand him up, but his legs would sink away from him. They sort of helped him up and carried him to the bottom of the steps. When they went to the bottom of the steps, they continued, one on each side of him. Then one of the men got on one side with his arm around him and the other back of him sort of pushing him, and they took him up about the fifth or sixth step, and after they got him up there, they turned right around and left him and went down the steps. Mr. Black sort of balanced himself there just a minute and then fell completely backward. He turned a complete somersault and struck on the back of his head. The railroad men just had time to get down to the foot of the steps. There was a railing that led up those steps and the steps were about ten feet wide. Mr. Black was upon the right-hand side going up and he was left right near the railing. When he fell, he did not seize hold of anything, his arms were at his side.”
On this testimony the jury might find that the plaintiff was so intoxicated as to be incapable of standing, or walking, or caring for himself in any way, and that the defendant’s servants, knowing his condition, left him halfway up the steps where they knew, or ought to have known, that he was in great danger of falling and being seriously injured. They were under no obligation to remove him from the car, or to provide for his safety after he left the car. But they voluntarily undertook to help him from the car, and they were bound to use ordinary care in what they did that might affect his safety. Not only in the act of removal, but in the place where they left him, it was their duty to have reasonable regard for his safety in view of his manifest condition. The jury might have found that they were negligent in leaving him on the steps, where a fall would be likely to do him much harm. Moody v. Boston & Maine Railroad, 189 Mass. 277.
The defence rests principally upon the fact that the plaintiff was intoxicated, and was incapable of caring for himself after he was taken from the train, and therefore was not in the exercise of due care. If his voluntary intoxication was a direct and proximate cause of the injury, he cannot recover. The plaintiff contends that it was not a cause, but a mere condition, well known to the defendant’s servants, and that their act was the direct and proximate cause of the injury, with which no other act or omission had any causal connection. The distinction here referred to is well recognized in law....
We are of opinion that the jury in the present case might have found that the plaintiff was free from any negligence that was a direct and proximate cause of the injury.
Error from Wyandotte District Court.
Smith, J. This was an action brought by Adeline Cappier, the mother of Irvin Ezelle, to recover damages resulting to her by reason of the loss of her son, who was run over by a car of plaintiff in error, and died from the injuries received. The trial court, at the close of the evidence introduced to support a recovery by plaintiff below, held that no careless act of the railway company’s servants in the operation of the car was shown, and refused to permit the case to be considered by the jury on the allegations and attempted proof of such negligence. The petition, however, contained an averment that the injured person had one leg and an arm cut off by the car-wheels, and that the servants of the railway company failed to call a surgeon, or to render him any assistance after the accident, but permitted him to remain by the side of the tracks and bleed to death. Under this charge of negligence a recovery was had.
While attempting to cross the railway tracks Ezelle was struck by a moving freight-car pushed by an engine. A yardmaster in charge of the switching operations was riding on the end of the car nearest to the deceased and gave warning by shouting to him. The warning was either too late or no heed was given to it. The engine was stopped. After the injured man was clear of the track, the yardmaster signalled the engineer to move ahead, fearing, as he testified, that a passenger train then about due would come upon them. The locomotive and car went forward over a bridge, where the general yardmaster was informed of the accident and an ambulance was summoned by telephone. The yardmaster then went back where the injured man was lying and found three Union Pacific switchmen binding up the wounded limbs and doing what they could to stop the flow of blood. The ambulance arrived about thirty minutes later and Ezelle was taken to a hospital, where he died a few hours afterward.
In answer to particular questions of fact, the jury found that the accident occurred at 5.35 P. M.; that immediately one of the railway employees telephoned to police headquarters for help for the injured man; that the ambulance started at 6.05 P. M. and reached the nearest hospital with Ezelle at 6.20 P. M., where he received proper medical and surgical treatment. Judgment against the railway company was based on the following question and answer:—
“Ques. Did not defendant’s employees bind up Ezelle’s wounds and try to stop the flow of blood as soon as they could after the accident happened? Ans. No.”
