308 



NEGLIGENCE IN THE USE OF HORSES, ETC. 



Light load 



meeting 



heayy. 



Parties meet- 

 ing on a 

 Budden. 



Eule of the 

 road applies 

 to saddle 

 horses. 



Modification 

 of rule. 



Tram cars. 



stances might frequently arise where a deviation from what 

 is called the law of the road would not only be justifiable 

 but absolutely necessary. Of this the jury are the best 

 judges ; and, independently of the law of the road, it is their 

 province to determine from whose negligence the accident 

 has arisen (/). 



On the same principle, apparently, it has been laid down 

 in the United States that a traveller on foot or on horse- 

 back must give way to, and, if necessary, cross the road for 

 a vehicle with a heavy load (k), and that a lightly-loaded 

 vehicle must, in like manner, give way to a heavily-loaded 

 one (/). 



Though the rule of the road is not to be adhered to, if 

 by departing from it an injury can be avoided, and there 

 is clear space enough to get out of the way, yet in cases 

 where parties meet on a sudden, and an injury results, the 

 party on the wrong side is answerable, unless it clearly ap- 

 pear that the party on the right side had ample means and 

 opportunity to prevent it (m) . 



The rule of the road as to keeping the proper side 

 ajypUes to saddle horses as well as to carriages ; and if a 

 carriage and a horse are to pass, the carriage must keep 

 its proper side and so must the horse. But if the driver 

 of a carriage is on his proper side, and sees a horse coming 

 furiously on its wrong side of the road, it is the duty of 

 the driver of the carriage to give way and avoid an acci- 

 dent, although in so doing he goes a little on what would 

 otherwise be the wrong side of the road («). 



The introduction of tramways has been said to have con- 

 siderably modified the rule of the road as above stated. 

 There is no reported case on this point in any of the 

 English Reports, but in Scotland Lord President Inglis, in 

 delivering judgment in Jardine v. Stonefield Laundry Co. (o), 

 said, "There is one rule of the road which has been 

 very much altered by the appearance of these new vehicles, 

 viz., that one carriage overtaking another is bound to 

 pass it upon the right-hand side. The new rule requires 

 that when a carriage is coming up behind a tramway 

 car, and the car stops, the driver of the other vehicle shall 



[j) Wayde V. Lady Can; 2 D. & St. 183. 



E. 256 ; hoyd v. Ogleby, 5 C. B., (m) Chaplin v. Bawes, 3 C. & P. 



N. S. 667. 554. 



(k) Beach T. Farmeter, 23 Penn. («) Tttrley v. Thomas, 8 C. & P. 



St. 196. 103. 



(?) Grier v. Sampson, 27 Penn. (o) 14 Rettie, 839. 



