Court Opinion

ID: 9683603
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:32:44.665772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:48.971092
License: Public Domain

*741Labson, J.
(dissenting) — I must respectfully dissent from the majority conclusion for I cannot see where the chain of events consequent upon defendant’s negligence was broken by an intervening negligent act of the plaintiff as a matter of law. Plaintiff and her husband were trying to round up scattered cattle which reasonable minds could readily find were a present and potential danger to the traveling public on Highway 218. Indeed, defendant himself testified: “I would agree it would not be a safe thing to do to leave cattle loose in highway area.” It is clear the motorist who aroused plaintiff’s husband from his sleep thought presence of the cattle on the highway created a danger. Only the majority seems to be of a different opinion.
As plaintiff’s husband had trouble in driving the cattle-northward to the barnyard gate, and some stock had gone into the cemetery lot which was not completely fenced, plaintiff went into the cemetery to assist him. When it appeared he would succeed in getting the cattle out of the cemetery, she hurried to head them off from traveling farther south down the highway. There was no fence on top of the wall for about 125 feet, so when she endeavored to reach the road from her position in the cemetery, she came to an opening in the fence and fell to her injury.
As pointed out in Wagner v. International Railway Co., 232 N. Y. 176, 133 N.E. 437, 19 A. L. R. 1, danger invites rescue. Both plaintiff and her husband were so engaged when this accident happened. There was no departure from that effort when they went into the cemetery to round up these animals. The majority intimate they should have closed the cemetery gate, an act they had no right to do, but even so, with a stairs and an unfeneed opening to the highway, the danger to the traveling public would not have been eliminated. There was no showing the cattle could not have escaped had the gate been closed, and she was not aware of that fact if it were a fact. I feel the jury could reasonably find the situation the same as if these cattle were then upon the highway itself and that the danger still existed. Further, the cattle could *742have done a good deal of damage to the cemetery had they remained there.
Plaintiff’s action in going to her husband’s aid when the cattle could not be driven northward on the highway was only an answer to his distress. This was her testimony. She recalled “being awakened and hearing voice say cattle out on highway. * * * I could see through window husband was having trouble, that he needed someone to stand and block off driveway to keep them from going north on highway * * *. My husband eame in. He wanted me to come out by the driveway and head them off. I had already assumed that I’d have to get up and help. I could see that one person couldn’t get them in alone. * * * By time I went out there the cows had congregated further south, on the highway and had entered this * * * I waited up by the drive for just a few minutes anyway, but the cows were not coming.” She said she went out “because I didn’t think you could let animals run on the highway for fear of automobiles hitting them. The animal would get killed, plus the fact as to the danger of people in those cars being injured. And I know that that was my reason for going out and helping. * * * Someone had to do it, and I felt I was the only other person available. * * * I know it was very dark * * *. * * * the cows weren’t coming near the driveway but were scattered further on down and into the cemetery. I went down to view the situation.” She heard cattle in the southeast corner of the cemetery and started for them when she heard her husband coming with others farther back. She decided she should keep those cattle from going farther south on the highway. “I saw a fence and assumed the end of the fence meant you were free to go.” She wasn’t aware of the wall. She was running when she went over it to her injury. She said she was not aware there were steps and handrails leading from the top of the wall down. They were 25 to 30 steps north. She said she “didn’t stop to think that if I had closed the gate there [to the cemetery] the cattle would have been trapped in the cemetery because I was not aware cattle couldn’t come down the wall.” Then too “I couldn’t imagine letting *743cattle run in cemeteries, a place of respect.” It was a cold night and it was windy.
Plaintiff was helping get the cattle started northward out of the cemetery, feared they would then turn south down the highway, and raced to head them off. Plaintiff could not reach the highway on the south because of the fence, so she followed it to the opening; she did not have in mind the drop from the wall, and fell. It was at least a jury question as to whether her acts were normal in this rescue attempt.
Section 443, Restatement Torts, expresses the rule on which plaintiff is entitled to rely:
“An intervening act of a human being or animal which is a normal response to the stimulus of a situation created by the actor’s negligent conduct, is not a superseding cause of harm to another which the actor’s conduct is a substantial factor in bringing about.
“Comment: a. The rule stated in this Section applies * * * to acts done by the person who is harmed * * *. It is not necessary that an act which is done by the person harmed or by a third person should be ‘reasonable’; that is, that the act should be one which a reasonable man would regard as not involving an unreasonable risk to himself or others. * * *”
As Justice Cardozo said in the Wagner case, supra, “The law does not ignore these reactions of the mind in tracing conduct to its consequences. It recognizes them as normal.”
I think the cemetery was no different from any other non-fenced area adjacent to the highway and that pursuit of loose animals into such an area would not bar recovery if injury occurs to the rescuer which would be compensable had it occurred on the highway itself.
The majority do not deny the law favors plaintiff. They say the facts are against her, but I cannot concur in that conclusion. I would, therefore, reverse the judgment of the trial court for defendant notwithstanding the verdict, and let the verdict stand.
Garfield, C, J., joins in this dissent.