NEGLIGENCE - PROXIMATE CAUSE - INTERVENING ACT - MERE CONDITION OR PASSIVE CAUSE

Authors

Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

Defendant, driving an automobile at night on a new highway in process of construction, turned therefrom on to the old road with which he was familiar, at such a speed and angle that his headlights did not immediately reveal the condition thereof; the car struck a lantern-marked depression in the road, caused by the excavation by the defendant construction company for a culvert, whereupon the defendant driver lost control, overturning the car, with resultant serious injuries to the plaintiff passenger. From a directed verdict for the defendant construction company, a refusal of the defendant driver's motion for judgment non obstante veredicto and from an order for new trial for the plaintiff on the ground of inadequacy of the verdict, defendant driver appealed. Held, that the intervening negligent conduct of the driver, rather than the negligent creation of a dangerous condition, was the proximate cause of the injury. Appeal dismissed and order for new trial for plaintiff as to damages affirmed. Schwartz v. Jaffe, 324 Pa. 324, 188 A. 295 (1936).

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, NEGLIGENCE - PROXIMATE CAUSE - INTERVENING ACT - MERE CONDITION OR PASSIVE CAUSE, 35 Mich. L. Rev. 1188 (1937).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol35/iss7/21