Court Opinion

ID: 9700050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:07:55.701685+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:03.364397
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice Musmanno:
The theory in Pennsylvania negligence law that there must be a physical battery before there can be a recovery is one that will, one day, I am confident, be repudiated by this Court. I addressed myself at length to this subject in Bosley v. Andrews, 393 Pa. 161.
In that case a herd of cows, squired by a 1500-pound Hereford bull, invaded the Bosley farm. When Mrs. Bosley tried to drive them away, the bull, in assumed chivalrous support of his female escorts, pursued Mrs. Bosley but never actually overtook her, al*32though his menacing horns came within 15 feet of impaling her. As a result of this assault, without physical battery, Mrs. Bosley suffered a heart attack. This Court held there could be no recovery against the owner of the bull because the bull’s horns had • not actually touched Mrs. Bosley.
In this case the Majority follows the same theory it did in the Bosley case, and I will accordingly end this short dissenting opinion in the same way I ended my dissent in the Bosley case, namely:
“I wish to go on record that the policy of nonliability announced by the Majority in this type of case is insupportable in law, logic, and elementary justice— and I shall continue to dissent from it until the cows come home.”