The lack of diligence in the respect stated was intended, no doubt, to apply to the yardmaster, engineer, and fireman in charge of the car and engine.
These facts bring us to a consideration of the legal duty of these employees toward the injured man after his condition became known. Counsel for defendant in error quotes the language found in Beach on Contributory Negligence (3d ed.), § 215, as follows:—
“Under certain circumstances, the railroad may owe a duty to a trespasser after the injury. When a trespasser has been run down, it is the plain duty of the railway company to render whatever service is possible to mitigate the severity of the injury. The train that has occasioned the harm must be stopped, and the injured person looked after; and, when it seems necessary, removed to a place of safety, and carefully nursed, until other relief can be brought to the disabled person.”
The principal authority cited in support of this doctrine is Northern Central Railway Co. v. The State, use of Price et al, 29 Md. 420, 96 Am. Dec. 545. The court in that case first held that there was evidence enough to justify the jury in finding that the operatives of the train were negligent in running it too fast over a road-crossing without sounding the whistle, and that the number of brakemen was insufficient to check its speed. Such negligence was held sufficient to uphold the verdict, and would seem to be all that was necessary to be said. The court, however, proceeded to state that, from whatever cause the collision occurred, it was the duty of the servants of the company, when the man was found on the pilot of the engine in a helpless and insensible condition, to remove him, and to do it with proper regard to his safety and the laws of humanity. In that case the injured person was taken in charge by the servants of the railway company and, being apparently dead, without notice to his family, or sending for a physician to ascertain his condition, he was moved to defendant’s warehouse, laid on a plank and locked up for the night. The next morning, when the warehouse was opened, it was found that during the night the man had revived from his stunned condition and moved some paces from the spot where he had been laid, and was found in a stooping posture, dead but still warm, having died from hemorrhage of the arteries of one leg, which was crushed at and above the knee. It had been proposed to place him in the defendant’s station-house, which was a comfortable building, but the telegraph operator objected, and directed him to be taken into the warehouse, a place used for the deposit of old barrels and other rubbish.
The Maryland case does not support what is so broadly stated in Beach on Contributory Negligence. It is cited by Judge Cooley, in his work on Torts, in a note to a chapter devoted to the negligence of bailees (ch. xx.), indicating that the learned author understood the reasoning of the decision to apply where the duty began after the railway employees had taken charge of the injured person.
After the trespasser on the track of a railway company has been injured in collision with a train, and the servants of the company have assumed to take charge of him, the duty arises to exercise such care in his treatment as the circumstances will allow. We are unable, however, to approve the doctrine that when the acts of a trespasser himself result in his injury, where his own negligent conduct is alone the cause, those in charge of the instrument which inflicted the hurt, being innocent of wrong-doing, are nevertheless blamable in law if they neglect to administer to the sufferings of him whose wounds we might say were self-imposed. With the humane side of the question courts are not concerned. It is the omission or negligent discharge of legal duties only which come within the sphere of judicial cognizance. For withholding relief from the suffering, for failing to respond to the calls of worthy charity, or for faltering in the bestowment of brotherly love on the unfortunate, penalties are found not in the laws of men, but in that higher law, the violation of which is condemned by the voice of conscience, whose sentence of punishment for the recreant act is swift and sure. In the law of contracts it is now well understood that a promise founded on a moral obligation will not be enforced in the courts. Bishop states that some of the older authorities recognize a moral obligation as valid, and says:—
“Such a doctrine, carried to its legitimate results, would release the tribunals from the duty to administer the law of the land; and put, in the place of law, the varying ideas of morals which the changing incumbents of the bench might from time to time entertain.” (Bish. Cont. § 44.)
