51 Conn. 524 | Conn. | 1884
The main issue of fact in this case was whether the defendant was guilty of negligence in not properly fastening a door in one of its mills opening into a water closet, after the floor had been removed for repairs, by reason of which the plaintiff, opening the door, stepped in and fell to the ground and was injured.
The defendant offered evidence to prove that the door had been securely fastened by strap hinges screwed into both the door and the jamb, so that it could not be opened without violence, and that the plaintiff broke it down after great effort, and so received her injurjn The counsel for the plaintiff, in tire cross-examination of one of the defendant’s witnesses, inquired if boards were not nailed across the casing of the door on the day following the accident to stop people from going there. To this question the defendant objected, on the ground that the precautions taken after the accident did not show the nature or insufficiency of the precautions taken before, and were not admissions by the defendant that such previous precautions were insufficient. The court however admitted the evidence. In the argument the defendant’s counsel again called the attention of the court to this question, and requested the court to instruct the jury that the testimony was not admissible for the purposes mentioned in the objection, but the court did not so instruct the jury.
It will be readily conceded that the negligence to be proved depended entirely upon what the defendant knew and did or omitted to doi/before the accident. The only possible bearing which the evidence in question could have would be as an admission that the previous precautions were insufficient and negligent. And this presents the question for our present discussion — Can this act subsequent to the accident be made to reflect back and condemn what
The question obviously has an importance which transcends the exigencies of the present case, for all persons to whose negligence accidents may be attributed will want to know how much in the way of changes and repairs they may afterwards do, to prevent the possibility of a recurrence of similar accidents, without admitting their responsibility for the past.
We are not aware that the question has ever been the subject of discussion in this court. We are entirely free therefore to adopt the rule which seems best founded in reason, justice and public policju But we will first endeavor to obtain what assistance we may by a review of the authorities from other states.
And liére we shall find some contrariety of decision and reasoning, but we think there is a decided preponderance of authority in favor of the defendant’s claim, that precautions taken subsequent to an accident do not involve an admission that the prior ones were insufficient and negligent. A long line of consistent decisions in the state of New York sustains the defendant’s objection to this evidence. In Dougan v. Transportation Co., 56 N. York, 1, it was claimed that the defendant was guilty of negligence in not sufficiently protecting by a railing a gangway on the defendant’s boat, in consequence of which the plaintiff’s intestate slipped under the railing in attempting to recover his hat which had suddenly blown off, and fell overboard and was drowned. The plaintiff offered to prove that after the accident the defendant boarded up the space under the railing. The Court of Appeals held that this evidence was properly rejected, upon the ground that the question of negligence was to be determined by what was known before and at the time of the accident. In Saltus v. Del. & Hud. Canal Co., 3 Hun, 338, the plaintiff’s intestate was killed while employed as a fireman on a locomotive of the defendant which ran into an openframe switch and was overturned. It was claimed that the defendant should have used at the
In Hudson v. Railroad Co., 59 Iowa, 581, and in Cramer v. City of Burlington, 45 Iowa, 627, it was distinctly held that repairing defects after an accident was not evidence as an admission of negligence at the time of the accident. But although these decisions are the same in principle as those cited from New York, yet they seem to be placed entirely upon the narrow ground that the acts in question, having been done by agents óf the defendant corporations, were not binding on the latter, because not contemporaneous with the injury complained of. But the same court in Couch v.
The only decisions, not now overruled, which we have been able to find to support the claim of the plaintiff' as to the evidence in question, are from the courts of Pennsylvania. The first case is that of Penn. R. R. Co. v. Henderson, 51 Penn. St., 315, where the injury (which was the killing of the plaintiff’s husband) was alleged to have been caused by the - negligence of the railroad company in not having a safe and convenient platform, and not allowing sufficient time to get into the cars, and in causing an engine to run alongside of the cars when passengers were about to get into them. Among other points it was claimed that there was error in permitting the plaintiff to show that the agent of the company, on the morning after Henderson was killed, directed the telegraph operator to telegraph Thomas A. Scott, general superintendent of the road, the situation of the platform, and that he thought it ought to be removed, and that the reply came immediately, “Very well,” and that the platform was removed the next day. It was held that there was no error in this ruling, but no reasons
. The Supreme Court of Minnesota, at first following the. Pennsylvania decisions, held in several cases, (O'Leary v. City of Mankato, 21 Minn., 65, Phelps v. City of Mankato, 23 Minn., 276, and Kelly v. Railroad Co., 28 Minn., 98,)
We may well adopt this reasoning of the- Minnesota court as covering the entire ground in a few words. Courts that have taken a different view of this question seem to us to have overlooked the changed conditions under which the acts subsequent to the accident have been done. The fact that an accident has happened and some person has been injured, immediately puts a party on a higher plane of diligence and duty from which he acts with a view of preventing the possibility of a similar accident, which should
In the case at bar it is perfectly clear that the act of nailing boards across the door should not be admitted to show previous negligence, even if the rule should not go to the extent that it has been applied in the state of New York. It was conceded that the door to the closet was intended to be closed by the defendant, the only question being whether it was properly done. By the act of the plaintiff, whether it was extraordinary or otherwise, the door was broken down, and after the accident there was nothing to prevent persons from passing through the door; the defendant therefore, in view of this new danger, immediately nailed boards across. If a bridge should be broken down by a heavy load, though the fault was in the load rather than the bridge, no court would think of its being evidence of prior negligence if the party bound to keep it in repair should put a bar across to stop travel or should rebuild the bridge. The new condition calls for the new act; and so it manifestly did in the case under consideration.
But the plaintiff claims that the subsequent boarding up the door was at least admissible to show that certain of the defendant’s witnesses who had testified to the marks of violence seen on and about the door after the accident, could not have seen what they described, and she invokes the benefit of the familiar rule, that if evidence is admissible for any purpose its reception furnishes no ground for a new trial; but tins rule applies only where it does not appear that the evidence was received for an illegitimate purpose. Tyler v. Todd, 36 Conn., 220.
In this case it is very clear that the evidence was received for an illegitimate purpose. The objection to it was specific, that it was not admissible to show prior negligence. The
There was error in the rulings complained of, and a new trial is ordered.
In this opinion the other judges concurred; Pardee, J., being disqualified by interest and not sitting.