Hoover v. Southern Bell Telephone Co.
Hoover v. Southern Bell Telephone Co.
Opinion of the Court
1. A subsequent intervening act of a third person does not bréale the causal connection between the defendant’s act of negligence and the plaintiff’s injury, where at the time of the occurrence of the defendant’s negligent act the defendant could reasonably have foreseen the intervening act, although it is not necessary that the particular manner in which the intervening act may happen should be foreseen or anticipated. Where the defendant, a telephone company, in violation of an ordinance of the city, had adjacent to one of its poles left a hole in a sidewalk large enough for a person to step in it, and obscured by grass which had grown over it, and this was negligence, it might easily be foreseen that a person when lawfully upon the sidewalk in the vicinity of the hole might be placed in an emergency which would require him to move quickly in order to avoid some approaching danger and step into the hole, and, by
2. The petition set out a cause of action, and the court erred in sustaining the general demurrer thereto.
Judgment reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.