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PHILIPPINE REPORTS ANNOTATED VOLUME 037

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Case Title: Select some text within a
AMADO PICART, plaintiff and paragraph and click here to
appellant, vs. FRANK SMITH, jr., copy the selected text. Citation
defendant and appellee. included.
Citation: 37 Phil. 809

More... [No. 12219. March 15, 1918.]

Search Result AMADO PICART, plaintiff and appellant, vs. FRANK SMITH, jr.,
defendant and appellee.

1. NEGLIGENCE; CRITERION FOR DETERMINING

EXISTENCE OF NEGLI-GENCE.—The test for determining
whether a person is negligent in doing an act whereby injury or
damage results to the person or property of another is this: Would a
prudent man, in the position of the person to whom negligence is
attributed, foresee harm to the person injured as a reasonable
consequence of the course about to be pursued. If so, the law
imposes a duty on the actor to refrain from that course or to take
precaution against its mischievous results, and the failure to do so
con

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810 PHILIPPINE REPORTS ANNOTATED

Picart vs. Smith.

stitutes negligence. Reasonable foresight of harm, followed by the

ignoring of the admonition born of this prevision, is the constitutive
f act in negligence.

2. ID.; CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE; SUCCESSIVE

NEGLIGENT ACTS.—Where both parties are guilty of
negligence, but the negligent act of one succeeds that of the other
by an appreciable interval of time, the one who has the last
reasonable opportunity to avoid the impending harm and fails to do
so is chargeable with the consequences, without reference to the
prior negligence of the other party.

3. ID.; ID.; ID.; CASE AT BAR.—The plaintiff was riding a pony on

a bridge, Seeing an automobile ahead he improperly pulled his
horse over to the railing on the right. The driver of the automobile,
however, guided his car toward the plaintiff without diminution of
speed until he was only a few feet away. He then turned to the right
but passed so closely to the horse that the latter being frightened,
jumped around and was killed by the passing car. Held: That
although the plaintiff was guilty of negligence in being on the
wrong side of the bridge, the defendant was nevertheless civilly
liable for the legal damages resulting from the collision, as he had a
fair opportunity to avoid the accident af ter he realized the situation
created by the negligence of the plaintiff and failed to avail himself
of that opportunity; while the plaintiff could by no means then
place himself in a position of greater safety.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Court of First Instance of La

Union. Camus, J.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.
Alejo Mabanag for appellant.
G. E. Campbell for appellee.

STREET, J.:

In this action the plaintiff, Amado Picart, seeks to recover of the

defendant, Frank Smith, jr., the sum of P31,100, as damages alleged
to have been caused by an automobile driven by the defendant. From
a judgment of the Court of First Instance of the Province of La
Union absolving the defendant from liability the plaintiff has
appealed.
The occurrence which gave rise to the institution of this action
took place on December 12, 1912, on the Carlatan Bridge, at San
Fernando, La Union. It appears that upon

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VOL. 37, MARCH 15, 1918. 811

Picart vs. Smith.

the occasion in question the plaintiff was riding on his pony over
said bridge. Before he had gotten half way across, the defendant
approached from the opposite direction in an automobile, going at
the rate of about ten or twelve miles per hour. As the defendant
neared the bridge he saw a horseman on it and blew his horn to give
warning of his approach. He continued his course and after he had
taken the bridge he gave two more successive blasts, as it appeared
to him that the man on horseback before him was not observing the
rule of the road.
The plaintiff, it appears, saw the automobile coming and heard
the warning signals. However, being perturbed by the novelty of the
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