Milne & Company v Nimmo
Jurisdiction | Scotland |
Judgment Date | 13 July 1898 |
Date | 13 July 1898 |
Docket Number | No. 183. |
Court | Court of Session |
Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Young, Lord Trayner, Lord Moncreiff.
Reparation—Negligence—Precautions for safety of the public—Escape of horse into street.—
The driver of a pony and van after yoking the pony to the van preparatory to leaving the stable yard went forward and opened the gate of the yard which separated the yard from the public street. He then went three or four yards behind the pony and van to get his coat. While he was doing so, the pony ran off through the pend into the street, and there collided with a horse and cart, seriously injuring the horse.
In an action of damages by the owner of the injured horse against the employer of the pony van driver, held (dub. Lord Trayner) that the driver was in fault in leaving the pony as he did after opening the yard gate, and therefore that the defender was liable in damages.
In March 1897 George Milne & Company, bakers, Maclellan Street, Glasgow, brought an action in the Sheriff Court at Glasgow, against Peter Nimmo, confectioner, 147 Paisley Road, West Glasgow, praying for decree for £40, 2s. as damages on account of injuries sustained by a horse belonging to the pursuers in consequence of having been run into by a run-away pony and van belonging to the defender.
The defender denied fault, and pleaded, inter alia,—(2) The pursuers' horse not having been injured through the fault or negligence of the defender, or the fault or negligence of anyone for whom he is responsible, the defender is entitled to be assoilzied, with expenses.
A proof was allowed. The evidence was to the following effect:—The pony and van which caused the injuries escaped from an enclosed yard attached to a stable and workshop belonging to the defender. This yard was situated at the back of a tenement of houses in Eaglesham Street, Glasgow, and communicated with Eaglesham Street by a covered pend eight and a-half to ten feet wide, with a gate at the street end. This gate was generally shut, and, when a horse had been yoked, it was the practice not to open the gate unless the driver was ready to start, and then either the gate was opened by someone else, the driver being on the van, or if the driver opened the gate himself he was throughout between the exit from the pend and the horse until he had come back alongside the horse and got on to the van. On the day in question the pony and van were standing about thirty yards from the inside entrance to the pend. M'Millan the driver, having loaded the van with the assistance of Hynes, one of the defender's confectionery workers, went forward through the pend and opened the gate. He then returned and passed to the rear of the pony and van to get his coat, which was hanging on the workshop door about three yards behind the van. According to his own evidence (which was corroborated by that of Hynes, who was standing near, but not looking after the pony) he was in the act of coming up to the van after getting his coat when the pony went off at a trot towards the street, quickening its pace as it went through the pend. M'Millan ran after it but was unable to get to its head owing to the narrowness of the pend, and it got clear into the street, and ultimately ran into the pursuers' horse, which was standing yoked to a van at a shop door. The defender's pony was...
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