Ezelle’s injuries were inflicted, as the court below held, without the fault of the yardmaster, engineer, or fireman in charge of the car and locomotive. The railway company was no more responsible than it would have been had the deceased been run down by the cars of another railroad company on a track parallel with that of plaintiff in error. If no duty was imposed on the servants of defendant below to take charge of, and care for, the wounded man in such a case, how could a duty arise under the circumstances of the case at bar? In Barrows on Negligence, page 4, it is said:—
“The duty must be owing from the defendant to the plaintiff, otherwise there can be no negligence, so far as the plaintiff is concerned; ... and the duty must be owing to plaintiff in an individual capacity, and not merely as one of the general public.
“This excludes from actionable negligence all failures to observe the obligations imposed by charity, gratitude, generosity, and the kindred virtues. The moral law would obligate an attempt to rescue a person in a perilous position,—as a drowning child,—but the law of the land does not require it, no matter how little personal risk it might involve, provided that the person who declines to act is not responsible for the peril.” (See, also, Kenney v. The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, 70 Mo. 252, 257.)
In the several cases cited in the brief of counsel for defendant in error to sustain the judgment of the trial court, it will be found that the negligence on which recoveries were based occurred after the time when the person injured was in the custody and care of those who were at fault in failing to give him proper treatment.
The judgment of the court below will be reversed, with directions to enter judgment on the findings of the jury in favor of the railway company.
All the justices concurring.[116]
Woodson, P. J.... I do not understand counsel for plaintiff to make the broad claim that, in the absence of the question of emergency, presented in this case, it would have been the duty of the defendant to have furnished medical or surgical treatment for the injured man, upon the occasion mentioned; but I do understand counsel to contend, and which I believe is the law, that when an employee is engaged in any dangerous business for the master, and while in the performance of his duties, as such, he is so badly injured that he is thereby rendered physically or mentally incapable of procuring medical assistance for himself, then that duty, as a matter of law, is devolved upon the master, and that he must perform that duty with reasonable diligence and in a reasonable manner, through the agency of such of his employees as may be present at the time.
In other words, without trying to state the law in detail governing the masters duties in all cases of this character, that duty is put in operation whenever, under the facts and circumstances of the case, the employee is thereby so injured that he or she is incapacitated from caring for himself or herself, as the case may be.
The uncontradicted evidence in this case shows that the deceased was so badly injured that he was physically incapacitated to care for himself or to engage medical or surgical treatment; also, that the character of his injuries was such as required immediate surgical attention, for it was apparent to all present that his leg was frightfully crushed, and that his life’s blood was freely flowing from his body. So obvious was this that several of those present, at the time of the accident, tried by their crude methods, to stop its flow. But the highest officer of the company present, the superintendent, thought none of their remedies were worthy of trial and told them their proposed treatment would do no good. He then telephoned to Dr. Kirk, at Kimswick, the condition of the injured man, Hunicke, and requested him to come to Wicks and treat the injured man; but the doctor being previously engaged in a serious case, could not leave it. The doctor, however, telephoned the superintendent to bring the injured party to Kimswick, some two miles distant, and that he would there treat him.
The evidence shows that both Wicks and Kimswick were on the railroad and that a hand-car was present which could have been used in conveying Hunicke from the former to the latter place for treatment.
For some reason not made clear, the superintendent declined to take the injured man to Kimswick for treatment, but telephoned the facts of the injury to the manager of the company at St. Louis, some twelve or fourteen miles distant, who telephoned back to the superintendent to place the injured man on the next train and send him to St. Louis. This was done; and some three or four hours later, the train arrived in the city; and upon the arrival of the train Hunicke was speedily taken to the hospital where his limb was amputated; but in the meantime practically all of the blood of his body had flowed therefrom, and he died shortly thereafter.
In the statement of the case we have set out much of the evidence tending to show the negligence of the defendant in not procuring surgical treatment for Hunicke more promptly, and that he would not have died had he received prompt treatment. That evidence tended to show that Kimswick was only two miles distant from the place of injury and that the injured man could have been taken there on a hand-car in a very few minutes, probably from fifteen to twenty, at the outside. Had this been done, in all probability the flow of blood would have been stanched several hours before it was finally stopped in the city of St. Louis.
