A DEVASTING CHICKEN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 482, 18 September 1909, Page 4

A DEVASTING CHICKEN.

There was recently an amusing motor case in America, in which a variety of domestic animals figure. As reported in the “ Green Bag,” an American legal contemporary, it appears that as a motor-car was passing quietly through a village in New England a chicken, pursued by a cat, suddenly crossed the road just in front of the automobile. The sudden dash of the chicken and cat startled a pony, driven by two girls, one of whom had a poodle in her lap. The poodle jumped out to give chase to the cat, and fell on the road right in front of the car, causing' its driver to pull up suddenly. Just as this happened a collie travelling with its mistress in the car, leaped out and chased the poodle, which frightened the pony, so that it bolted towards the car. Seeing this, the chaffeur drove towards the gutter; but, as the dogs were fighting there, had to take another course, colliding finally with a stone wall and totally wrecking the machine. The owner of the car brought an action for damages against the owner of the chicken, claiming that it was responsible for the damage. In giving judgment, the Court argued that there was no doubt as to the chicken having been the proximate cause of the accident, for had it not crossed the road the cat would not have scared the pony ; had the pony not been scared, the poodle would not have got out of the pony trap ; had the poodle not done so the automobile would not have slopped, and the collie and the poodle would not have been in the gutter; had the collie and poodle not been in the gutter the cat would not have hung round to see things through; had the cat nut remained oq the scene the chicken would have been trying to scale the wall ; end had the chicken not been trying to do this the chaffeur would have kept his nerve and saved the machine from accident. Yet, though the chicken caused the accident, the chicken’s act was not in itself violent or dangerous. This chicken would doubtless have made a tender broiler; it was gentle and inoffensive, and, not being “ferae naturae,” its destruction of the automobile was unconscious and free from malice. Therefore, the chicken uot having exceeded its common law rights, the action could not be maintained, and judgment was accordingly entered for the defendant.