Clark v. Hart
Clark v. Hart
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This action was instituted by John Clark and wife against A. S. Hart, seeking to recover on account of injuries sustained by reason of appellee leaving a wagon-bed so near a pass-way that it scared appellee’s horse and caused it to run away.
The material allegations of the petition are as follows: The plaintiffs say that on the 9th of August, 1893, they resided on their own premises and that the only pass-way they had to get to the turnpike to go to and from Mt. Sterling, the county seat of Montgomery county, was through the land of Nimrod Byrd, over which land there was a passway out bj' the house of said Byrd; that the defendant Hart had that part of the said Byrd’s land rented through and over which said passway ran, over which the'se
Defendant filed a demurrer to the petition, which demurrer was sustained by the court, and plaintiffs failing to plead further the petition was dismissed. To reverse that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.
In order to authorize a recovery for injuries sustained by the carelessness or negligence of a defendant by reason of the placing of obstacles in or near a passwav, such as referred to in this action, the petition should state facts showing a right in plaintiff to pass along or use the road traveled, as well as to show that the thing causing the fright was so near the passway as to import negligence. The averment in the petition as to the right of the plaintiff to use this passway is but the conclusion of the pleader, and the same maybe said of the averment as to where the wagon bed was placed. A horse might be scared by a wagon bed at so great a distance from a road that a prudent and careful person could not reasonably expect such a result. The petition shows that defendant was.in the legal possession of the land through
The demurrer was properly sustained. The judgment of the court below is therefore affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Clark, &c. v. Hart
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published