Klein v. Philadelphia
Klein v. Philadelphia
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff’s injury was received while he was walking on the side of Welsh Boad at its intersection with Fairview street in Philadelphia. The only assignments of error are that the court should have given binding instructions for the defendant, and that judgment non obstante veredicto should have been entered after the verdict. The defense set up was that Welsh Boad at the place where the plaintiff was hurt was a country road and that no obligation rested on the city to maintain it in a different condition from that which was required in the case of country roads generally. The testimony, however, does not support this theory. Welsh Boad and Fairview street are both on the city plan of streets and are both improved. A macadam pavement is laid on Welsh Boad and dwelling houses front on Fairview street at and near its intersection with Welsh Boad. There is evidence that the latter is a city street; that the abutting property is subject to city assessment; that the district is inspected by the municipal police force; that it is a “main thoroughfare” and extensively traveled ; that there is a church about one-half a block from this intersection and that at the side of the road where the plaintiff was hurt there is a footpath used by pedestrians traveling along the street. The place of the accident was beside the lot of Thomas Enoch, whose house was at the intersection of Welsh Boad and Fair-view street. The plaintiff fell into a gutter where the water from the gutter in Welsh Boad passed under Fair-
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Negligence — Municipalities—Defect in highway — Duty to Jceep road in repair. In an action against a city to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by falling through a rotten planking covering a gutter along the side of a road, the city cannot escape liability on the ground that no obligation rested upon it to maintain the road in a different condition from that which was required in the case of country roads generally, where the evidence shows that the road was on the city plan, that it had been macadamized, that abutting property was subject to city assessment, that the district was inspected by the municipal police, that the road was a main thoroughfare and extensively traveled, that people in the neighborhood walked on the planking which had been in a defective condition for a long period, and that plaintiff was unfamiliar with the road.