It is true that there was some evidence which tended to show that such a trip on a hand-car would have been rough and jolting, and thereby might have aggravated the flow of the blood, but conceding that to be true, it could not have caused more waste of blood than did the constant flow during the hours that passed while he was waiting for the train and being conveyed to the city of St. Louis thereon. And it seems to me that common sense would teach us that a trip on a hand-car to Kimswick would not have caused the blood to flow more freely than the trip on the train to St. Louis, six or seven times as far, would have done.
But be that as it may, when we consider those facts in connection with all the other facts and circumstances shown by the evidence, we have reached the conclusion that this, as well as the question of negligence in delaying the procurement of a surgeon, was for the jury, and that the evidence introduced was sufficient to make out a prima facie case for the plaintiff.
In other words, we are of the opinion that the evidence tended to show that the company was guilty of negligence in not using more diligence in procuring medical and surgical treatment for this party; also that it tended to show that said negligence was the proximate cause of his death.
In my opinion there is no possibility of doubt but what the law is that, whenever one person employs another to perform dangerous work, and while performing that work he is so badly injured as to incapacitate him from caring for himself, then the duty of providing medical treatment for him is devolved upon the employer; and that duty in my opinion, grows out of the fact that when we get down to the real facts in all such cases, there is an unexpressed humane and natural understanding existing between them to the effect that whenever any one in such a case is so injured that he cannot care for himself, then the employer will furnish him medical or surgical treatment as the case may be.
This is common knowledge. There is not an industrial institution in this country, great or small, where that practice is not being carried on to-day; and that has been the custom and usage among men from the dawn of civilization down to the present day, and will continue to be practised in the future, just so long as the human heart beats in sympathy for the unfortunate, and desires to aid suffering humanity. The same principle underlies all other avocations of life. Even armies while engaged in actual warfare observe and obey this rule when possible. The soldier who refuses to render surgical or medical aid to the victim of his own sword, is eschewed by all decent men; while upon the other hand, all who administer to the wants and necessities of the sick and wounded are considered as God’s noblemen and as princes among men. So universally true and deep-seated is this humane feeling among men, and so universally recognized and practised among them, that it has become a world-wide rule of moral conduct among men, brothers, friends and foes; and it says to one and all, You must exercise all reasonable efforts and means at hand to alleviate the pain and suffering and save the lives and limbs of those who have been stricken in your presence. For the violation of this rule of moral conduct there is no penalty attached save the condemnation of God and the scorn of all good men and women.
But seeing the wisdom, goodness and justice of this moral law, the law of the land laid its strong hand upon it, the same as it did upon many other good and useful customs of England, and breathed into it a living rule of legal conduct among men. It says unto all who employ labor that, because of this universally practised custom of men to furnish medical and surgical aid for those who are stricken in their presence, you must furnish the employee with such services when he is so badly injured that he is incapacitated from caring for himself.
This is but the application or extension of the common-law rule which requires the master to furnish his servant with a safe place in which to work, and safe instrumentalities with which to perform that labor.
That law grew out of the old customs and usages of the English people, of furnishing their servants with a safe place in which to work and safe instrumentalities with which to labor. So universally true was that custom that the law read into all contracts of labor an implied promise on the part of the master to furnish those safeguards to his servants. There is no statutory or written law upon the subject. It is simply what is called the unwritten or common law of England, which has been adopted by statutes in this and many other States of the Union.
So in like manner into the universal custom of employers furnishing his employees with medical aid when so badly injured that they could not care for themselves, the common law, as in the cases of the safety appliances before mentioned, breathed an implied agreement or duty on the part of the former to furnish the latter medical or surgical aid whenever he was so badly injured that he could not care for himself.
This law, like the one previously mentioned, has no statutory origin, but has ripened into a law from wise and humane usages and customs that are so old that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and will continue so long as the conduct of man is prompted and governed by love and humane sentiments.
