Dunn v. City of Detroit

(after stating the facts). This case focuses attention on that which is known to most writers upon the common law, and certainly to all law students, as the “jackass doctrine.” The nickname, “with whatever implications it may carry” (Prosser On Torts [2d ed], §52, p 291), finds its origin in the English case of Davies v. Mann (1842), * 10 M & W 546 (152 Eng Rep 588, 19 Eng Rnl Cas 190); 38 Am Jur, Negligence, § 216, p 902; 65 CJS, Negligence, § 136, pp 758, 759. The doctrine came to initial prominence in this country by means of another rail-crossing suit — the collision, as here, occurred in…