WHERE FRIGHT IS CAUSED BY THE DEFECT. 219 



that the aspect of the road would not undergo a change by 

 filling a hole and rendering the place where it was, safe as a 

 carriage road, so as to occasion no danger. It would prob- 

 ably be impossible to find materials and so place them that 

 the spot should appear precisely as it did before the defect 

 existed, but if repaired in the usual manner, so that the ap- 

 pearance was not unlike roads when similar injuries were re- 

 paired, the town could not be liable therefor on an indictment 

 and consequently not to an individual for an injury re- 

 ceived." "« 



So, where a horse was frightened at blocks of granite on a 

 road, procured for the purpose of repairing and left there but 

 a few hours, the town was held not liable.^"® And mere 

 knowledge that there is an obstruction, such as a boiler, in 

 a road will not make the inhabitants of a town liable: they 

 must know that it is unnecessarily and illegally there. ^"^ If a 

 defect in a highway causes such a breaking of a safe vehicle 

 that a well-broken horse is naturally frightened beyond the 

 control of a reasonably careful driver and the horse falls while 

 running down a steep hill and the plaintifif is thrown out and 

 injured, the jury may find the defect to be the sole cause of 

 the accident. The horse's fall "cannot be reckoned as a con- 

 tributory cause. It is as much a natural and direct conse- 

 quence as the fall of the plaintiff herself from the wagon. It 

 is part of the accident caused by the defect." ^"^ And where 

 a wagon was loosely loaded with barrels and passed over 

 boards negligently laid in the street, thereby frightening the 

 horse, it was held that the accident to the driver was a result 

 to be reasonably expected from the misconduct of the person 

 putting the boards in the way.^"* 



But, as opposed to the Massachusetts rule, where the object 

 of fright is situated within and is per se a defect upon the tfav- 



"° Merrill v. Hampden, 26 Me. 234. "° Farrell v. Oldtown, 69 Me. 72. 

 '" Bartlett v. Kittery, 68 Me. 3S8. 



'" Willey V. Belfast, 61 Me. 569. And see Clark v. Lebanon, 63 id. 393. 

 '" Lake v. Milliken, 62 Me. 240. 