As previously stated, I am firmly of the opinion that the petition stated a good cause of action against the defendant, and that the evidence was sufficient to make a case for the jury; and so believing, I think the action of the trial court in granting a new trial to the plaintiff for the first and second reasons assigned by counsel for defendant, was not erroneous, but proper.[117]
Action in the District Court for Watonwan County to recover $5000 for personal injuries. The case was tried before Lorin Cray, J., who, at the conclusion of plaintiff’s testimony, dismissed the action. From an order denying a motion for a new trial, plaintiff appealed. Reversed.
Brown, J. The facts in this somewhat unusual case are as follows: Plaintiff was a cattle buyer, and accustomed to drive through the country in the pursuit of his business, buying cattle, hides, and furs from the farmers. On the evening of January 23, 1905, about five or 5.30 o’clock, after having been out a day or two in the country, he called at the house of defendants, about seven miles from Madelia, where he resided. His object was to inspect some cattle which Flatau, Sr., had for sale, and if arrangements could be made to purchase the same. It was dark at the time of his arrival, but he inspected the cattle in the barn, and suggested to defendant that, being unable to determine their value by reason of the darkness, he was not prepared to make an offer for the cattle, and requested the privilege of remaining over night, to the end that a bargain might be made understandingly in the morning. His request was not granted. Plaintiff then bought some furs from other members of defendants’ family, and Flatau, Sr., invited him to remain for supper. Under this invitation plaintiff entered the house, paid for the furs, and was given supper with the family. After the evening meal, plaintiff and both defendants repaired to the sitting-room of the house, and plaintiff made preparation to depart for his home. His team had not been unhitched from the cutter, but was tied to a hitching post near the house. The testimony from this point leaves the facts in some doubt. Plaintiff testified that soon after reaching the sitting-room he was taken with a fainting spell and fell to the floor. He remembers very little of what occurred after that, though he does recall that, after fainting, he again requested permission to remain at defendants’ over night, and that his request was refused. Defendants both deny that this request was made, and testified, when called for cross-examination on the trial, that plaintiff put on his overshoes and buffalo coat unaided, and that, while adjusting a shawl about his neck, he stumbled against a partition between the dining-room and the sitting-room, but that he did not fall to the floor. Defendant Flatau, Jr., assisted him in arranging his shawl, and the evidence tends to show that he conducted him from the house out of doors and assisted him into his cutter, adjusting the robes about him and attending to other details preparatory to starting the team on its journey. Though the evidence is somewhat in doubt as to the cause of plaintiff’s condition while in defendants’ home, it is clear that he was seriously ill and too weak to take care of himself. He was in this condition when Flatau, Jr., assisted him into the cutter. He was unable to hold the reins to guide his team, and young Flatau threw them over his shoulders and started the team towards home, going a short distance, as he testified, for the purpose of seeing that the horses took the right road to Madelia. Plaintiff was found early next morning by the roadside, about three quarters of a mile from defendants’ home, nearly frozen to death. He had been taken with another fainting spell soon after leaving defendants’ premises, and had fallen from his cutter, where he remained the entire night. He was discovered by a passing farmer, taken to his home, and revived. The result of his experience necessitated the amputation of several of his fingers, and he was otherwise physically injured and his health impaired. Plaintiff thereafter brought this action against defendants, father and son, on the theory that his injuries were occasioned solely by their negligent and wrongful conduct in refusing him accommodations for the night, and, knowing his weak physical condition, or at least having reasonable grounds for knowing it, by reason of which he was unable to care for himself, in sending him out unattended to make his way to Madelia the best he could. At the conclusion of plaintiff’s case, the trial court dismissed the action, on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to justify a recovery. Plaintiff appealed from an order denying a new trial.
