Kelley v. City of Columbus
Kelley v. City of Columbus
Opinion of the Court
The liability of the city for the injury sustained by the plaintiff is contended for upon the principle of the cases of Hargreaves v. Deacon, 25 Mich., 5; Young v.
The plaintiff was walking along the sidewalk immediately before the accident occurred. The place where he fell into the excavation was about thirty feet from the sidewalk or street proper. The north end of the excavation did not come within thirty feet of the street. A person therefore in the ordinary use of the sidewalk would seem to have been out of all possible danger of falling into the excavation. If the excavation had been so near the street that a person had fallen into it while passing on the sidewalk and in the ordinary use of it, a liability for resulting injury would follow. This excavation was so far from the street that it could have caused no injury, except when the person passing along the sidewalk turned out of his way, as the. plaintiff clearly did in this case, and went to it — unless the stone pavement from the sidewalk to the north end of the excavation is to be treated as a continuation of the sidewalk, and the liability of the city is to attach for all places of danger near to the sidewalk thus extended. If the continuation of the stone pavement beyond the street, by its direction and surroundings misled the plaintiff into the belief that he was still on the .street, and if he walked upon it not thinking and having no reason to think he was beyond the street, the liability of the city doubtless would continue. But if he knew, or if from the surroundings he ought to have known that while walking on the stone pavement between the street and the north end of the excavation, he
The plaintiff following the stone pavement under these circumstances is not entitled to protection from injury from places of danger adjacent to the pavement as if he had encountered similar dangers in the lawful and proper use of the sidewalk within the limits of the street.
The facts of the case are clearly insufficient to sustain a recovery on the other ground urged by the plaintiff. The facts clearly show that there was no business of any kind carried on upon the lot on which the city building stands, and that there was no path or passage way across the lot, nor anything done or permitted upon the lot which would induce any person to go there for business, curiosity, enter tainment or any other legitimate purpose. Protection against pitfalls, excavations or other dangerous condition of grounds is extended to those only who are there by invitation express or implied.
If business is carried on upon the lot, or any curiosity kept there, open to the public, or any inducement or allurement held out to the public beyond a mere permission to go there, the duty to keep the premises safe arises; but if a lot is left unfenced a person who goes upon it by bare
The city should not be held to foresee or anticipate that persons would leave the sidewalk and go along the side of the building for the purpose for which the plaintiff went there. And if not, the fact that it extended the stone pavement to the open area, or if it had extended it much farther, would not have been, of itself, an implied invitation to the plaintiff or to any person on the street to use the pavement.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
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