Pendleton v. Kinsley

19 F. Cas. 141, 3 Cliff. 416
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Rhode Island
DecidedJune 15, 1871
DocketCase No. 10,922
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 19 F. Cas. 141 (Pendleton v. Kinsley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pendleton v. Kinsley, 19 F. Cas. 141, 3 Cliff. 416 (circtdri 1871).

Opinion

CLIFFORD, Circuit Justice.

Owners of vessels engaged in carrying passengers assume obligations somewhat different from those whose vessels are employed as common carriers of merchandise. Obligations of the kind in the former case are in some respects less extensive and more qualified than in the latter, as the owners of the vessel carrying passengeis are not insurers of the lives of their passengers, nor even of their safety, but in most other respects the obligations assumed are equally comprehensive and stringent. -Carriers of passengers by land, it was said in one of the early cases, are not liable for injuries happening to passengers from unforeseen accident or misfortune, where there has been no negligence or default; but it was held in the same case that the smallest negligence would render the earner liable, and that the question of negligence was for the jury. Aston v. Heaven, 2 Esp. 533. Where the injury for which the action was brought resulted from the breaking of the axle of the coach, the court held, in the case of Christie v. Griggs, 2 Camp, 79, that “when the breaking down or overturning of a coach is proved, negligence on the part of the owner is implied,” subject, of course, to opposing testimony; that the question of negligence was for the jury; that if it appeared that the axle-tree was sound, “as far as the human eye could discover,” the defendant was not liable; that there was a difference between a contract to carry goods and a contract to carry passengers; that the carrier of goods was liable at all events; that the carrier of passengers did not warrant their safety; that his undertaking went no further than that he would provide for their safe conveyance as far as human care and foresight could go; that the owner was liable if there was the least negligence; but that the plaintiff had no remedy for the misfortune if the breaking down of the coach was purely accidental. Attempts have been made to show that the rule laid down in the case of Sharp v. Grey, 9 Bing. 457, is more stringent against the owner, but the question submitted to the jury m that case was whether the degree of vigilance practiced by the defendant was such as was required by his engagement, and two at least of the judges concurred in refusing the motion for the new trial’upon the ground that the question was one of fact for the jury. The remarks of the chief justice in the case of Crofts v. Waterhouse, 3 Bing. 319, are sometimes referred to as advancing a more stringent rule, but the opinion taken as a whole furnishes no support to the suggestion, and his associate on the occasion stated in terms that a carrier of passengers is only liable for negligence. Proprietors of stage-coaches, it is held in the case of Ingalls v. Bills, 9 Metc. (Mass.) 1, are not answerable for an injury to a passenger which happens by reason of a hidden defect in an iron axle-tree, which defect, being entirely surrounded by sound iron one fourth of an inch thick, could not be discovered by the most careful external examination. Carriers of passengers, by railways or steamers, are bound to greater precautions, and'to a higher degree of care, skill, and vigilance in the preparation and management of the vehicles or means of conveyance than are required of the owners of stage-coaches, because the car of the railway proprietor and the steamer of the carrier by water are intended to sustain far greater weight, and are to be propelled by much greater power and at much greater speed. Simmons v. Steamboat Co., 97 Mass. 367.

Passengers must take the risk incident to the mode of travel which they select, but those risks, in the legal sense, are only such as the utmost care, skill, and caution of the carrier in the preparation and management of the means of conveyance are unable to avert. Hegeman v. Western R. Corp., 13 N. Y. 24. Damages were claimed by the plaintiff in that case for injuries received by the breaking of the axle of a railway car in which he was riding, and the defense was that the car was a new one, recently purchased of a manufacturer of skill and good repute, and that it was carefully examined at the time of the purchase; that the track was in good condition; that the speed of the train was not excessive; and that the employees were sufficient in number and of sufficient experience and skill, and that they were guilty of no negligence: but the court instructed the jury that it made no difference whether the car was constructed by the company or purchased of an experienced manufacturer, as the defendants were liable in either event if the defect could have been discovered in the process of manufacturing the axle or car by the application of any test known to men skilled in that business, and the court of appeals affirmed the judgment. They [144]*144held that the carrier of passengers was bound to the utmost precaution, care, and skill in the preparation and management of the means of conveyance; but they conceded that the carriers of passengers were not insurers, and that latent defects might exist in machinery, undiscoverable by the most improved and vigilant examination, and from which the most serious accidents may occur.

Expressions are found in the opinion of the court in the case of Boyce v. Anderson, 2 Pet. [27 U. S.) 150, which leave it to be inferred that the court was of the opinion that the carriers of passengers were only required to exercise ordinary skill and care to secure their safety; but the correct rule is stated in the case of Stokes v. Saltonstall, 13 Pet. [38 U. S.] 199, where the same court held that proof of the accident and alleged injury afforded a prima facie presumption that there was carelessness, negligence, or want of skill on the part of the driver; that it being admitted that the carriage was upset, and that the plaintiff was injured, it was incumbent on the defendant to prove that the driver was a person of competent skill, of good habits, and in every respect qualified and suitably prepared for the business in which he was engaged, and that he acted on the occasion with reasonable skill, and with the utmost prudence and caution, and if the disaster in question was occasioned by the least negligence or want of skill or prudence on his part, then the defendant, as the owner of the coach, was liable in that fiction. Hall v. Connecticut River Steamboat Co., 13 Conn. 326; Briggs v. Taylor, 2S Vt. 180; Redf. R. R. 175; Galena & C. U. R. Co. v. Yarwood, 17 Ill. 509. Negligence in the smallest degree renders the carrier liable, and there is one case in which it was held that a railroad corporation was liable for injuries to a passenger caused by a defect in an iron axle of a car, although it was of such a character that it could not have been discovered by any practicable mode of examination; but the rule there laid down is expressly disapproved in a recent judgment of the exchequer chamber, and cannot be adopted in this circuit until it is approved by the supreme court. Alden v. N. Y. Cent R. Co., 26 N. Y. 102; Readhead v. Midland Ry. Co., L. R. 2 Q. B. 412; s. c., L. R. 4 Q. B. 379; Simmons v. New Bedford. V. & N. Steamboat Co., 97 Mass. 368. Such carriers are not insurers against accidents, nor are they required to do what is impossible in the nature of things. 1 Smith. Lead. Cas. (5th Ed.) 328. Undoubtedly they are bound to the highest degree of care, prudence, and caution; but if the injury results from a hidden defect in the car, engine, or other apparatus, unknown at the time, and which could not be detected by any known means, they are not responsible, because the obligation which they assumed did not require what it was not in tlieir power to perform. McElroy v. Nashua & L. R. Corp., 4 Cush. 400; Story, Bailm. 581.

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Bluebook (online)
19 F. Cas. 141, 3 Cliff. 416, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pendleton-v-kinsley-circtdri-1871.