independently of each other. See Shearman & Redfield on the Law of Negligence (6th ed.) § 122; Thompson, Commentaries on the Law of Negligence, § 2781; 22 R. C. L. pp. 128, 129; 33 Cyc. 726; Matthews v. Del., L. & W. R. Co., 56 N. J. Law, 34, 27 Atl. g19, 22 L. R. A. 261; Olson v. Phoenix Mfg. Co., 103 Wis. 337, 79 N. W. 409. See, also, Seckerson v. Sinclair, 24 N. D. 625, 636, 140 N. W. 239, 244; Edwards v. G. N. Ry. Co., 42 N. D. 154, 171 N. W. 873. The rule was well stated by the Supreme Court of New Jersey in the case of Matthews v. Del., L. & W. R. Co., supra. That action was one to recover damages for an injury received in a collision. The plaintiff in the action was a Passenger on a street car, and he was injured in a collision between that car and a locomotive belonging to a railroad company. He brought an action against both the street car company and the railroad company. The contention was advanced there, as here, that they could not be jointly sued, for the reason that there was no proof of joint negligence on the part of the defendants. In answering that contention the New Jersey court said:
“If this contention is sound, it is obvious that the declaration was demurrable, for it charged that the railroad company owed to plaintiff a duty to give notice of the passage of its trains across the tracks of the railway company, and that the railway company owed to him a duty to take precautions in carrying him across the tracks of the railroad company, and it averred that each company had neglected to perform the several duties thus charged, and that thereby the collision which injured plaintiff occurred. But the contention is wholly inadmissible, and the declaration would plainly have been good on demurrer. The error arises out of a misconception as to the nature of a joint tort. If two or more persons owe to another the same duty, and by their common neglect of that duty he is injured, doubtless the tort is joint, and upon well-settled principles each, any, or all of the tort-feasors may be held. But when each of two or more persons owe to another a separate duty, which each wrongfully neglects to perform, then, although the duties. were diverse and disconnected, and tne negligence of each was without concert, if such several neglects concurred and united together in causing injury, the tort is equally joint, and the tort-feasors are subject to a like liability. This doctrine was announced in this court by the chief justice in Newman v. Fowler, 37 N. J. Law, 89. The like doctrine was applied by the court of appeals in New York to a case identical with that under con-
