7 S.E.2d 793 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1940
1. Though negligence is discovered in relation to one of the causes which have produced an injurious effect, it does not necessarily follow that the author of the negligence is to be held legally responsible for the injury, for it may appear that causes other than the negligent act referred to so preponderated in bringing about the result as to lead us to say that the injury was as likely to have occurred whether or not the negligent act had been committed.
2. By proximate cause is not meant the last act or cause, or the nearest to the injury, but such act, wanting in ordinary care, as actively aided in producing the injury as a direct and aiding cause.
3. To relieve one who commits a negligent act which may have contributed to an injury from legal liability therefor, there must be intervening unforeseen causes which break the casual connection between the original wrongdoer and the subsequent injury, and make his part in the injury or damage only incidental.
4. If, however, the intervening causes were natural and probable consequences which, under the circumstances, might or ought to have been foreseen by the wrongdoer as likely to flow from his negligent act, he can not escape liability.
5. Under the facts pleaded in the present petition, it does not appear that the negligence of the railway company was the proximate or efficient cause of the injury, or that the alleged intervening acts which caused the negligence of the railroad to result in injury to the plaintiff were such as should reasonably have been foreseen or anticipated. The obstruction of the street by the city, together with the alleged negligence of the driver of the automobile, were not such acts as could probably have been anticipated by the railroad, and these acts had no causal connection with its negligence. They, and not the negligent act of the railroad, may be said to have been the proximate and efficient cause of the injury.
There is a duty on the part of a landowner not to maintain on his premises a dangerous excavation so that persons passing along a street immediately adjoining may not be injured while in the exercise of ordinary care, or where by necessity or accident they slightly deviate from such street or walkway. Greenfield v.Watson,
The question presented here is, was the alleged wrongful act of the railroad in not placing guard rails on the road next to the culvert — conceding that such failure was negligence — the proximate cause of the injury? As was said by Judge Powell inAtlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Daniels,
"By proximate cause is not meant the last act or cause, or the nearest act to the injury, but such act wanting in ordinary care as actively aided in producing the injury as a direct and existing *320
cause." Southern Railway Co. v. Tankersley,
While it is true that diligence or negligence or proximate cause is a question for a jury, we think under the allegations of this petition the plaintiff shows that while the defendant may have been negligent in failing to erect a barrier or guard for its culvert at this particular place, and would have been liable to the plaintiff if he had casually or inadvertently walked or fallen into the culvert, it affirmatively appears that he was precipitated into the culvert by the intervening negligent acts of the City of Rome and of the driver of the automobile, and it is not shown that these intervening acts were such as would probably have occurred in the usual, natural, and probable course of events, or that the defendant should have anticipated that such intervening acts would probably or naturally cause the unguarded culvert to result in injury to travelers along the street at this point. Under the facts as pleaded, the negligence of the railway company, while contributing to the injury, did not constitute its proximate and efficient cause. The court did not err in sustaining the demurrer.
Judgment affirmed. Broyles, C. J., and MacIntyre, J.,concur.