By Eric Freedman
A horse-drawn carriage. A runaway horse. A crash.
Sounds like an old-fashioned drama – not a bizarre 21st-century event.
But that’s what happened three years ago when Rebecca Goch was visiting Greenfield Village in Dearborn, near Detroit.
The historic tourist attraction is part of The Henry Ford, which also operates the Ford Rouge Factory tours and the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.
Goch and some relatives were passengers in an omnibus pulled by a pair of horses, Sam and Ben, when Sam’s bridle dislodged and his blinders fell away, allowing him full peripheral vision, according to the court record.
When Sam became agitated and bolted, Ben also accelerated because the horses were in tandem. The driver then lost control and steered the carriage and horses into a lamp post to stop the runaway and minimize damage.
Goch claimed she was tossed around, hit her head and suffered injuries to her vision in the July 2022 mishap.
She sued The Henry Ford and the carriage driver for negligence, but a Wayne County Circuit Court judge dismissed the case.
In the latest development, a unanimous Court of Appeals panel has refused to reinstate the suit, ruling that Michigan’s Equine Activity Liability Act shields the defendants from responsibility for Goch’s injuries.
The law, passed in 1994, was intended to give immunity to equine activity sponsors and professionals from claims for injuries and damage arising from an “inherent risk of equine activity.”
Goch unsuccessfully argued that the law doesn’t apply because she was merely a passenger in the ill-fated carriage, not a “participant” in an equine activity, such as horseback riding, performing in rodeo, endurance trail riding or playing polo.
In a decision written by Judge Stephen Borrello, the appeals court said the Legislature recognized that there are “innumerable situations” for potential liability in an environment that involves horses. That includes situations, as in this case, where a participant “had no direct or meaningful interaction with the particular equine that caused the injury” before an accident.
Groh’s lawyer, Richard Shaw of Rochester Hills, said there is nothing explicit or implicit in the law saying that a passenger who is sightseeing in a horse-drawn carriage is engaged in an equine activity.
Shaw said he will ask the Court of Appeals to reconsider its ruling and, if that request is turned down, it’s 80% likely he will seek review by the state Supreme Court.
Troy lawyer Michael Ross, who represents The Henry Ford, said he could not discuss the case.