Special Part, Illustrations. (14)

1. B. is driving on the wrong side of the road. A. is driving on the same side in the opposite direction, and with ordinary care he might keep clear of B.; nevertheless A. runs into B.’s carriage. A. has wronged B.

2. B. is the owner of a sailing vessel, which by reason of B.’s servants in charge of her failing to keep a proper look-out is in the way of A.’s steamer. If the position is such that with ordinary care the steamer might avoid a collision, and the steamer runs down the sailing vessel, A. has wronged B., notwithstanding that if B.’s vessel had been properly navigated the collision would not have happened.

3. B. leaves a bullock tethered on the highway. A., driving at an incautiously fast pace, runs over and kills the bullock. A. has wronged B., for he might, with ordinary care, have avoided running over the bullock, though B. was negligent in leaving it in such a place unwatched.

4. A. wrongfully places a pole across a public street. The pole is of such a size that a rider in the street approaching at a reasonable pace would see it in time to pull up. B., riding along the street at a furious pace, comes against the pole and is hurt. A. has not wronged B., for B. might have avoided harm by using ordinary care, and A. could not by any ordinary care have prevented the consequences of B.’s negligence.

[5. The X. Railway Company is entitled to run trains over the line of the Z. Company. A train of company X. running on the Z. Company’s line is thrown off the rails by an obstruction placed there by the negligence of the Z. Company’s servants. M., a passenger in the train, is injured. If the driver of the train could, with ordinary care, have seen and stopped short of the obstruction, the X. Company has, but the Z. Company has not, wronged M..]

6. A. is a child of tender years, in the custody of B., who leads A. across a carriage road without using ordinary care in watching for approaching carriages. C., driving carelessly along the road, runs over both A. and B.; but B. might have avoided the accident with ordinary care. C. has not wronged A..

7. A. is a child of tender years, in the custody of B., who allows A. to go alone across the road. C., driving along the road, runs over A. Whether B. was negligent in letting A. go alone is not material to the question whether C. is liable to A., though it may be material whether C. perceived, or with ordinary care would have perceived, that A. was not capable of using the care and caution which a grown man may reasonably be expected to use.

Collateral negligence immaterial.65. A person who suffers harm by the negligence of another is not guilty of contributory negligence by reason only that he is negligent, or is otherwise a wrongdoer, in matter irrelevant to the harm suffered by him.