O'Brien v. American Bridge Co.

125 N.W. 1012, 110 Minn. 364, 136 Am. St. Rep. 503, 1910 Minn. LEXIS 1006
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedApril 8, 1910
DocketNos. 16,389—(209)
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 125 N.W. 1012 (O'Brien v. American Bridge Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Brien v. American Bridge Co., 125 N.W. 1012, 110 Minn. 364, 136 Am. St. Rep. 503, 1910 Minn. LEXIS 1006 (Mich. 1910).

Opinion

Jaggard, J.

Defendant was responsible for the erection of a bridge under contract. The county itself constructed the approaches and connected them with the bridge. Five or six weeks after the acceptance of the bridge it collapsed, while plaintiff and others were crossing over it. One person was killed, and others, including plaintiff, were injured. In this an action to recover therefor the jury awarded plaintiff $11,000. From an order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial, this appeal was taken. The law applicable to such a state of facts is familiar, and in its general outlines well settled.

1. In the English law, there are at least four distinct and different principles applicable to related states of fact which are established by as many separate lines of decisions, namely: (1) The principle established by the cases of which Winterbottom v. Wright, 10 M. & W. 109, may be taken as an example; (2) the principle of Nelson v. Liverpool, [1877] 2 C. P. D. 311; (3) the principle of Indermaur v. Dames, [1866] L. R. 1 C. P. 274, [1867] 2 C. P. 311; (4) the principle of Langridge v. Levy, [1837] 2 M. & W. 519, and of George v. Skivington, [1869] L. R. 5 Exch. 1. See Lord Atkinson in Cavalier v. Pope, [1906] A. C. 428, at 432, 433.

It is convenient and sufficient for present purposes, although it may not be strictly necessary, to regard the case at bar as involving the rules laid down in the first and fourth classes of cases.

The principle of Winterbottom v. Wright has been frequently misconstrued, misstated, and misapplied. There the declaration demurred to set forth that the dangerous condition of the coach which was supplied by defendant to plaintiff’s master, and by which plaintiff was hurt, was due to “certain latent defects.” In consequence that “declaration was nothing more than an attempt to sue on that contract by a person who was a total stranger to it.” Clerk & Lindsell, Torts (Can. Ed.) 478. The facts of Longmeid v. Holliday, [367]*3676 Ex. 761, have been still more grossly distorted. In that case “the jury found bona fides and no negligence on the part of the vendor.” Kelly, C. B., in George v. Skivington, supra. “The decision itself cannot be regarded as any authority for the proposition stated in the headnote.” Clerk & Lindsell, Torts (Can. Ed.) 478. Mr. Pollock has pointed out that what Winterbottom v. Wright and Longmeid v. Holliday decided was, not that “facts which constitute a contract cannot have any other legal effect, * * * [but] something different and much more rational, namely, that if A. breaks his contract with B. * * * that is not of itself sufficient to make A. liable to C., a stranger to the contract, for consequential damages.” Pollock, Torts (8th Ed.) 546. And see Baumwoll v. Furness, L. R. [1893] A. C. 16.

In the fourth class of cases the underlying principle, of general, though not of universal, application, upon which the liability in Heaven v. Pender, 11 Q. B. D. 503, has been enforced, was thus formulated by Brett, M. R.: “Whenever one person is by circumstances placed in such a position with regard to another that every one of ordinary sense who did think would at once recognize that, if he did not use ordinary care and skill in his own conduct with regard to those circumstances, he would cause danger of injury to the person or property of the other, a duty arises to use ordinary care and skill to avoid such danger. * * * ” The authorities are regarded by Clerk & Lindsell (whose discussion is most thoughtful and exhaustive) as establishing these propositions, namely: A duty with respect to instrumentalities delivered under contract may exist towards others than the contracting parties. That duty extends to all persons likely to be injured by defendant’s want of care, providing it is reasonable for such person to rely on care having been taken. To entitle the injured party to complain he must have used the dangerous thing in a manner intended and he must be one of the class of persons by whom the defendant contemplated the thing being used. Clerk & Lindsell, Torts (Can. Ed.) 470. And see general classification of cases on page 468.

Mr. Pollock’s view of the English cases is more consistent with an accepted American theory (which suffices to determine this controver[368]*368sy) namely: Two features are conspicuously necessary to the creation of. this duty to strangers to a contract: (1) That the thing be of a noxious or dangerous kind; (2) that the builder, manufacturer, or contractor had actual knowledge of its being in such a state of danger as would amount to concealed danger to persons using it in ordinary manner and with ordinary care. Pollock, Torts (8th Ed.) 515. It is convenient to later consider the element of danger. Knowledge of imperfect condition is essential. In Earl v. Lubbock, [1905] 1 K. B. 253—258, plaintiff, a driver in the employment of a firm for whom defendant had agreed to keep in repair a number of vans, was unable to recover damages based on the negligence of the workmen in failing to properly inspect and repair a defective van, because he failed to “adduce evidence to shew that to the knowledge of the defendant the van was in such a condition as to cause danger not necessarily incident to its use.” And see note to 1 Am. & Eng. An. Cas. 755. It would serve no useful purpose to detail or discuss the familiar cases on the subject.

Lord Atkinson, in Cavalier v. Pope, supra, at page 433, regards the group here under consideration as including cases of “fraud, misrepresentation * * * warranty, [or] the handing over of a thing known to be dangerous without warning.” Some English authorities recognize a very wide liability. For example, in Parry v. Smith, [1879] L. R. 4 C. P. D. 325, 327, defendant, employed by plaintiff’s master to repair a gas meter upon his premises, was held responsible to plaintiff in damages consequent upon an explosion of gas, which Lad escaped by reason of defendant’s negligence, wben plaintiff in the performance of his ordinary duty went near with a light. Lopes, J., said, at page 327: “I think the plaintiff’s right of action is founded on a duty which I believe attaches in every case, where a person is using or is dealing with a highly dangerous thing, which, unless managed with the greatest care, is calculated, to cause injury to bystanders. To support such a right of action, there need be no privity between the party injured and him by whose breach of duty the injury is caused, nor any fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment ; nor need what is done by the defendant amount to. a public [369]*369nuisance. It is a misfeasance independent of contract.” And see Elliott v. Hall, [1885] 15 Q. B. D. 315.

This is not equivalent to requiring that the agency must be “noxious or dangerous in itself” (see, e. g., Caledonian v. Mulholland, H. of L. [Sc.] 1898 A. C. 216), or per se lethal. In Heaven v. Pender, 11 Q. B. D. 503-517, Bowen, C. J., said: “Any one who leaves a dangerous instrument, as a gun, in such a way as to cause danger, or who without due warning supplies to others for use an instrument or thing which to his knowledge, from its construction or otherwise, is in such a condition as to cause danger, not necessarily incident to the use of such an instrument or thing, is liable for injury caused to others by reason of his negligent act.” In Clarke v. Army, [1903] 1 K. B. 155, a vendor of tins of chlorinated lime knew it was likely to cause damage to a person opening them unless special care was taken. The danger was not such as presumptively would have been known to or appreciable by a purchaser unless warned of it.

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Bluebook (online)
125 N.W. 1012, 110 Minn. 364, 136 Am. St. Rep. 503, 1910 Minn. LEXIS 1006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/obrien-v-american-bridge-co-minn-1910.