Bava Kamma 31: Saying "Stop!"

Our new Mishna teaches us about accidents that occur in the public domain.   One potter is walking ahead of another, both holding pots, and the first stumbles over a bump and falls and the second stumbles over the first.  The first is liable for any damages incurred by the second.

The Gemara is not satisfied with this Mishna.  Shouldn’t it be that a person is responsible only for their own actions?  Was the first potter able to stand up but he chose not to stand?  Was the first potter able to warn the second potter but he chose not to say anything?  Was the first potter stopping to rest without saying, “Stop” to the second potter?  Is there a difference between liability for damage done to one’s property and damage done to one’s body? 

The rabbis consider whether this could use the halacha of a pit, where a person places a pit in the pubic domain.  A person could deny that it was their ‘pit’.   And could this be a line of people who stumble over each other?  How would that work?  The rabbis wonder whether a person could be lying diagonally like a skeleton or simply horizontally across the road to disrupt so many people.

We end with a new Mishna about a person carrying a crossbeam who bumps into a person carrying a barrel/jug.  If they collide and the barrel/jug is broken, neither is liable because both have permission to be in the public domain.  Even if he stopped, the person carrying the cross beam is exempt from liability as long as he says “Stop!”.  If they were walking in the same direction, and the person with the barrel was walking first, and the barrel was broken by the cross beam, the person with the cross beam is liable.   But if the barrel owner stopped, the person with the cross beam is exempt.  And if he said “Stop!”, the person with the cross beam is liable.  This applies similarly to one walking with a lamp and another person with flax.