Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1912-12-05
GRIMSON'S VIEW
ON HERD Law

UN llkU Law
Owners of Unthreshed Grain Have
Legal Protection Under
Herd Law
10 the Editor:
I have had so many inquiries in re-.
gard to the Herd Law of this state and
in regard to the consequences of stock
running at large that l think the follow
ing will be of interest to your readers:
Section 1888 OF the Revised Codes OF
1905 provides that it shall be lawful for
stock, excepting hogs, to run at large
from the first day of December until the
first day of April of each year, except
within the corporate limits of any city
or village, providing that no vicious
animal shall be allowed to run at large
at any time. The law also provides that
the county commissioners may vote to
abolish this Herd Law, and when they
have voted, shall submit the proposition
to a vote at the next general election.
Then, if the majority votes that it shall
be'not lawful for stock to run at LARGE
the Herd Law is abolished and it is then
not lawful for stock tt run at large at
any time. This question, however, has
never been submitted to a vote in this
county, and therefore. the law allowing
stock to run at large between the above
mentioned dates is in force.
1t being lawful, then, for stock to run
at large after the first day of December,
the question naturally arises as to who
is liable for the damage caused by such
stock running at large. The question
was up in our supreme court directly in
the ease of Ely VS.. Rosholt, SO N. w.
page 1854. In that case some horses be-
longing to the defendant repeatedly
entered upon plaintiffs land in February
and destroyed some $40 worth of hay in
the stack. The defendent permitted his
horses to run at large, but had no actual
knowledge that they we're destroying
plaintiffs hay, and had no intention to
cause such damage. The supreme court
decided that plaintiff could not maintain
his action, but says:
ut is clear that if live stock is per-
mitted to run at large during any por-
ton of the year, an action is not main
tainable by landowners for injury to
their personal property thereon by run
ming stock at such times when the ordi-
nary precautions which common pru-
dence would dictate have not been taken
to protect such property from destruc-
ton. Applying the rule of law to the
facts in this case. respondents negli-
gence in leaving his hay out upon an
unenclosed field and without any stock
guard, during the season of the year
when stock was permitted to run at
large, was the direct cause of his loss"
The court says in the syllabus Of the
case that the owner of stock running at
large is not liable for the damage Gin the
absence of proof of willful injury"
Applying the reasoning of this case,
we find that under ordinary conditions
the court holds that ths owner of stock
running at large Is not liable for the
destruction by such stock of hay or
such crops as ordinarily stand over
winter, because, the court" says, the
owner of such crops is negligent in not
fencing or protecting such crops during
the season of the year when stock runs
at large, unless there is proof of willful
injury and damage, or in other words,
that the owner of stock lets his stock
run in somebody's grain with the know.
ledge and intention that said stock
would damage such grain.
This year however conditions are out
of the ordinary. So much grain is I'm.
threshed and that it is u%nthreshed is
not the fault of anyone but of nature it.
self. 1t cannot be held therefore, thai
the owner of such unthreshed grain
failing to fence or enclose it, Is thereby
negligent or lacking in ordinary pre-
cautions to protect his property. i
appears to me further that anyone allow
ing his stock to run at large under thu
present extraordinary conditions mus
do so with the knowledge and intention
that such stock will cause damage t,
somebody's unthreshed grain. In al
such cases, applying the reasoning il
the case of Eli VS.. Rosholt. | believ,
that the owners of stock will be helt
liable for the damages caused by thei
stock running at large, eyen between
the first day of December and the frs
day Of April. Further than the lega