139 Tenn. 634 | Tenn. | 1917
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiff in error hereinafter called the defendant, was sued by English, hereinafter called the plaintiff, to recover damages for an injury inflicted upon him under the following circumstances:
Defendant was the owner of a covered bridge over a waterway in Maury county. This bridge had an approach of considerable length and height. There was evidence tending to show that there was a de-
The jury brought in a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for $7,000 damages. The trial' judge» suggested a remittitur of $2,200, which was accepted under protest; then judgment was rendered for the plaintiff for $4,800; then both sides appealed to the court of civil appeals, and there the judgment was affirmed. Both sides then brought the case to this court by the writ of certiorari; the plaintiff complaining of the reduction of the verdict.
Defendant insists that, if the impact of the wagon and team upon the south railing was so violent that it would have broken that railing down even if it had been properly > constructed, it could not be charged with the consequences of the wagon’s exposure on the side of the approach at the time defendant in error’s horse was frightened by it; that is. to say, even if defendant was negligent in having failed to. erect a proper railing on the south side, that negligence could not be operative as a proximate cause of the fright of the horse, chargeable to him, and hence as one of the proximate causes of the injury so chargeable, if the team of mules forced the wagon back against the railing with such momentum and weight
Let us assume that this instruction should have been given. Was the refusal to give it a reversible error? We think not. The better rule is that, where there were two causes which proximately contributed to the injury, for only one of which the defendant was responsible, and with the other of which neither he nor the plaintiff was chargeable, still the defendant must be held to answer for the injury inflicted. A few of the authorities in other States sustaining this rule are the following: Walrod v. Webster County, 110 Iowa, 349, 81 N. W., 598, 47 L. R. A., 480; Gould v. Schermer, 101 Iowa, 582, 70 N. W., 697; Strange v. Bodcaw Lumber Co.,.79 Ark, 490, 96 S. W., 152, 116 Am. St. Rep., 92; Augusta v. Hudson, 94 Ga., 135, 21 S. E., 289; Baltimore & R. Turnpike Road v. State, 71 Md., 573, 18 Atl., 884; Baldwin v. Green-woods Turnpike Co., 40 Conn., 238, 16 Am. Rep., 33; Ivory v. Deerpark, 116 N. J., 476, 22 N. E., 1080; Sturgis v. Kounts, 165 Pa., 358, 30 Atl., 976, 27 L. R. A., 390. The same rule is recognized in our own State in Beopple v. Railroad, 104 Tenn., 420, 58 S. W., 231; Coleman v. Bennett, 111 Tenn., 705, 69 S. W., 734.
There was no error in the action of the trial judge and the court of civil appeals entering a judgment for $4,800. Under the evidence we are satisfied they reached a just result. The judgment of the court of civil appeals must therefore be affirmed.
The plaintiff will pay one-fourth of the costs, and the defendant three-fourths.