Snee v Durkie
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 07 November 1903 |
| Date | 07 November 1903 |
| Docket Number | No. 9. |
| Court | Court of Session |
Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Young, Lord Trayner, Lord Moncreiff.
ReparationNegligenceRunaway horse and carriageProofPresumption.
Where a runaway horse and carriage runs down a person in broad daylight in a public street the presumption is that the owner of the horse and carriage is in fault.
Evidence on a consideration of which it was held (diss. Lord Young) that this presumption had been rebutted.
In March 1903 Patrick Snee, labourer, 10 Campbell Street, Lochee, Dundee as tutor and administrator-in-law of his pupil child Christina Snee, aged five years, raised an action in the Sheriff Court at Dundee, against David Durkie junior, baker, 12 Hawkhill, Dundee, concluding for 250 as damages for injury to the pursuer's child through being knocked down by a runaway horse and baker's van belonging to the defender, in Loons Road, Dundee, on 9th February 1903.
The pursuer averred;(Cond. 3) The said Thomas Nannery [the driver of the van on the occasion in question] has no skill or experience in the management of horses, and was through inexperience incapable of controlling a horse; the horse in question was of a restive, fiery nature, and such as required to be under the charge of a capable and skilful horseman, which, as before stated, it was not; the harness by which it was yoked to said van was of an inferior and flimsy kind, and not such as should have been used with a van employed for the carrying of heavy loads such as was the case in question, and in consequence thereof said harness broke, and aggravated the restlessness of the horse, and made it more difficult of control; and when said horse became restive, and was likely to fall or bolt, the said Thomas Nannery, instead of holding on by the reins till he could catch its head, threw away the reins and jumped from the van over an adjacent wall, and by the time he got back the horse had run off, which would have been impossible had said horse been controlled by a skilled or responsible horseman, and the accident to the said Christina Snee would not have happened. The defender is thus liable for the loss, injury, and damages caused thereby.
The defender averred;(Ans. 3) Denied. Explained that the cause of the accident was the breaking of the back band and the fall of the van upon the horse's hindquarters causing it thereby to bolt. The harness was new, and specially made for the defender three months before the accident. Defender had no cause to suspect that there was any latent defect in the back band, and the breaking of the back band was due to a latent defect for which the defender was not responsible and could not have foreseen, and which was not discoverable on examination. The said Thomas Nannery was a capable driver, accustomed to the driving of horses, and the horse in question was, so far as the defender knew, sound and free from vice.
The pursuer pleaded;(2) The accident condescended on having happened to the said Christina Snee through the fault of the defender, as condescended on, the defender is bound to compensate the said Christina Snee for the loss, injury, and damage caused to her by said accident.
The defender pleaded;(2) The injury to the pursuer's child not having been caused by the fault of the defender, he should be assoilzied, with expenses.
The pursuer having died, his widow, Mrs Rose Ann Snee, was sisted as pursuer.
A proof was allowed and led.
Nannery, the driver of the van, adduced by the defender, deponed:I have been in the employment of the defender for three years and seven months. I was a baker with him for about twelve months, but for the last eighteen months I have been one of his vanmen. I had been driving the same horse for four or five months. By the Court.This was an old horse, and very quiet, and I never had any trouble with it except on this occasion. Examination continued.On the 9th February I was doing my rounds in the Loons Road. The van I was driving was a two-wheeled baker's van, and it was very light. I had not a full load on when...
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