Adams v. County Commissioners

Citations

• 66 A. 695
• 106 Md. 197
• 1907 Md. LEXIS 69

Syllabus

<p>Action Against County Commissioners for Non-Repair of Bridge — Misleading Instruction.</p> <p>While the plaintiff was driving over a county bridge, across a ditch, one of the planks broke. The horse stumbled over the obstruction, and plaintiff was thrown out and injured. After the accident, it was dis- • covered that the broken plank had previously appeared to be sound, but was shivered underneath. The plaintiff’s evidence showed that about two weeks before the accident, a third person had informed the road supervisor that there was a defective plank in this bridge, but the supervisor testified that the information so given him related to another bridge in the vicinity. Under these circumstances, in an action against the County Commissioners for their failure to keep the bridge in repair, according to their statutory duty, it is error to instruct the jury that their verdict must be for the defendants, unless they find that the defendants knew, or by ordinary care could have known, the bad condition of the bridge in time to repair the same before the accident, or could not, by the exercise of ordinary care, have discovered the defect in the bridge. Such instruction ignored the evidence as to the notice to the road supervisor. Notice to him was notice to the defendants; and the jury might have inferred from the instruction that because the commissioners did not have personal knowledge of the defect in the bridge, they were not liable.</p>