Berndt v. City of Cudahy
Berndt v. City of Cudahy
Opinion of the Court
The principal, and really the only serious, error claimed by the defendant is that the notice of injury given by the plaintiff to the defendant, under sec. 1339, Stats. (1898), was fatally defective, in that it described the defect in the highway into which the plaintiff’s wagon ran as an excavation which had been «o negligently and loosely refilled that the surface gave way and the wheel of plaintiff’s wagon suddenly sank down therein'to a great depth; while the complaint and proofs showed the defect, if any, to have been a hole in the highway filled with mud and water, into which the wheel of defendant’s wagon plunged. It was admitted that the notice in all other respects was sufficient.
The statute (sec. 1339, Stats. 1898) provides that the notice shall not be held insufficient solely because of any inaccuracy or failure in properly describing the place or tlie insufficiency or want of repair, provided it appear that there
• It is argued that the evidence showed conclusively that the town officers were misled, but we cannot agree with this contention. There was evidence that the street commissioner of the city was at the place and saw the hole four days before the accident, that a piece of board was stuck in the hole soon after the accident, and was there standing in a slanting position for two weeks thereafter and at the time when the city committee went to examine the place after receiving the notice of injury. While there was also evidence that the committee saw no hole on this occasion, the evidence above stated was sufficient to entitle the jury to find that the defendant was not misled.
Complaint is made because certain questions proposed by the defendant were not submitted to the jury in the special verdict, but we find it unnecessary to specifically consider these questions, for the reason that the verdict as framed fully covers all the issues of fact properly for the jury.
We do not find it necessary to consider any other contentions except the contentiqn that the damages, even after being
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Highways: Injury from defect: Inaccurate notice: Intent to mislead, etc.: Questions for jury: Special verdict. 1. The questions whether a notice of injury, given under sec. 1339, „ Stats. (1898), which inaccurately described the defect in the highway, was intended to mislead and whether it did actually mislead the defendant, are ordinarily for the jury. '2. Evidence in this case showing, among, other things, that the erroneous description resulted from the failure of plaintiff’s attorney to understand his client, with whom he could communicate only through an interpreter, established the fact that there was no intent to mislead; and other evidence was sufficient to sustain a finding by the jury that defendant was not in fact misled. 3. Where the special verdict fully covers all the issues properly for the jury, the refusal to submit other questions was not error.