Shaw v. City of Nampa
Shaw v. City of Nampa
Opinion of the Court
This action was instituted to recover damages for personal injuries received by the respondent. It appears from the evidence that while walking along a certain sidewalk with her daughter, the respondent fell over a loose board, thereby breaking her arm and bruising her body. The jury returned a verdict in her favor, assessing damages in the sum of $2,000. Judgment was entered, from which this appeal is taken.
Several errors are specified in the admission and rejection of evidence, all of which have been examined and are held to be without merit. The only one we deem necessary to discuss is that which deals with the subject of privileged communication.
When the respondent was injured, she employed Dr. Kellogg as her physician. He immediately took her to Caldwell, where he employed Dr. Cole to take an X-ray picture of the
The appellant assigns, as grounds for the reversal of the judgment, that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict. On this point it is contended by appellant that there was no evidence that it had direct information of any defect in the sidewalk, and that, on the contrary, the evidence showed that it did its full duty in inspecting and caring for such walk, and that no facts were shown to have existed from which it might be held that it had constructive notice that the sidewalk was so defective as to be dangerous. Appellant further contends that whatever weakness may have been shown to have existed in the sidewalk was a latent defect that it did not know of and could not have learned of by the exercise of reasonable care, and that therefore it is not liable for the injury resulting to respondent from such latent defect. There was evidence in the record from which the jury might have believed that another accident of a similar nature occurred near the same place a short time before respondent was injured; that the general reputation of the walk among the people residing in the part of town where it was located was that it was defective and bad; that at various other times boards and sections had been loose on the walk near the place where she was injured; that water frequently flowed under the walk and came up through the cracks between the boards
The appellant also assigns as error that excessive damages were awarded to the respondent under the influence of passion and prejudice. It appears that respondent was sixty-one years of age when injured; that her arm was broken near the shoulder, that she was bruised and hurt on the hip and body, which pained her severely for several weeks. She was not able to work for about five months, three months of which time she was under the doctor’s care. Her arm was still stiff at the time of the trial and could not be used freely, and there was substantial evidence to show that such injury was permanent. It therefore cannot be said that the damages were so excessive as to justify this court in reversing or modifying the judgment.
The judgment is affirmed, with costs to respondent.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- NETTIE L. SHAW v. CITY OF NAMPA, a Municipal Corporation
- Status
- Published