Two questions are presented for consideration: (1) Whether, under the facts stated, defendants owed any duty to plaintiff which they negligently violated; and (2) whether the evidence is sufficient to take the case to the jury upon the question whether defendants knew, or under the circumstances disclosed ought to have known, of his weak physical condition, and that it would endanger his life to send him home unattended.
The case is an unusual one on its facts, and “all-four” precedents are difficult to find in the books. In fact, after considerable research, we have found no case whose facts are identical with those at bar. It is insisted by defendants that they owed plaintiff no duty to entertain him during the night in question, and were not guilty of any negligent misconduct in refusing him accommodations, or in sending him home under the circumstances disclosed. Reliance is had for support of this contention upon the general rule as stated in note to Union Pacific v. Cappier, [66 Kan. 649, 72 Pac. 281] 69 L. R. A. 513, where it is said: “Those duties which are dictated merely by good morals or by humane considerations are not within the domain of the law. Feelings of kindliness and sympathy may move the Good Samaritan to minister to the needs of the sick and wounded at the roadside, but the law imposes no such obligation; and suffering humanity has no legal complaint against those who pass by on the other side.... Unless, therefore, the relation existing between the sick, helpless, or injured and those who witness their distress is such that the law imposes the duty of providing the necessary relief, there is neither obligation to minister on the one hand, nor cause for legal complaint on the other.” This is no doubt a correct statement of the general rule applicable to the Good Samaritan, but it by no means controls a case like that at bar.
The facts of this case bring it within the more comprehensive principle that whenever a person is placed in such a position with regard to another that it is obvious that, if he does not use due care in his own conduct, he will cause injury to that person, the duty at once arises to exercise care commensurate with the situation in which he thus finds himself, and with which he is confronted, to avoid such danger; and a negligent failure to perform the duty renders him liable for the consequences of his neglect.
This principle applies to varied situations arising from non-contract relations. It protects the trespasser from wanton or wilful injury. Its extends to the licensee, and requires the exercise of reasonable care to avoid an unnecessary injury to him. It imposes upon the owner of premises, which he expressly or impliedly invites persons to visit, whether for the transaction of business or otherwise, the obligation to keep the same in reasonably safe condition for use, though it does not embrace those sentimental or social duties often prompting human action. 21 Am. & Eng. Enc. (2d ed.) 471; Barrows, Neg. 3. Those entering the premises of another by invitation are entitled to a higher degree of care than those who are present by mere sufferance. Barrows, Neg. 304. The rule stated is supported by a long list of authorities both in England and this country, and is expressed in the familiar maxim, “Sic utere tuo,” etc. They will be found collected in the works above cited, and also in 1 Thompson, Neg. (2d ed.), § 694. It is thus stated in Heaven v. Pender, L. R. 11 Q. B. Div. 503: “The proposition which these recognized cases suggest, and which is, therefore, to be deduced from them, is that, whenever one person is by circumstances placed in such a position with regard to another that every one of ordinary sense who did think would at once recognize that if he did not use ordinary care and skill in his own conduct with regard to those circumstances he would cause danger of injury to the person or property of the other, a duty arises to use ordinary care and skill to avoid such danger.” It applies with greater strictness to conduct towards persons under disability, and imposes the obligation as a matter of law, not mere sentiment, at least to refrain from any affirmative action that might result in injury to them. A valuable note to Union Pacific v. Cappier, 69 L. R. A. 513, discusses at length the character of the duty and obligation of those coming into relation with sick and disabled persons, and numerous analogous cases are collected and analyzed.
In the case at bar defendants were under no contract obligation to minister to plaintiff in his distress; but humanity demanded that they do so, if they understood and appreciated his condition. And, though those acts which humanity demands are not always legal obligations, the rule to which we have adverted applied to the relation existing between these parties on this occasion and protected plaintiff from acts at their hands that would expose him to personal harm. He was not a trespasser upon their premises, but, on the contrary, was there by the express invitation of Flatau, Sr. He was taken suddenly ill while their guest, and the law, as well as humanity, required that he be not exposed in his helpless condition to the merciless elements.