Motor Cars and the Law.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 6, 1 April 1909, Page 194

Motor Cars and the Law.

The liability of the owner of a motor car to make good the damage done by his vehicle when it skids has recently been considered by the judges of the King's Bench Division. It appeared that a motor omnibus belonging to the Vanguard Motor-Omni-bus Company knocked down a lamp-post opposite the Holborn Town Hall. The accident was caused by the wheels skidding. In an action to recover the cost of repairing the lamp, Judge Woodfall, at the Westminster County Court, held that the driver had been guilty of no negligence. Nevertheless, he held that it was now so well known that these vehicles will skid on a wet day, that anyone who runs a motoromnibus in the streets is really authorising a nuisance, and that, therefore, he must be held liable for any damage done. On appeal to the King's Bench, Lord Alverstone, in giving the judgment of the Court, said that they could not ignore the finding of fact — namely, that it is well known that these vehicles are likely to skid in certain kinds of weather. Consequently, the omnibus company was held liable. This decision does not accord with a judgment delivered by Mr Justice Bigham in 1906. In the case of King v. Motor-Omnibus Company an action was brought to recover damages for injuries sustained in an accident which had been caused by skidding. The plaintiff, who was sitting on the top, was injured by a collision with a lamp post. Mr. Justice Bigham told the jury that the defendants were not liable unless the plaintiff was injured in consequence of some negligence on the part of the defendants or their servants. The negligence alleged was that the

omnibus skidded as the immediate consequence of excessive speed, and the jury would have to say whether the vehicle was being driven at an excessive speed, at the time of the accident. Every miscalculation of distances on the part of the driver did not amount to negligence. All persons were liable to errors in judgment. As a result of this direction, the jury found for the defendants. This decision must now be taken to be supplanted by that recently given by the King's Bench, which is likely to place the proprietor of a motor-bus in a position of some difficulty. He must invent some non-skidding device, or stop running his omnibus, if he desires to avoid liability altogether. The application of this doctrine in the Dominion is obvious. Motorists must put skidding in the category of actionable nuisances.