Camp v. Allegheny County

Citations

• 263 Pa. 276
• 106 A. 314
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 416

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Opinion — Admissibility — Ability of jury to judge, from evidence — Automobile lights — Negligence.</p> <p>1. In an action against a county for death of plaintiff’s husband alleged to be dub to defendant’s negligence in failing to erect a guard rail along the side of a public road whereby an automobile in which he was a passenger fell over an embankment, and in which • plaintiff’s attorney advanced the theory that the light from an approaching automobile shone in the driver’s face and interfered with his guiding the ear, it was not error to refuse to allow plaintiff to show by a witness that the light from an approaching automobile turning into the road from a crossroad would so shine, although one of the passengers testified that he saw a light at the moment of the accident, where there was nothing to show- that it shone in the driver’s face or to show the kind of car that was approaching or with what variety of headlights it was equipped, if it appeared that the jury had a map, photographs, the grade, and other evidence and could determine as well as the witness where the light from an automobile would shine.</p> <p>Municipal corporations — Care in construction and maintenance of highways — Guard rails — Proximate cause.</p> <p>2. A municipality is bound to use ordinary care in the construction and maintenance of its highways and to construct guard rails, where their absence would leave the highway unsafe for ordinary travel.</p> <p>3. A municipality is not negligent in failing to erect a guard rail along a roadway 38 feet wide at a place where the embankment is not near the main traveled road nor of an exceptionally dangerous character, and it is necessary to cross private property to reach the declivity.</p> <p>4. A municipality is liable only for the natural and probable consequences, such as might and should have been foreseen as likely to result from its failure to erect a guard rail and cannot be held liable for an accident where it appears tha