Pontious v. Bath
Pontious v. Bath
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Plaintiff brought this action under G. S. 1935, 47-117 for damages to his crops alleged to have been caused by defendant permitting his swine to run at large in violation of G. S. 1935, 47-112. A jury trial resulted in a judgment for plaintiff of $1,066.75. Defendant has appealed. No complaint is made of the amount of the judgment if plaintiff is entitled to recover.
The statutes relied upon by plaintiff read:
“All persons owning or having charge of any swine in this state shall keep the same from running at large, except as in this article otherwise provided.” (G. S. 1935, 47-112.)
“If any swine shall be suffered to run at large in any township where the legal voters thereof have not voted to be exempt from the operations of this article, and shall trespass upon the land of any person, the owner or person having possession of such swine shall be liable for all damages the owner or occupant of such land may sustain by reason of such trespass.” (G. S. 1935, 47-117.)
Our statutes (G. S. 1935,47-113 to 47-116) authorize an election in any township to be exempt from the provisions of 47-112, and in Scott v. Lingren, 21 Kan. 184, in a similar action, where there had
Appellant argues: “Swine that escape from an enclosure surrounded by a barrier reasonably adapted to their restraint and without knowledge or fault of their owner are not running at large’ within the meaning of G. S. 1935 47-112 and 47-117,” and for this reason the pleadings and opening statement did not establish any liability of defendant. The point is not well taken. The suit is not predicated upon the fact that the fences were washed down by the water, but upon the facts alleged in the petition and shown by the evidence, which were that after defendant knew of that fact, and knew that his hogs were running on the land of the plaintiff, he permitted them to do so for as long as a month, within which time the damage was caused.
In the court’s instructions the court gave four paragraphs dealing with the general law of negligence. Before giving the instructions to the jury the court had submitted the instructions to counsel. Counsel for plaintiff objected to those instructions and stated that he did not predicate his case upon negligence but upon the statute. Counsel for defendant also objected to the instructions on negligence and also to some of the other instructions. The court considered these objections and finally concluded that under the evidence the instructions should be included. Perhaps this view was prompted by the fact that much of the evidence on defendant’s behalf pertained to his efforts to round up the hogs in the pasture contiguous to plaintiff’s land and transfer them to the pasture north of the highway. His witnesses testified as to how they searched for the
Appellant contends that certain evidence introduced by the plaintiff was improperly admitted. We have examined the rulings criticized under this head and find no substantial error.
Appellant argues that he is entitled to judgment on the answers of the jury to the special questions. This is laz'gely a reargument of other questions argued earlier and we think the court’s ruling upon that matter was proper.
The case is an unusual one, but there is nothing in the record to indicate that the parties did not have a fair trial, or that the result is improper. Apparently the jury was very careful in considering all the evidence and if anything they were quite conservative on the amount of damages, Some of the evidence on plaintiff’s behalf would have justified a substantially larger sum. We find no error hi the record which would justify a reversal.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- I. D. Pontious v. W. J. Bath
- Status
- Published