Ackley v. Bradford Township

Citations

• 32 Pa. Super. 487
• 1907 Pa. Super. LEXIS 39

Syllabus

<p>Practice, C. P. — Judgment for defendant non obstante veredicto— Evidence — Act of April 22, 1905, P. L. 286.</p> <p>Where a verdict has been rendered in favor of the plaintiff, the court has no power subsequently to enter judgment for defendant non obstante veredicto under the Act of April 22, 1905, P. L. 286, where there is a conflict of evidence on material facts, or where the plaintiff’s right to recover depends upon not only his own testimony,!but the inferences to be drawn from the facts and circumstances as adduced by other witnesses, or in general where the right to recovery depends upon disputed questions of fact, and the inferences to be drawn from them.</p> <p>Negligence — Townships—Roads—Question for jury — Judgment non obstante veredicto.</p> <p>In an action against a township to recover damages for personal injuries, it appeared that the cause of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff, as determined by the verdict, was a two-strand fence wire extending across and eleven to thirteen feet above the surface of a public highway on which he was driving. Six years previous to the accident the wire had been so placed by the owner of an oil well to serve as a supporting guy for a structure on one side of the road and made fast to a tree on the opposite side. The plaintiff was engaged in hauling wood on bobsleds, on which there was a flared rack loaded so as to be between six and seven feet high, and fourteen feet long. The roadbed was covered with from one and a half to two feet of snow. In order to examine the lock chains, the plaintiff, who was driving from the top of the load, made fast the lines on the driving seat and went over the top to the rear end of the load and when he started to return to the front he was caught on the upper part of his body by the overhanging wire and thrown to the ground. There was evidence that the local supervisors had worked on the road under this wire every year since it had been so placed; that it was an usual constructi