Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1908

Hubbard v. Crawford County

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · Decided May 18, 1908 · Brown, Elkin, Fell, Mestrezat, Potter

221 Pa. 438; 70 A. 805; 1908 Pa. LEXIS 507

Cases that cite this one

8 later published cases cite this decision.

Hartness v. Allegheny County (Pa. 1944)
Odil v. Maury County (Tenn. 1940)
Tioga County v. Bohnert (3d Cir. 1924)
Frye v. City of Jeannette (Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas 1950)
Balashaitis Et Ux. v. Lackawanna Co. (Pa. 1929)
Scibilia v. Philadelphia (Pa. 1924)
Brinton v. School Dist. of Shenango Twp. (Pa. Super. Ct. 1923)
Cousins v. County of Butler (Pa. Super. Ct. 1919)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam,

The assignment of error in this appeal relates to the liability *439of a county for the failure of the commissioners to make safe a footwalk used by persons going to and from a polling place, by providing a guard rail or by lighting it at night. Our cases have gone farther than those in most jurisdictions in holding counties liable for negligence in the performance of statutory duties, where no right of action is given and the line of distinction between liability and nonliability rests on precedent rather than principle: Ford v. School District, 121 Pa. 543; Briegel v. Philadelphia, 135 Pa. 451. But this case clearly comes within the class where counties acting as public agencies in the performance of governmental functions have been held not to be liable for neglect of their officers. It does not differ in principle from Bucher v. Northumberland County, 209 Pa. 618, in which the subject is fully discussed in the opinion by our Brother Potter.

The judgment is affirmed.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.