Wharton v. Bradford City

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania May 23, 1904

Wharton v. Bradford City, 209 Pa. 319 (Pa. 1904)

58 A. 621; 1904 Pa. LEXIS 618

Brown, Mestbezat, Mitchell, Potter, Thompson

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam,

The connection between the act of the city complained of, and the result charged, is altogether too remote and too uncertain to be permitted as a basis of recovery. There are no such connected links as make a chain of causes by which the first could be called proximate to the end, and in addition there is the very strong probability of the interposition of other and entirely disconnected circumstances in producing the result. Whether the city was exempt from liability for the exercise of its governmental functions, as to injuries to health, etc., and similar questions we do not need to consider.

Judgment affirmed.

Reference

Status: Published
Syllabus: Negligence—Municipalities—Defective sewer—Death of child—Proximate and remote cause. A city cannot be held responsible for the death of a child from fever contracted from drinking contaminated water of a well, on the ground that the city had deposited the contents of a sewer in an open stream, and that the sewage from the stream percolated through gravelly soil into the well in question. In such a case there are no such connected links as make a chain of causes by which the first could be called proximate to the end, and in addition there is the very strong probability of the interposition of other and entirely disconnected circumstances in producing the result.