Kieffer v. Hummelstown Borough

24 A. 1060, 151 Pa. 304, 1892 Pa. LEXIS 1430
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 3, 1892
DocketAppeal, No. 4
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 24 A. 1060 (Kieffer v. Hummelstown Borough) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kieffer v. Hummelstown Borough, 24 A. 1060, 151 Pa. 304, 1892 Pa. LEXIS 1430 (Pa. 1892).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Green,

At the point where the accident in this ease occurred, the road was upwards of thirty-three feet in width. On the one side of the road, and next the fence, there was a long narrow pile of stones about one hundred and fifty feet in length, about five or six feet in width and about eighteen inches in height towards the road and sloping backwards to about two feet in height at the fence. The entire remaining width of the road was available for, and used as, the traveled way. It was testified that owing to the driving of heavy teams over it, loaded with stone, and for a considerable time, it was muddy and cut up and the best part of the road was that which was next the stone pile. The road was much driven over every day and was of ample width from the stone pile to the opposite side for all purposes of public travel. The plaintiff was perfectly familiar with the road and was constantly traveling over it. On the day of the accident he had taken a load of corn to the mill and was returning over the road. As he came to the place of the accident, he noticed some boys shooting at pigeons. He said: “ The mules didn’t mind it as well as the horses, but I attended well to my business and I thought I had got along pretty well. I had passed some men along the road on both sides, with guns, and as I had passed those there was a shot fired and scared my horses. I suppose I could have got them under control when the second shot was fired. They became unmanageable and I could not do anything, and they ran towards the stone pile that was there and the saddle horse fell. I often wondered after that I could not keep my foot out from under but I could not. They were two strong horses that I thought I could well manage, but the saddle horse fell. I was fast up to my knee lying on the stone pile.”

On cross-examination he was asked: “ Q. How did it happen that the horse fell ? A. When the horses frightened the off side horse ran over the tongue and in tussling and tangling around there the horse fell. 1 never thought of the horse falling. The horse I suppose weighed fourteen hundred. Q. How [308]*308far were you away from the stone pile when the off horse jumped over the tongue? A. We were against the stone pile. . . . Q. The off horse jumped over the tongue to the saddle horse? A. Yes sir. Q. Where was this? A. This was close to the stones. Q. You were not close to the stones when he got over ? A. I was just about at the stones. Q. Was there considerable struggling going on at that time? A. Yes sir. Q. Between the off horse and the saddle horse? A. Yes sir. Q. In that struggle they got on the stones and you got under the horse ? A. The horse fell in the struggle.”

The plaintiff also testified: “ Q. You say that that shooting frightened your horses? A. Yes sir, I have been traveling along there as I have said, and never had any trouble. The most of the time I was on the wagon when I had an empty wagon and left my horses walk along. . . . Q. The one horse that you were riding fell ? A. Yes sir. Q. He was on the near side? A. Yes sir. Q. The saddle horse? A. Yes sir. Q. He was the farthest from the stones? A. No sir, the nearest. Q. Then the horse next to the stone pile fell? A. Yes sir. Q.. What made him fall ? A. The struggle, I suppose, of the off side horse. He was on the stones and naturally they were struggling there on the stones and finally the horse fell which was a great mystery to me.”

He further said he had commenced hauling stones over that road in March, 1889, and continued to do so right along until the day of the accident, January 1, 1890, and that in the summer of 1889 he noticed a man digging a foundation between the stone pile and the fence. He said: “ I asked him what they were going to do, and he said they were going to put up a wall.”

The plaintiff’s witness C. H. Hoffer, who was a surveyor and made a draft of the location, testified that when he made the draft there was no stone pile there, but in the place of it there was a stone wall. It would seem from this that the stones were gathered at this place for the purpose of building a stone wall there, and that it was actually built between January, 1890, and the time of the trial in May, 1891.

The plaintiff was asked: “Q. Didn’t you say to Mr.-that you never blamed the stones, but you blamed the shooting [309]*309match? A. Yes, they scared the team. The stones never seared my horses but the shooting did.”

Other witnesses were examined for the plaintiff but gave substantially the same account of the occurrence. One of them, John Grove, testified that the stones sloped towards the road, that there was a gutter there where they were dumped in, and at places “ the embankment and the road run as full as the stones,” to use his own expression. In other words at those places they were nearly or quite on the same level. He was asked: “ Q. Don’t the stones slope down to the road ? A. Yes sir. Q. Don’t the wagons get on the stones to keep out of the mud ? A. Yes sir they try to get the solid ground. Q. Ilow did Mr. Kieffer drive; towards the stones? A. Yes sir, along side of the stones. The same side of the street that the stones are on. Q. Where was the track of the wagon at the time you picked him up; was it in the usual track ? A. I think it was. Q. The horse had jumped over on to the stone pile ? A. The off side horse had got over the pole and I suppose shoved the saddle horse over on to it.”

From the foregoing testimony and statement of facts, all proved by the plaintiff, the ease is brought directly within several of our recent decisions which control its determination. The pile of stones was evidently being accumulated by the authorities of the defendant corporation for some time, for the purpose of building a stone wall, to which use they were applied. They were piled on one side of the road not used for traveling purposes, and occupied only five o.r six feet •of the entire span of the roadway. The space left for travel was twenty-six or seven feet and there was no reason why the whole of it could not be used for travel. The road was much traveled and appears to have amply sufficed for that purpose. There was no collision of the plaintiff’s team with the stone pile and the horses were not frightened by the stones. They were however frightened by the shooting and in the struggle of one of them in jumping over the pole, the other, on which the plaintiff was riding, was caused to fall on the stones and the plaintiff’s leg was caught under the horse and injured. The stone pile did not produce either the fright of the horses or the fall of one of them. The shooting frightened the horses, and the fall of one of them was occasioned by the struggles of [310]*310the other. The stone pile happened to be where it was, at the very place where the horses became frightened, but it was no obstruction to the travel of the road, being entirely to one side. If .the wall had then been built we see no reason why the accident would not have happened just as it did, but, whether it would or not, the physical presence of the pile of stones neither frightened the horses nor obstructed the travel. We fail to see therefore upon what principle the defendant can be held liable for the plaintiff’s injury.

In Jackson Township v. Wagner, 127 Pa.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Birckhead v. Mayor of Baltimore
197 A. 615 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1938)
Camp v. Allegheny County
106 A. 314 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1919)
Short v. City of Carbondale
95 A. 254 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1915)
City of Harrodsburg v. Abram
127 S.W. 758 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1910)
Cage v. Township of Franklin
11 Pa. Super. 533 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1899)
Closser v. Township of Washington
11 Pa. Super. 112 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1899)
Card v. Township of Columbia
43 A. 217 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1899)
Habecker v. Lancaster Township
9 Pa. Super. 553 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1899)
Yoders v. Amwell Township
33 A. 1017 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1896)
McCauley v. Logan
25 A. 499 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1893)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 A. 1060, 151 Pa. 304, 1892 Pa. LEXIS 1430, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kieffer-v-hummelstown-borough-pa-1892.