240 INJURIES TO ANIMALS ON HIGHWAYS. 



that obstructions are of such a character as would frighten 

 horses of ordinary gentleness.^"* 



The liability of railway companies for frightening animals 

 is discussed in § 133, infra. 



67. Injury from Other Causes — A municipality is liable for 

 injuries to animals due to direct contact with some defect in 

 a highway or bridge. Thus where the course of a highway 

 was changed and a new bridge was built, the old road seem- 

 ing good, the permitting a barrier to decay so that one drove 

 his team into the remains of the old bridge, was held to make 

 the town liable.^"^ So it is liable where its commissioner is 

 negligent and does not make a bridge safe for horses.^**® 

 And its negligence is the proximate cause of an injury to the 

 owner of a horse received while attempting to keep the horse 

 from injuring itself after catching its foot in a hole in a 

 bridge.^"'' It is liable for an injury received by an animal fall- 

 ing into a defective culvert.^"^ So, where a horse hitched 



guished from evidence that similar accidents had occurred in a place, the 

 latter being inadmissible. 



In Elliott on Roads and Streets, 451, Bloor v. Delafield, 69 Wis. 273, 

 and Cleveland, C, C. & I. R. Co. v. Wynant, 114 Ind. 525, are cited as 

 opposed to the rule in the text, and it is said: "But the Wisconsin and 

 Indiana cases cannot be taken as expressive of a universal rule, for they 

 ought not to be regarded as going further than that there are some objects 

 which may be declared as matter of law not likely to frighten horses." 



See also § 133, infra. 



'" Moreland v. Mitchell Co., 40 la. 394, 401. 



In Burns v. Farmington, 31 N. Y. App. Div. 364, it was held that the 

 question whether an irregular pile of wood by the road was an object 

 which a man of ordinary intelligence would judge likely to frighten horses, 

 was one for the jury and not for the opinion of witnesses. 



-°° Schuenke v. Pine River, 84 Wis. 669. 



And see as to highways discontinued without notice: Milwaukee v. 

 Davis, 6 id. 377; Bills v. Kaukauna, 94 id. 310. 



'" Diamond v. East Hants, 20 Nov. Sco. 9. 



And see Park v. Adams Co., 3 Ind. App. 536. 



-"' La Duke v. Exeter Tp., 97 Mich. 450. 



'™ Hazard v. Council Blufifs, 87 la. 51; Bowser v. Toledo, 9 O. Circ. Ct. 

 294; Lloyd V. New York City, s N. Y. 369; Brennan v. Friendship, 67 

 Wis. 223, 



