Bava Kamma 36 - One Innocent Ox Gores Many (Torts)
If one ox gores many oxen while remaining innocent (Tam), its owner pays the owner of the last of the gored oxen his half-damage payment from the body of the ox that gored. If the ox is worth more than this payment, the excess goes to the one before, and so on - says Rabbi Meir. Why this order? In this case, each successive damaged party seized the ox as payment and became its guardian.
Rabbi Shimon says that the owners immediately become partners in the goring ox. Thus, each successive victim bears part of the responsibility for the further gorings, paying, for example, 100 zuz, 50, and 25, respectively.
Art: Buffalo Bulls Fighting in Running Season, Upper Missouri by George Catlin
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