LAW INTELLIGENCE
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COURT OF KING’S BENCH, MAY 28.
BILLETT v. EAMES AND ANOTHER.
The Solicitor General stated, that the plaintiff is a master tailor, and the defendants proprietors of a Portsmouth mail-coach. This action was to recover a compensation in damages, for the negligence of the defendants’ coachman, by which the coach was overturned, and the plaintiff, an outside passenger, received such injury, that he was obliged to go upon crutches.—The defendants had already discharged his surgeon’s bill, but refused any other compensation.
J. Brown—Was a passenger from Portsmouth, on the 21sr of May last, by the Nelson stage-coach. They changed horses at Lidbrook; the mail at Petersfield. Our coach going sometimes at the rate of 11 miles; the mail-coach keeping in sight behind. It appeared they were running in opposition. The mail made several pushes with intention to pass, and, coming in contact with the Nelson, the mail upset. From the situation in which witness’s coach was, there was not room for the mail to pass. The plaintiff was a passenger by the mail. He was thrown down, and his leg broke.
Mrs. Irving—Was an outside passenger by the mail, and sitting behind the coachman. When they came to Lidbrook, overtook the Nelson, the mail stopping at the Post Office; the Nelson went off first. After this, they came up with the Nelson; the mail endeavouring to pass the Nelson. There was a bank upon the right hand side of the road; the horses and wheels of the mail went upon the bank, and then went over; witness was dreadfully bruised. The coachman of the Nelson whipped his horses, as did the driver of the mail, just before the accident happened.
Mr. Clubb a surgeon in Norfolk-street, attended the plaintiff; his leg was broke, and had not been restored to its original soundness. It is nearly two inches shorter. There were several exfoliations, and will be more. Mr. Astley Cooper has been also called in. Cross-examined—There is nothing unusual in a broken limb taking 12 months or two years to recover.
J. Burgess, the foreman of the plaintiff said, that his master employed 12 or 14 men; the business, in consequence of the plaintiff’s illness, fell off one-half. This witness calculated that plaintiff had a profit of 6s. per day on each workman; after this accident several of his workmen were unemployed.
Mr. Scarlett in defence contended, the defendants having paid the surgeon’s bill in the country to the amount of 120l. was no admission of liability. His case was this :—Every body knew the mail was bound to arrive at its destination according to fixed time to a minute; he was bound therefore to pass all ordinary stages; and no man who travelled by the mail had a right to complain of its travelling too fast. The Nelson, he contended, was not tied to time like the mail, and under no necessity to drive fast. It naturally followed, if the mail was bound to arrive in London, before six o’clock, it must pass the Nelson, which should not arrive till eight or nine as its proper time. It was proved the mail-guard sounded his horn, and therefore it was incumbent on the Nelson to give way. The Portsmouth-road was known to be one of the best in England; how came it then that the Nelson should have kept so much of the road as not to permit the mail to pass on its own side of the road. The fault was in the driver of the Nelson whipping his horses, just when the mail leaders were passing his coach, his whip coming right in the eyes of the mail leaders, startled and drove them in upon the bank by the road side. Was the mail to keep behind the Nelson when-ever the coachman of the Nelson chose to whip his horses so as to keep the lead, when the mail was bound to make greater dispatch and speed? If there ever was a case in which mail-coach proprietors could ask a verdict of a Jury, under a charge of negligence in their driver, this was that case. They paid the plaintiff’s surgeon, not as any admission of negligence, but in order to mitigate the plaintiff’s misfortune, without going into the question of their liability. The driver of the mail, he should shew, was not exceeding his ordinary pace, and that he was a man of unquestionable character as a driver.
Mr. I. Germain—Is a book-binder at Portsea; was a passenger by the mail to London on the day in question; the mail left Portsmouth at eight, and arrived in London, at the General Post Office, at six o’clock the following morning; the Nelson left Portsmouth soon after seven; witness was outside of the mail with one female and a Gentleman; it was the regular and steady pace of the mail which brought them up to the Nelson; it made an attempt to pass twice, the guard sounding his horn; the Nelson then advanced forward and kept the middle of the road, the guard sounding his horn a second time, just before the accident; there was room to pass if the Nelson had kept the right side.
John Dennet, part proprietor of a coach called the Rocket, saw the plaintiff the day after the accident, who, in a conversation with him, acquitted the coach-man of the mail from blame.
R. Hill, the coachman of the mail produced a release. He has been a coachman upwards of nine years. The mail-coach, on the night in question, was going at a steady regular pace, and the accident was owing entirely to the conduct of the driver of the Nelson. A son of one of the defendants, stated that he was sent by his father to see the plaintiff, who told him that the coachman of the mail was free from all blame in regard to the accident.
The Jury, however, found a verdict for the plaintiff.—Damages 40l.—Cost, 40s.